Josephine Howard: Allow Inspection & Reaction
Exhibition runs from 7 June – 18 June 2010
There are two kinds of painting in this exhibition: the larger oils are mostly connected to the earth and things growing in it and thrown down upon it, and the smaller mixed media glazed paintings are inspired by outer space, science and the world of ideas, some of which are also connected to the earth as in volcanoes and caves and tunnels.
About the artist
My career in painting has been a long series of interrupted phases, interspersed with my other identity as Josephine Saxton, writer of novels and short stories, reviews and one book of the comedy gardening.
As Josephine Howard I gained the Intermediate in Arts and Crafts at Halifax School of Art, and then took various jobs to fund a studio in a derelict building in Halifax.
I then painted scenery at the Halifax Thespians for two years, and for other amateur productions.
I exhibited in various mixed exhibitions.
I then went on to attend part-time at Bradford College of Art (plant drawing and machine embroidery) also exhibiting at any opportunity, which in those days were very few.
I later had further drawing and painting classes at Great Yarmouth, Leek and Leamington colleges, exhibiting in shops and college groups shows, and then also began an intense phase of some years producing Botanical studies which were on show at The old Art Gallery shows in this building.
This work was shown as one-person shows in Winterbourne Gallery attached to Birmingham University on four successful occasions, and at Birmingham, Glasshouses 1995 alone and later with one other and in a group show.
Again the Botanical studies in a show at the Castle Art Gallery 1993.
I spent many years painting furniture with fantastical images and also trompe l'oeil Oriental rugs on walls and floors, to commissions. Former productions also included watercolour landscapes of Exmoor and the Peak District. These paintings came about because to help with the Renewal Programme of the district in which I live, in Rugby, I took many photographs of litter and rubbish and abandoned furniture and began to observe the purely visual aspects of the objects. |
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I taught Creative Writing for around 15 years at various times, and produced small egg tempera paintings on wood, still life, seascapes, symbolic representations of states of consciousness, and ironic portraits of Saints.
My previous exhibition of this work was in The Lewis Gallery at Rugby School, in April 2010.
I have lately shown work in the Rugby Open, and the LSA annual exhibitions.
My current ideas are informed by my lifelong interest in science, my writing of Science Fiction, and in the philosophy attached to them.
