Curriculum Vitae
Frances maintains a spacious, reflective practice growing in ever deeper connection with landscape. Her work is site-responsive, integrating site materials with water-based media. She considers her pieces to be the product of team-work in which weather and the personality of place participate. Each site suggests and often offers its own palette and demands something particular of her. She integrates colour (gouache, acrylic or watercolour) with what is available in the landscape. It is pertinent that the two pieces hung in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition (2016) were placed in Gallery 1V described by its curator, Jock McFayden RA, as ‘radical landscape’. Frances was awarded The Shenzhen International Watercolour Biennial Prize at The Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours exhibition (2016) -an award to encourage innovation and experimentation in contemporary water media. In 2020, Frances conceived and curated The Common Ground for The Crafts Study Centre at University College for the Arts Farnham.
‘When grubbing around for tools and pigments in each environment, I make discoveries about a place that I might otherwise miss. If I return, even a day later, a different set of possibilities arise because I’m different and I’m encountering matter, water, light and air that continually fluctuate.’
Training:
C.C.A.T. (Cambridge) Foundation Course 1973-74
Aberystwyth University College of Wales – Hons degree in French and Visual Art 1974-78
Auditrice Libre, Ecole des Beaux Arts, Nantes 1976
Goldsmiths’ College, A.T.C. 1978-79
Wimbledon College of Art: Postgraduate- MA Printmaking 1986-89
Selected recent exhibitions:
RWA: 159th & 161st ANNUAL OPEN EXHIBITION, Bristol. 2011 + 2013 + 2015
LYNN PAINTER-STAINERS PRIZE. Mall Galleries, The Mall, London. 2014 + 2016
WORKS ON PAPER FAIR, LONDON. 2015 + 2016 +2017
KEVIS HOUSE GALLERY, Petworth. 2015 + 2016 + 2018 + 2019 + 2020
SLADERS YARD, West Bay, Dorset. 2015 + 2017 + 2020
THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF PAINTERS IN WATERCOLOURS. Mall Galleries, 2016 + 2017 + 2018 + 2019 +2020
ROYAL ACADEMY SUMMER EXHIBITION. 2016 +2019
THE ING DISCERNING EYE EXHIBITION, Mall Galleries, London. 2013 + 2015 + 2016
THE GATEHOUSE GALLERY, St Peter Port, Guernsey. solo show 2016
THELMA HULBERT GALLERY, Honiton, solo show 2017
AGORA GALLERY 530 W 25th Street New York, NY. Discovery: Contemporary Art Perspectives from England. Nov 2018
BERMONDSEY PROJECT SPACE, LONDON. May 2019
DRAWING ON DORSET. Fine Foundation Gallery, Durlston near Swanage, Lighthouse in Poole, Dorset County Hospital, Dorchester. 2019
IGNITING SIGHT: Contemporary Artists inspired by Turner. SLADERS YARD, West Bay, Dorset. July-Sept 2019
ROYAL WATERCOLOUR SOCIETY OPEN, Bankside, London. 2020
THE COMMON GROUND. Crafts Study Centre, U.C.A. Farnham 2020
THE RUSSELL GALLERY, London. Winter 2020
THE ATKINSON GALLERY, Milfield Open 2021
Awards:
Visiting Artist. Gate House Gallery, Guernsey. March 2016
The Shenzhen International Watercolour Biennial Prize at The Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours (RI) exhibition: 2016
The Thelma Hulbert Gallery, Honiton OPEN 2016- (winner)
Bursary awarded by the Department for International Trade South West. 2018
ARTmine, Agora Gallery, Chelsea, New York. USA. 2019.
Residencies:
PAVILLION DANCE, Bournemouth 2011 + 2012
DURLSTON COUNTRY PARK NATIONAL NATURE RESERVE. Swanage 2014
SOIL CULTURE RESIDENCY at The Eden Project: shortlist. August 2014
BRANTWOOD RESIDENCY, Coniston Water, Cumbria. Sept/October 2019
Publications:
Drawn to Antarctica: an artist’s view. 2005 Viriditas Press. ISBN: 978-0-9562647-0-1
EARTH- 2014 (with Sladers Yard) 2015
Chesil Moons: 2017 Viriditas Press. ISBN 978-0-9562647-1-8
With Red Earth Under My Nails: 2017 Viriditas Press. ISBN 978-0-9562647-2-5
The Common Ground. 2020. The Crafts Study Centre. ISBN 978-1-9162971-0-4
Contribution to publications:
Missal Birds: origami microbook printed by Steve Hitchens poems by Elisabeth Bletsoe.
Towards Re-Enchantment: Place and Its Meanings. Artevents, 2010. (at the invitation of Elisabeth Bletsoe, poet)
Artist and Illustrators Magazine, Featured Contributor. January 2014 issue.
40 Artist Educator Project. Commissioned by Access Art 2014
Drawing and Painting: Materials and Techniques for Contemporary Artists. Thames and Hudson, 2015
The Jackdaw Magazine. Easel Notes. May/June Issue. 2016
Drawing on Dorset. Dorset Visual Arts. 2019. ISBN 978-1-5262-0790-6