Join Castlegate House Gallery on Saturday 10th November 12noon until 2pm to meet with renowned Cumbrian artist Helen Fryer.
This latest exhibition charts Helen’s year since moving back to West Cumbria and to the fortune of good weather, often showing a different interpretation of her Cumbrian landscape compared to the “gritty” paintings we’ve been used to previously.
Helen captures the beautiful harshness of the West Cumbrian land and seascape as only a local could and her imagery resonates, not for being romanticised or idealistic, but for being a representation of reality. Co-gallery owner Steve Swallow said of this latest exhibition “Helen is a true Cumbrian talent, her upbringing in and return to the county is shown and felt through these works, they’re a true personal and physical journey through paint.”
Helen was brought up in West Cumbria and takes her inspiration from her immediate surroundings – stretching down the Solway Coast and over to the ‘back o’ Skiddaw’ into the Lake District National Park. She has lived throughout the United Kingdom and returned to her home village of Fletchertown earlier this year.
Her landscapes depict the mood and movement of the moment, capturing the atmosphere and expressing it through paint. Her work is generally un-peopled, choosing to depict the wild and remote places she loves to explore. Helen spends much of her time walking, cycling, sailing and cross country skiing. She has also climbed all 284 Scottish Munros and extensively sailed off the West Coast of Scotland – all the while observing and absorbing the environment as well as experiencing the best and very worst of British weather… a theme that is most prominent and expressional in her work.
Included in this exhibition is a painting of Helen’s late father and the grief she experienced following his death. She felt her year would not have been complete without these images and they are both deeply moving and highly emotive.
Helen’s exhibition will run from November 10th until December 1st 2018.
Castlegate House Gallery is a commercial Gallery specialising in the best of British 20th century and contemporary art. Located in the unspoilt Georgian gem town of Cockermouth, they feature internationally renowned artists such as Sheila Fell, Percy Kelly, Frank Auerbach, Grayson Perry and Norman Cornish amongst many others. They also aim to demonstrate new and exciting up and coming young talented artists including Alex Hain, Richard Fitton, Jess Pigott and Louis Appleby
They have a passion for British ceramics, and as well as early Leach and Winchcombe examples, we bring to the Gallery some of the best Studio Pottery in the UK, including the likes of William Plumptre, Jim Malone and Edward Hughes.
