An exhibiton celebrating the art of landscape painting. Works from John Moores prize-winning artist Martin Greenland, from BBC CountryFile featured Stefan Orlowski and from the lauded late Sheila Fell (RA), arguably the greatest British landscape painter of the last century
Stefan Orlowski is arguably one of the most talented exponents of classical meets contemporary painting at work in the UK today.
Born in 1985, Stefan was to initially study for his BA in Fine Art at the University of Aberystwyth before attaining his Masters in Fine Art at the highly regarded Wimbledon College of Art in 2012. It was just after graduation from Aberystwyth that Stefan, in 2008, was to win the Young Artist Award at the prestigious national Lynn Painter Stainers prize.
With numerous exhibitions to his name, including showings at Abbot Hall - Kendal, Kings Place - London, Brantwood - Coniston and in both 2021 and 2022 with the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, Mall Galleries – London, Stefan continues to build a national reputation as a highly talented artist producing engaging and often thought-provoking works born of classical tradition yet firmly planted in the twenty-first century.
Stefan works largely from life; figurative paintings the result of a significant amount of in-person sittings, an understanding of the person and not just the aesthetic, with a relationship forged over months of sittings, meetings and thus creation. Where such painstaking in-person paintings are not possible, such as landscape works, the studio painting is born of countless hours of drawings and smaller preparatory plein air studies produced as observer of and participant within the landscape to be depicted, in whole or in part. Impressions are forged at different vantage points, in different conditions and with different emotions in order to bind together and inform the creation of the whole.
We are immensely proud to be working with Stefan, a true master of the contemporary interpretation of classic form.
Born in 1931, Sheila Fell grew up in Aspatria, a typical West Cumbrian mining village. Whilst gaining a place at the Carlisle College of Art at 17, within two years she had obtained a place at St. Martin’s School of Art, London. Here, she befriended Frank Auerbach, amongst other contemporaries, and went on to teach at the Chelsea School of Art.
Sheila Fell held her first exhibition in 1955, courtesy of Beaux Arts, London. It was from this that she met L S Lowry, who purchased a number of paintings from this exhibition, and many more in the years that followed. This was to be a friendship that lasted until Lowry’s death in 1976. Indeed, he assisted her financially to the tune of £3 per week for two of her early London years.
Acclaimed by critics, collectors and her peers, she began exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1965, being elected an Associate Member of the Royal Academy in 1969, and a fully blown Member of the Royal Academy in 1974.
Sheila Fell died in 1979, aged just 48. It is likely that she only painted some six to seven hundred paintings during her life, but what arguably makes them so powerful is her almost unique ability to convey the emotion inherent in a landscape; not just the landscape itself, but the impact it has on you. As Lowry suggested, Sheila Fell was arguably the greatest landscape painter of her age.
Many of Sheila’s paintings are held in major public and private collections throughout the UK, including the Tate Gallery, Walker Art Gallery and in the Government Art Collection.
Martin Greenland must be regarded as one of the UK’s most respected painters. His works are held internationally and in 2006 Martin achieved critical acclaim when winning the John Moores Painting Prize in its 24th year, one of the UKs premier art prizes; previous winners including David Hockney and Euan Uglow.
Living and working close to Windermere, Martin has combined success in respected London commercial galleries with retaining artistic roots within his home county, maintaining his position as a member of the Lake Artists Society and his recent-years exhibition involvement with Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery, in Carlisle.
Selected Awards include:
North of England Prize Winner, Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London 2013
John Moores Painting Prize 2006
GCI Financial Purchase Prize, Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London 2000
Selected solo exhibitions include:
Beaux Arts, Bath
Brantwood, Coniston
Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery, Carlisle
Art Space Gallery, London
Piccadilly Gallery, London
Signal Gallery, London
