All  images  are  copyrighted  ©  by  Henrietta  Dubrey  and  may  not  be  used  without  her  consent.  

Front  cover:    Summer  Bride  oil  on  canvas  119  x  87  cm  

Private  View  Saturday  28  March  6-­‐8pm  Exhibition  continues  29  March  –  18  April  2015    Exhibition  previews  in  London  at  AAF  Battersea  12-­‐16  March  2015  Contact  the  gallery  for  tickets    RSVP  for  the  private  view  to  enquiries@edgarmodern.com      Edgar  Modern  Bartlett  Street  Bath  BA1  2EE  01225  443746  /  07940  597757  

Henrietta  Dubrey  Rough  Deluxe:  Sweet  Candy  and  Wild  Women    

Weekend  Lover  oil  on  canvas  17  x  21  cm    

‘My  work  is  generally  described  as  abstract,  although  I  would  describe  my  paintings  as  autobiographical  deconstructions  and  reconstructions  of  life.    These  ideas  appear  on  the  canvas  surface  often  as  an  abstract  gestural  web,  occasionally  tangled,  occasionally  bold  and  resolved.    An  iconic  form  is  liberated  from  a  void  into  being.’      

           -­‐Henrietta  Dubrey  

Henrietta  Dubrey  is  a  painter.    She  lives  and  works  at  the  westernmost  point  of  England  at  the  tip  of  Cornwall,  known  as  West  Penwith.    Sussex  born,  Dubrey  was  drawn  to  the  area  by  its  rich  heritage  of  art  and  especially  that  of  the  post-­‐war  St  Ives  mid-­‐generation  artists  such  as  Roger  Hilton,  Patrick  Heron,  Terry  Frost,  Peter  Lanyon  and  Brian  Wynter  who  followed  in  the  footsteps  of  Ben  Nicholson  and  Barbara  Hepworth.    After  a  brief  spell  living  in  France  following  postgraduate  studies  at  the  Royal  Academy  Schools  in  London  1989-­‐92,  it  was  the  light,  art  and  space  which  convinced  Dubrey  that  this  was  the  place  to  live  and  work.    ‘Rough  Deluxe:  Sweet  Candy  and  Wild  Women’,  Dubrey’s  solo  exhibition  at  Edgar  Modern  Bath  28th  March  to  11th  April,  previewed  at  the  Affordable  Art  Fair  Battersea  12th  to  15th  March,  is  an  exciting  new  body  of  work  encompassing  both  abstract  and  figurative  works.  The  bold,  vibrant  abstracts  with  their  more  organic  compositions  provide  the  'Sweet  Candy'  element.    The  jewel-­‐like  colours  and  simple  shapes  lure,  tempt  and  demand  attention,  and  contrast  with  the  rougher  element  of  'Wild  Women'.    Together  they  portray  decadent  painterly  abstraction,  indicating  luxury  and  the  necessary  understanding  that  accompanies  such  work,  inspired  from  the  multifarious  plethora  of  images  and  texts  which  we  are  confronted  with  on  a  daily  basis.    

Henrietta  Dubrey  Rough  Deluxe  :  Sweet  Candy  and  Wild  Women  

Black  Jack  Sherbet  oil  on  canvas  130  x  105  cm    

In  Touch  oil  on  canvas  67  x  52  cm    

Arcadia  oil  on  canvas  122  x  93  cm    

Full  Volume  oil  on  canvas  37  x  28  cm    

Oracle  oil  on  canvas  130  x  105  cm    

Haymarket  oil  on  canvas  130  x  105  cm    

Coco  oil  on  canvas  18  x  17  cm    

Fall  oil  on  canvas  130  x  105  cm    

Marathon  oil  on  canvas  41  x  33  cm    

Macaroon  oil  on  canvas  23  x  19  cm    

Palomino  oil  on  canvas  130  x  105  cm    

Amazon  oil  on  canvas  62  x  47  cm    

Gnossienne  No  5  oil  on  canvas  63  x  83  cm    

Eye  Candy  oil  on  canvas  75  x  49  cm    

Ace  oil  on  canvas  64  x  49  cm    

Changing  Room  oil  on  canvas  66  x  49  cm    

Au  Point  oil  on  canvas  105  x  130  cm    

Showdown  oil  on  canvas  130  x  105  cm    

Lolly  oil  on  canvas  20  x  15  cm    

Pastille  oil  on  canvas  20  x  17  cm    

On  Right:  Liquorice  Dilemma  

oil  on  canvas  130  x  105  cm    

Sense  oil  on  canvas  135  x  100  cm    

Sweet  Honey  oil  on  canvas  25  x  25  cm    

Rhapsody  oil  on  canvas  130  x  105  cm    

Turn  It  On  oil  on  canvas  130x  105  cm    

Love  Has  No  Ending  oil  on  canvas  46  x  35  cm    

Sweet  Candy  oil  on  canvas  116  x  88  cm    

Red  Bikini  oil  on  canvas  120  x  97  cm    

Gnossienne  No  1  oil  on  canvas  70  x  92  cm    

Nike  oil  on  canvas  76  x  64  cm    

Too  Fat  But  Brilliant  oil  on  canvas  73  x  57  cm    

Divine  oil  on  canvas  62  x  49  cm    

First  Love  oil  on  canvas  31  x  25  cm    

Elucidate  oil  on  canvas  130x  105    cm    

Turn  It  Up  oil  on  canvas  61  x  49  cm    

On  Left:  Al  Fresco  

oil  on  canvas  130  x  105  cm    

Petra  oil  on  canvas  26  x  19  cm    

Modernist  oil  on  canvas  119  x  97  cm    

Selected  Solo  Exhibitions  :  2000  to  Present  

2014      Abstraction  –  New  paintings  from  Cornwall,  Chapel  Place  Gallery,        Tunbridge  Wells  

       Interim:  A  Virtual  Exhibition,  Edgar  Modern,  Bath    2013    Fifteen  New  Paintings,  Edgar  Modern,  Bath    2012      Developing  Horizons,  Edgar  Modern,  Bath    2011      Henrietta  Dubrey  at  Skandium,  London            From  Abstraction…  Edgar  Modern,  Bath    2007      Colour  to  White,  Belgrave  Gallery,  St  Ives          Lynne  Strover  Gallery  Fen  Ditton  Cambridge    2005      Paintings,  Belgrave  Gallery,  St  Ives  Cornwall      2004      New  Work,  Belgrave  Gallery,  St  Ives  Cornwall    2003      Lynne  Strover  Gallery,  Fen  Ditton  Cambridge    2002      Recent  Paintings  Belgrave,  Gallery  St  Ives,  Cornwall      2001      Star  Gallery,  Lewes  East  Sussex    

Collections    De  Beers  London  The  Old  Bank  Hotel  Oxford  Twofour  Group  Private  collections  in  the  UK  and  Europe    

Bibliography    White  Paintings  Artist’s  self-­‐published  monograph  2007  St  Ives  1975-­‐2005  Art  Colony  in  Transition  by  Peter  Davies  2007  Artists  in  Britain  Since  1945  David  Buckman  Art  Dictionaries  Ltd  2006    

Henrietta  Dubrey  Interview  with  Abi  Cush  –  February  2014    

AC: What can audiences expect to see in this show? Is there any particular theme that is explored in the paintings for Rough Deluxe? HD: They will see the dichotomy between my abstract genre and my figurative works, whilst at the same time, by being given the chance to see the works side by side in an exhibition space, to read the similarities in the mark-making that make the paintings work together and cohere to make an overall picture of my current oeuvre.

Rough Deluxe explores the themes of our over materialistic society in the abstracts, which consist of bright, colour saturated canvasses. Bold compositions vying for attention and sparkling attractively, to be seen as beautiful objects in their own right, contrast with everyday life and its internal and external influences which seep into our subconscious, in the figure paintings. AC: Where do you find inspiration for the figures in your work? Do you work from life or from other sources? HD: I have been drawing and painting figures for as long as I can remember. I rarely work from life. It is something I am considering doing again. Having spent three years at the Royal Academy Schools in London the importance of this study is deeply embedded in my psyche. The discipline taught at the RA was intense and fulfilling and something which I miss. I remember as a child I was rather obsessed by the naked figure and used to fill sketchbooks with rather elongated pencil studies of female nudes. Maybe it was a way of coming to terms with one’s own physical development, but it was also a way of fantasising about an adult world and the romantic view one often assumes will arrive with maturity.

So in reality the inspiration for my figures still comes mainly from my imagination and is strongly driven by the

way it feels to embody a body, and the spirit of the mind, especially in the paintings I consider to be autobiographical or self-portraits such as in ‘Sense’ (2014).

The more narrative iconic figures, which may or may not be clothed, are most probably informed by my looking

at paintings, painters, art history, magazines, photographs, films and ‘cultural’ videos. Anything from Keith Vaughans’s neo-Romantic male nudes which veer towards cubism, to William Scott’s female nudes, Picasso’s figures, which developed and changed so much over his lifetime, and De Kooning’s series on women, are all food for thought. AC: In your writing about the exhibition you mention decadence and luxury, what is it that draws you to these things? HD: I think that the location where I have chosen to live and work is physically quite remote from the hustle and bustle of, say, London and the Continent. There is a certain ‘mainstream’ culture that one can feel slightly starved of, removed from at times.

Visits to London and favourite haunts such as Soho and the area surrounding the Royal Academy are a necessity for me, and I cherish these visits to use as inspiration back in the studio, by way of the photographs I take and the catalogues, postcards and speciality goods one can procure from the adventure.

Bookshops and newsagents and the proliferation of magnificently produced magazines can bring elements of luxury and decadence straight to your home. The ideas, the glamour and the freedom to express are endlessly explored. These magazines surround me in the studio; I can dip in and in a moment be transported to another world, of an artist, a composer, a poet, writer, photographer or a fashion designer. In this respect I think that luxury and the need to dream can somehow seem closer than it might do in reality, and that that in itself is a powerful resource. The elements of decadence in my work questions whether indeed we should seek the luxury which is portrayed, or whether advertising makes us greedy for newness just for its own sake. AC: Do you have any particular attitude towards the history of the representation of the female figure? Does this inform your painting? HD: The female figure has been represented in art in so many different forms, and it would be impossible to deny that influence on my own work. I once wrote an extended essay on the myth of the Mother Goddess, and have always felt an affiliation with very early representations of woman such as the Venus of Willendorf c.25000 BC. The powerfully depicted sexual attributes of this and other small sculptures emphasise their fertility and voluptuousness.

Whether photographically or abstractly represented, the female nude finds infinite ways of exploring the self, and

it is hardly a new thing that women’s sexuality is explored. Cecily Brown, another figurative painter, learned from Picasso, Bonnard, Bacon and Schiele that ‘art can be rude, outrageous, sexy, nasty’. It takes a lot of nerve to paint “shocking” paintings; I feel it is a very valid field and one that I would like to explore more. AC: Are you influenced by the work of any other artists? HD: Very much so, and I think that it would be a very unusual artist who wasn’t influenced by what other creatives have made. It definitely goes in phases as to who I’m looking at the most, at any one time. If I’m stuck for inspiration, artists I consider to be real ‘painters’, big names for me, are Roger Hilton, Terry Frost, Patrick Heron, Brian Wynter, Robert Motherwell, Willem De Kooning and Joan Mitchell, and they never fail to excite on the abstract front. Recently I’ve been looking more closely at the figurative work of painters such as Cecily Brown, John Currin, Chantal Joffe and Marlene Dumas. AC: I notice that you have focused on the female nude in this set of new work, what is it that makes your women ‘wild’? HD: The fact that they are nude or scantily clad makes me like to believe that they are all slightly ‘wild’ by nature. The general abandon of the nudes, their poses (often they have a breast exposed), reveal a decadent yet liberated statement. They are all a bit unkempt; naïve individuals.

They can be based on myself, females I know well, or stereotypes, and sometimes a combination of all three. The painting in this exhibition that strikes me as the most ‘wild’ is ‘Oracle’. She is strong, individualistic and fairly frightening in her overall demeanour. Her parted lips reveal her teeth and the interior of her mouth. Is she speaking? What is she saying? She has her hair formally arranged, her hand to her face. She is expressive in her gaze, her palette sullen and muted, and her rawness is emphasised by the roughly painted earthy ground. She asks questions. Is she femme fatale, beauty, wife, lover? She is archetypal, she could be so many things.

AC: You describe your paintings as “autobiographical deconstructions and reconstructions of life.” How do you think this idea comes out in your work? HD: This is often quoted when people look at my work; I wrote it a while back but I believe the general premise remains. All the paintings I create I see as autobiographical to a certain extent. I create them as a response to what is occurring in my life, what I’m looking at, reading, writing, and experiencing on a personal level.

I’ll often start a painting by making a mark on the canvas, having no clear idea as to what the outcome will be.

When the painting is eventually finished, which can be quite immediate or not, I can be surprised and excited when it reveals some sort of poignant truth about how I feel about something. In this sense there is deconstructing, and recreation, a new life or opinion expressed. AC: What influence does fashion have on your work?   HD: I certainly would not count myself as a fashionista, but I do love to look at fashion and I’m interested especially, now that I am getting older, to see how it reinvents itself. I find glossy magazines and advertising campaigns tremendously seductive; often they have great use of artwork in them.

Last year’s Prada SS14 campaign and catwalk show was another highlight. Painters were commissioned to paint

the sets with enormous canvasses providing a striking backdrop to the models, the painters themselves having inspired the collection with their oversized, stylised faces. In 2014 I, in turn, painted paintings in response to this, ‘Future Great’, ‘Flower Girl’ and ‘Backstage’. I’ll look out for painterly influences that occur in these types of promotions. AC: I am interested in your practice as a full-time artist, what drives you to paint? HD: A strong part of what drives me to paint is the constant absorption of things I find interesting, and my desire then to create my own view or approach by return.

The desire to draw and paint has been with me for as long as I can remember. I have always had a sketchbook to

hand to jot down and record ideas. One of the most fundamental reasons is, that I love to paint. I love what I do and I feel very lucky that I am able to call myself a full time painter. The freedom to create and inspire other people to look drives me, as do new ideas and the excitement of not knowing necessarily what you are going to create. I do believe that you have to be passionate about what you do..

I paint as a means of interacting with the world. It is my form of communication. For me, it flows more fluently than speech or the written word. It is a powerful force and it is tremendous when people can read your work and actively engage and respond to it. AC: Have you taken part in any interesting exhibitions recently? HD: I was selected to show a painting in last year’s National Open Art Competition. The painting exhibited was ‘Odyssey’ which was one of the five large canvasses I painted as part of a series called ‘Interim’ which was showcased at Edgar Modern last August. The five large abstracts all had the same dimension, and they have all gone their separate ways! ‘Odyssey’ visited Somerset House in London and then the Minerva Theatre in Chichester and was shown amongst what I felt was a very strong show. As Gavin Turk commented, it is ‘The Best Open Art Competition in the U.K.’

This  catalogue  is  copyrighted  ©  by  Edgar  Modern  and  may  not  be  copied  or  distributed  without  consent.  

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