Brenda Hartill – Now and Then

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ROCHE Gallery at 93, High Street, Rye, is pleased to announce the exhibition of recent paintings and early prints by Brenda Hartill RE, entitled “NOW and THEN”, to be held on Monday April 17 – Sat April 29, 11am – 5pm

Brenda Hartill, RE, is a visual artist with an international reputation in printmaking. She is a member of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, The Rye Society of Art and the Pure Art Group. She has been resident in Udimore, Rye, since 2005.

Brenda was born in London, and in the late 1950s, the family emigrated to New Zealand. Brenda returned to the UK eight years later on a New Zealand Arts Council grant, training as a theatre designer at the Central School of Art and Design. Later, she travelled to the USA with her husband, Harold Moores, to work in American University theatre. In 1971, they returned to London as Brenda received a UK Arts Council award for young theatre designers to work at the Young Vic. After some years as a freelance designer, she worked for the National Theatre, RSC, Birmingham Rep, and Traverse Theatre Edinburgh.

Life as an itinerant designer was demanding, and on becoming a mother, Brenda sadly left theatre design and took up printmaking. Since the 1980s, she has had a productive and successful career as a painter and printmaker, becoming world-renowned for developing the collagraph technique (a print made from a collage).

Brenda’s early figurative prints drew inspiration from her life in South London with a young family. These etchings create an intimate image of a Londoners’ London with monumental cityscapes and intimate street scenes. Later, travels to Corfu and then Spain produced a completely different series of etchings and monotypes – with bleaching sun and deep shadows, gnarly olive trees and red earth. In 1987 she set up a studio in Gaucin, a small white village in Andalucia.

Another significant influence comes from the landscapes of New Zealand, where she visited her husband’s family over the years and exhibited in galleries in Auckland, Wellington and Wanaka, as well as Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney, Australia. Her deep interest in natural forms led to a more abstract experimental textural approach with collagraph.

Brenda’s recent unique works experiment with embossing, collage and multimedia painting. The broad range of techniques and tricks she acquired in the decades of artistic practice is at her fingertips.

At every stage in Brenda’s career, she created emotionally and technically rich artworks, gaining her a worldwide following. The ROCHE Gallery successfully held a solo show of Brenda’s work in 2008. We proudly host this exhibition and welcome all to visit.

The artist will be available most afternoons and by appointment. Contact Brenda for more information and a private view invitation.
Mobile phone: 07841 521 712.

Image Credits: Brenda Hartill https://brendahartill.com .

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