‘Not just a postcard’ Florence Arts Centre, Egremont CA22 2NR
28th September – 2nd November 2019 Wednesday – Sunday 11.00-4.00
Artists in conversation: Saturday 28th September 12.30

Irene Godfrey and Maggie Learmonth present an exhibition of paintings and drawings arising from their personal response to differing experiences of West Cumbria. ‘Not just a postcard’ explores how we see a landscape and how we record the experience of seeing it whether it’s a direct visual representation of the topography, whether it’s an abstraction of that or whether it’s recording in some way the memory of experiencing the landscape.

Godfrey’s response is threefold: improvisation and recent memory using the materials at hand; social engagement with past and present; a perceived resonance between West Cumbria and the North Pennines (where she spent her childhood) in particular the fells and evidence of mining extraction. Here landmarks are similar but different: Cumbria’s lush sphagnum carpets contrast with the Pennines’ dry grouse moor patchwork; chimneys for ventilation compare with flues for condensation.

Learmonth’s response explores the feeling of being in a landscape and questioning what is a landmark. Her paintings start from a moment, a glimpse of something, a feeling or an experience. From that initial encounter they evolve sometimes into a simplified form, sometimes into something more romantic in style. Either way they remain landmarks, not just acting as way-markers but simultaneously pointing to the future and provoking memories of the past.