Newpapers  

Art Preview: Eloise Govier exhibition

Mar 5 2010 Jenny White Interview: Western Mail

Eloise Govier exhibition

A new gallery is championing some of Wales’ finest artists, including promising newcomer Eloise Govier, who’s already selling out her work in the Far East and New York. She tells Jenny White about her passion for colour

ELOISE Govier’s luscious oil paintings vibrate with colour. Vermilion, magenta, sunshine yellow and cobalt blue jostle and dance in her joyful palette.  “I’ve always been interested in what colour can do emotionally,” says Govier who, at the age of 27, is already enjoying international success.  “I think on a subconscious level, people respond to brighter colours such as pinks and yellows differently to how they respond to darker ones.  “I never use black – I’m drawn to bright colours. I don’t want to make melancholic art; I don’t want people to be depressed when they look at the work.”  Govier begins each piece by painting her whole canvas with fluorescent paint. After that, she applies paint in thick, buttery strokes, creating deeply textured, almost sculptural work.

While many artists eschew painting in favour of more ‘modern’ forms of expression, Govier remains committed to this ‘traditional’ art form.  The vibrant and tactile nature of her work springs from her desire to push painting into new territory.  “I think a lot of people feel that now we’re into conceptual art, painting has had its time, but I’m enjoying experimenting with it and I’m hoping to provide new answers. It’s a continual search for what painting can do.”

Govier’s search began at university in St Andrews, where she studied the history of art while developing her own skills as a painter. The daughter of two artists, she grew up in West Wales and still has her studio at her parents’ home in Cenarth.  At the end of her degree, she went to Florence and studied life drawing at the Charles Cecil Art Atelier.  “It’s run in the old tradition where you learn from a master. It was quite a serious, academic way of studying art; we devoted a month to just one figure. I also spent a lot of time visiting galleries such as the Uffizi.”

She later moved to Berlin and lived in an art studio with other artists. It was here she started to find her voice as a painter, taking as her starting point the expressionist style that grew out of early 20th century Berlin.  “My roots were always in expressionist art. That was what I was interested in at university. Expressionist art is very emotional art. It’s not a direct replication of reality, but a reaction to it.”  A key difference between Govier’s work and the original expressionists is the nature of her emotional response. While ‘typical’ expressionism tends towards darkness and pain, Govier’s work is bright and optimistic.

As such, it shows the Welsh landscape in a whole new light. The dark, earthy colours that predominate in Wales – coupled with the big-hitting drama of mountains, rocks and waves – mean paintings of Wales are often imbued with a sense of melancholy.  By choosing colours that reflect not what she sees, but what she feels about the Welsh landscape, Govier reminds us that this is a joyful place to be.

“It was my exhibition, in 2007, when I really focussed on the landscape,” she says. “My colours became more extreme and the images much more demanding of the viewer.  “You get people who love the brightness of the work, but I probably do get some negative responses too.  “Luckily people are usually too polite to tell me! I understand that the work I’m doing is demanding, but I enjoy that – I don’t want to make direct replications of what is around me; I want to express my emotions about it. I think that’s where you start communicating with people.”

Robin Turner Interview, Western Mail

Jul 11 2009

 

Rising artist Eloise paintings on global sale

 

GALLERIES in London, New York and Tokyo are charging thousands of pounds for works by a young Welsh artist whose images of Wales evoke memories of the late Sir Kyffin Williams. Eloise Govier’s neon takes on the seaside villages of her West Wales homeland have proved a hit with items of her work present in private collections as far afield as Kyoto, Verona and Beaujolais, and galleries across the world.  While their love of the stunning beauty of fields, beaches and countryside of Wales marks the 27-year-old out as an heir apparent to Sir Kyffin’s legacy, Eloise navigates her way round a palette in a way that sets her apart.

But despite her burgeoning success, the young landscape artist does not believe in suffering for her art.  She said: “Art does not have to make you depressed, bright colours and vibrancy in a canvas can make your heart soar with joy.”  Like one of her favourite painters, the late Sir Kyffin, she has been inspired by Wales’ trademark scenery.  And while Sir Kyffin’s work reflected his Anglesey surroundings, Eloise was brought up in Cenarth in Ceredigion – within easy reach of both rural idyll and coastal grandeur.  She said: “I had a joyous upbringing with yellow, sandy beaches, big, dazzling blue skies and deep green fields.”

Describing herself as single, but with a boyfriend, she sees herself as something of a reactionary in producing bright, uplifting work.  She said: “Some of the so-called stars of Brit-Art like Marc Quinn come up with things which are not only dark, they are quite depressing.  “For instance Marc used some of his own blood to create a deathly mask ‘face of blood’ while Damien Hirst’s dead animals in formaldehyde are regarded as modern classics.  “I feel quite strongly that art should lift the soul not drag it down.”

Her expressionist landscapes with a dizzying range of strong colours and her “graffiti” pieces using fluorescent painted canvases and spray acrylics are now selling for up to £3,500 in galleries in London, Japan and throughout Europe.  She said: “I would definitely call my work expressionist, depicting Welsh field patterns and an abundance of Welsh summer sky using directional lines to depict colour and light.”

It was almost inevitable Eloise would gravitate towards life as a full-time artist.  Her parents, sculptor Gordon Govier and painter Janette Buss moved to Cenarth when she was a young child. Although she was born in Canterbury, her earlier memories are of the fields, beaches and sparkling rivers around her Welsh home. She said: “It’s an inspirational place to live and the beauty of the area was the reason my parents moved there.”

Eloise’s latest exhibition of works, The Bridge that Floods, is on show at the Pendre Art Gallery in Cardigan until August 1 and is attracting a steady stream of art hunters looking to buy the up and coming painter’s work.  She said: “I have canvases that sell for hundreds but some are now going for thousands, it’s an exciting time.”  The paintings depict local scenes, including Cardigan Bay, Llechryd, Newport, New Quay and Fishguard and all come in her trademark bright, colourful, expressionist manner using oil on canvas.

Liz Hickling-Baker, who runs the gallery, said: “Eloise generates a body of texture and movement through layers of directional paint and contrasting colours, the paint is applied in such abundance that her works are almost sculptural in their creation.  “Those familiar with her work will know she has a distinctive style that sets her work apart from most; rarely, if ever, has Wales been portrayed in this unique way.”  Eloise added: “My work is an emotional response to the landscape rather than a literal rendering of the view, I am drawn to bright and daring colour combinations that capture a mood or feeling about the place; I grew up here, so, inevitably, when I paint West Wales, it’s about capturing my home.”

Her successes this year include the auctioning of her work Alltybwla at the London Welsh Dragon Ball with the painting raising close on £1,000 for charity.  She has also had a piece selected for the Kyffin Williams Drawing Prize – her work entitled Summer 2008: last of the good times? will be exhibited from October until January at the Oriel Kyffin Williams in Llangefni.

Her current exhibition at the Pendre Art Gallery is her third solo show and she has also exhibited at the Brick Lane Gallery in London, the Arton gallery in Japan, the Howies Bristol Shop and at numerous art groups across Wales.  She can now boast works in private collections all over Wales and in London, St Andrews in Scotland, Kyoto in Japan, Beaujolais in France and Verona in Italy.

Laura Wilson Interview Courier Scotland 

Saturday August 15th 2009

Flood of Colour

After completing her MLitt, eloise made the journey to the Charles H. Cecil's studio in Florence, a school run by the American artist which provides classical training in drawing and oil for the select few."  

"It was a new experience for me" says Eloise. "It's really very different to what I'm doing now, as everything is approached so realistically and academically but I realised that I loved drawing and painting full time." 

St Andrews graduate Eloise Govier is currently enjoying great international success with her colourful and unique paintings of the Welsh landscape she calls home.  As the paintings from her most recent exhibition, The Bridge That Floods, were being snapped up by her growing fan base, she spoke to Laura Wilson about her somewhat unexpected career in art, and her plans to paint her University town.  

As the daughter of two successful artists, Welsh painter Eloise Govier resisted the urge to pick up a paintbrush for a long time.  "I initially didn't want to fo down that route," she explains.  I did a joint honours MA at the University of St Andrews in ancient history and art history, and then continued my studies with an MLitt in the School of Art History.  I had always imagined I would become an academic but I became more and more inspired by the art Iwas studying and eventually I began to paint."  

 

At St Andrews, Eloise studied under Professor Christina Lodder and was massively influenced by the Expressionists she gave lectures on, falling in love with the works of the German group of artists Die Brücke and the Russian painter Alexej von Jawlensky.  "I'd never seen paintings like that before she enthuses. "So full of vibrant colours and emotive brushstrokes.  They were all trying to capture a mood or a feeling about the place rather than just presenting a direct replica of them.  It seemed so intimate and emotional." 

Full of inspiration, she headed for Berlin, home of the Expressionists and, on her return to Wales, announced to her parents that she was going to become an artist and set up a studio at home.  After completing her first two canvases, she tool them to the Pendre Gallery, a space for contemporary art in West Wales.  They were immediately accepted and sold quickly and from that moment on, Eloise's success in the art world has been on the rise.  Working with brightly-coloured oil paints and aerosols to create unique paintings of her homeland, Eloise's mood-enhancing art has created a storm.  Cottages, harbours and boats become a feast for the eyes in mouthwatering sweetie-like tones, applied with thick brush and knife strokes that make the viewer want to reach out and touch them.

"I wouldn't paint with acrylic-everything about it feels cheap," she says. "It dries too quickly, the depth of colour is too synthetic, the texture is boring and can only be made interesting by introducing foreign mediums.  The only time I have used acrylic is as an undercoat on a canvas.  I wanted florescent pink and orange and they don't do that in oil-well, not yet!"  Her canvases vary in size from small to the extremely large and, to create the desired effects, she has found herself employing some interesting methods.  

"When it comes to the size of my canvases, i like to mix it up a bit, I've  worked on five-inch squares right up to five-foot by nine-foot canvases.  My studio wasn't bid enough for the latter, so I strapped the frame between two trees.  Hurricane Gordon was hitting Wales at that point and although there wasn't any rain, there was a lot of wind.  It was a heck of a lot of fun painting like that.  The piece was called Arcadia and became the star of my first show."

 

Arcadia was shown at Pendre Gallery in 2006 and was followed up with Wales in Colour in 2008.  During that time, Eloise also exhibited work from her Neon Wales collection at Howies Gallery in Bristol and the Arton Gallery in Japan and contributed work to the Art in Mind Show at the Brick Lane Gallery in London.  Her most recent collection, The Bridge that Floods, has just been shown at Pendre.  "It's strange to have sold work all over the world," says Eloise, who has had some paintings snapped up before they have had the chance to make it on the gallery walls.  "The aim of having a show of your work is to sell it.  I still find it difficult though-people will buy something and I'll think 'That was my favourite, and I'll never have it again."' 

Despite mourning the loss of paintings she has become attached to, her studio, which is opened once a year to the public, is never empty of art.  A prolific painter, eloise has now begun work on a collection that will examine human emotion rather than the Welsh landscapes she has become known for.  She has also worked on paintings of the London Underground.  "Wales is home and it's very inspiring to me but I've done some paintings of London too.  I went down to the underground stations and sat and did some sketches-probably looking crazy-and have produced some work based on them.  I was very inspired by the Underground-I loved the tiles and the colours.  It's a world full of sweeping movement-it's really quite majestic."

Her future plans include a collection based on her adopted town of St Andrews.  "I come to St Andrews every July.  I like to be here during the summer and find the town very inspiring.  It's nice to come back and see all the familiar faces and places and I've been working on paintings and sketches for the last couple of years now.  I hope to have an exhibition, entitled St Andrews: Rising, ready and up before the year is out.  I'm in the area at the moment, getting the final ideas down and I'm excited because I don't think St Andrews has been painted like this before.  I lived here for five years, so I get nostalgic about the place."   

With appreciation of her work growing internationally, Eloise's paintings may soon become as recognisable as the work of another artist with connections to St Andrews University, Jack Vettriano.  "I attended a Jack Vettriano masterclass in St Andrews in 2003 and found it very informative," she says.  "First, he sat at the front and showed us how he painted, then we all had a go and he walked around and commented on the work.  All the students in the class did mini-versions of his classics-it was so weird to see! "I sat there doing a self-portrait in green and he came over and said "I don't know what to say to that!"'

Sarah Jane Absalom (nee Jones) Interview Tivyside

Tuesday 7th July 2009 

An Artist who glows with colour 

Eloise Govier is on a roll.  Already being rated as one of the most dynamic young artists to emerge from Britain, her work is being snapped up by gallery owners across London and Japan.  Whenever she stages an exhibition, her paintings get snapped up before the oils have a chance to dry.  Yet her attitude towards art remains doggedly realistic.  

"Art is currently in a very depressing state," she says in her quietly rapid and highly articulate way.  It was never more apparent than during the Brit art shows of the nineties and noughties.  Art college students are turing increasingly towards conceptual art and the same applies to the academics - they want to become artist but because their talents are somewhat lacking, they turn man-made goods are the basis for their work.  "Maybe this is why brighter, more emotional works are appealing to people because they know it's going to bring a degree of buoyancy into their lives."

Eloise's work, for those unfortunate enough not to have seen it is... you've guessed it... buoyant, vibrant and bursting with some of the most dynamic colour combinations imaginable.  "I suppose the way I use colour is unique," she continues.  "The other day a friend of mine was watching me paintings and said that I was glowing with colour because the intensity of the paint on the canvas was being reflected back onto my face.  I want my work to be tactile even though people can't touch it.  This is why I use very thick oil paint and put it on very generously so that it appears to be almost dripping."  The result is a painting that's as full of life as Eloise Govier.  

Born in Canterbury as the daughter of international sculptor Gordon Govier and his wife the painter Janette Buss, it was hardly surprising that Eloise's upbringing was decked in art. "For the first five years of my life, I was more or less living in a gallery.  "Naturally I was encouraged to draw and paint and my parents would respond to whatever I tried to create bu they never wanted me to make a career of art.  If anything they discouraged me."

Following A levels in English, History, Sociology and Art and Design Eloise went to St Andrews's University to read History of Art.  "Suddenly I found myself surrounded by all these great works of art by people such as Picasso, Manet and Monet, and it proved a real eye-opener.  This was when I knew that I wanted to paint properly but even then it wasn't a career option.  Instead it was a means of expressing my emotions."

One of Eloise's first experiments centred exclusively around trees. "i was still only in my early 20s and chose to paint trees int he most bizarre colours.  The work was instinctive and emotional and this is how it's continued to the present day.  I go into the studio with a vague idea of what I'm going to paint but nothing's been pre-meditated.  I rely solely on my instinct and it seems to come very naturally.  This is how the Expressionist worked and I've taken a great deal of inspiration from their concepts."

Following the Masters degree at St Andrews, Eloise spent several months at the Charles Cecil Art Atelier in Florence studying life drawing.  "Basically I wanted to see how other artists worked," she explains.  "We'd work on just one model for a whole month trying to present it in an almost photographic way.  Everybody was producing these very tidy little sketches whereas mine were all over the place... crazy and dynamic! I guess this made me realise that the other students were producing work that was very controlled and tight but displayed very little expression."

From Florence Eloise spent five months in Berlin where she was able to immerse herself wholly into the work of her mentors - the Expressionists.  "I lived in an artist studio with a group of artists whose lives revolved wholly around their art."  Soon after returning to her parents' home in Cenarth, Eloise completed three paintings which she showed to Liz and Andy at the Pendre Art Gallery in Pendre.  The strength of her work resulted in her first solo exhibition in 2006 which Eloise describes as "big, bold and different".  The exhibition was a huge success and was repeated the following year with her 'Wales in Colour' solo exhbition.  Sixteen of its paintings were shown at the Brick Lane Gallery in London where work was purchased by a private collector.  

This week Eloise opens her latest exhibition 'The Bridge that Floods' consists of 26 paintings completed during the autumn and winter, 2008.  "They're based on landscapes that I know so well and that mean so much to me.  They've given me a great deal of pleasure and I just hope they'll provide the same fulfilment to everyone who'll view them.  Who knows what the next year is going to bring... all I want is to continue paint, continue to exhibit and continue to gain confidence."

  

Tivyside Wednesday 27th November 2007 

Putting Wales in a new light

After the success of Eloise's first exhibition, Arcadia 2006, she has now turned her eye to the Teifi Valley and produced a collection of more than 30 oil paintings of local viewpoints.  She studied at the University of St Andrews, where she graduated in 2005 before moving to Florence.

Her interest in Expressionist art then lead her to Germany where she spent three months in perhaps the most artistically exciting city in Europe, Berlin.  Her expressionist brushstrokes and palette-knife marks emphasise the dynamic skylines and hills of West Wales, and her extreme use of bold and contrasting colours means that these pieces are a unique take on Wales.

She said: "With this exhibition I wanted to experiment with my use of colour, I wanted my paintings to show more than just blue skies and green hills, because when you do sit on the hills and actually look out at what is there before you, you realise that at certain times of the day, you can have pink skies and purple hills, and that's the Wales that I wanted to capture."

Television 

Sioe Gelf, S4C Nos Sul Tachwedd 29, 19:00, 2009

 

Mae gweledigaeth liwgar yr artist Eloise Govier o dirwedd Cymru yn gwerthu ar draws y byd - does dim lle i dduwch na llwydni yn ei thirluniau.  ‘Rwy’n credu fod pobl yn ymateb i liw, texture a golau’, meddai’r artist o Genarth, ‘ac rwy’n credu ei bod nhw’n meddwl bod hyn yn newydd a chyffrous.’

Er ei bod yn defnyddio lliwiau cwbl wahanol, mae hi’n cael ei hystyried gan rai fel y Kyffin newydd.  Mae Cymru wedi creu argaraff fawr arni; trwy ddefnyddio lliw mae Eloise yn honni ei bod yn ‘trio mynegi beth rwy’n teimlo am y wlad.’

Aeth Lisa Gwilym i’w chyfarfod yn ei stiwdio.

Blogs 

Editor’s Blog

One Narbeth.co.uk 

Sunday 8 May 2011