Eileen Hogan - an artist not in residence

Eileen Hogan has a simply marvellous exhibition at the Garden Museum. It's the outcome of inventing a new concept - "the artist not in residence"

She was appointed the artist in residence at the museum just before it closed for a major refurbishment funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The museum reopened in May of this year and includes an exhibition by Eileen Hogan which comprises:

• some sublime paintings of gardens around and about London
• a large scale exhibit - on a wall - of her way of working as an artist not in residence.

I've loved Eileen Hogan's paintings for a very long time - ever since I first saw one in one of the first Lynn Painter Stainer's exhibitions at Painter-Stainers Hall in the City of London.

It was a real pleasure to see the exhibition of her paintings at the Garden Museum - see below for why!

The exhibition finishes on 17th September. See the end for why I'm posting this far too late!

There is a book about the exhibition for those who don't manage to see it - which I also recommend.

How she works - as "an artist not in residence"

Her idea for how to be an artist NOT in residence was that she would develop a project.

She would create a virtual garden museum through a year of excursions to gardens around London.

She wrote to lots of people she knew and some who were associated with the Museum to ask them to nominate a London Green Space that was important to them - giving reasons why it mattered. It could be a private garden or a public space - or even a remembered space glimpsed from the top of a bus.  It could also be related to any time of year.  She was surprised by some of the places people chose.

Her intention was then to choose a dozen sites - one for each month of the year - and turn these into large finished paintings.

The exhibition includes:

• her sketchbooks
• a number of oil sketches
• etchings drawing from material in her sketchbook
• photographs of her at work on her sketches

The exhibition of the process is as engaging as the paintings - and provides food for thought for any artist engaged in a similar project to record places.

Brompton Cemetery and Chiswick house - Photos of the way she works and sketchbooks

Chelsea Physic Garden - Photos of the way she works and sketchbooks

The paintings

These are paintings which are typically in greens and greys and are typically fairly muted.

However that's the reality of our gardens for much of the year and it's wonderful to find somebody who can make an aesthetically beautiful painting of a garden which lacks the flowers which normally draw our attention and conform to the conventional idea of what makes a garden beautiful.

I find she SEES the gardens for what they are and finds and paints the content which very much appeals to my eye.

You can also see her paintings of gardens on her website

Her portrait of HRH Prince of Wales

The Garden Museum is also hanging Eileen Hogan's 2015 portrait of Prince Charles seated at his desk at Birkhall - with flowers from the garden. It has been donated to the Museum by the Cocheme Chairtable Trust which sponsors the residency

It's one of the best portrait of the Prince of Wales I've ever seen.

Prince Charles at Birkhall by Eileen Hogan

About Eileen Hogan

She is:

• Professor in Fine Art in the C.C.W. (Camberwell, Chelsea and Wimbledon art schools) Graduate School, University of the Arts London.
• a Research Professor at Wimbledon College of Art
• a Patron of Mindroom and 
• a trustee of the Rootstein Hopkins Foundation.

Before this she was Dean at Camberwell School of Art

She's due to have a solo exhibition at the Yale Centre for British Art, USA in autumn 2019.

Why this post is so late

I explained why my posts about the exhibitions at the Garden Museum are so late at the end of this post - Tradescant's Orchard - images of the exhibition at the Garden Museum. I revisited in late August to clear the mental block.

Addendum

PS  There is also a website called http://www.artistnotinresidence.org.uk/ however the concept  here is that

The artist is in their theatre/gallery/museum/studio/rehearsal space connecting online with people in their community/learning/work or other setting.

Now that to me is "the artist online and inetracting" NOT the artist not in residence

In my book, Eileen has nailed it with her way of working!