Surrey Life's online art gallery
Every month in Surrey Life magazine, we take a look around the county to find the best that Surrey art can offer for our Art Scene page. Here, we leave aside Exhibtion of the month and Meet the artist for a second and focus instead on In the frame to provide you with a convenient collection of some of Surrey's most interesting and important works of art, right at your fingertips...
If you've seen a particularly impressive work of art in Surrey, let us know about it on the Surrey Life forum or by emailing here
The Embarkation at Dover @ Hampton Court Palace
The Embarkation at Dover by an unknown artist, c.1545 (© The Royal Collection 2007, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II)
This fabulous 16th century painting, The Embarkation at Dover, belongs to the Queen and currently hangs at Hampton Court Palace.
It forms part of the Young Henry VIII exhibition – Hampton Court Palace being the Tudor king’s most famous residence – and depicts the warship Mary Rose along with some of the other important warships in Henry VIII’s early navy.
Next year is the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s accession to the throne and this magnificent original oil is one of the stars of the exhibition, which brings together a series of important Tudor paintings depicting the king before he became fat old Henry VIII.
Bowers Mill - Evening Light @ Yvonne Arnaud Art Exhibition
Bowers Mill - Evening Light by Nicholas Verrall
As part of this year’s Guildford Summer Festival, the Yvonne Arnaud Art Exhibition once again ran this summer and one of those exhibiting at the event was Guildford artist Nicholas Verrall, the man behind this stunning work.
“I am fortunate enough to have a studio in close proximity to the River Wey,” he says. “I like to stroll along the river, often following the towpath from Burpham to Send, where sitting on a tight bend is Bowers Lock. There, nestled in among mature trees near the site of the original mill, is Bowers Mill House.
“This became the subject of my painting Bowers Mill - Evening Light. I really wanted to capture the warm glow of the evening light and, as an artist, I am also attracted to the many different visual characteristics of water, which is the essence of this painting.”
St Martha's from Ferry Lane @ Guildford House Gallery
Henry James Sage: St Martha's from Ferry Lane
Guildford House Gallery has more than 50 paintings by the local artist Henry James Sage in its art collection.
“This painting is St Martha’s from Ferry Lane,” says gallery and exhibitions manager Christian Dettlaff. “If you look very closely, you can see St Martha’s Church on the top of the hill.”
The view looks across to the Chantries, a hill that got its name after being left in the will of Henry Norbridge, a medieval mayor of Guildford, to pay a chantry priest to say prayers for his soul.
“Sage’s work has created a valuable record of what early 20th century Guildford looked like,” says Christian. “Some of the subjects of his work no longer exist, but his many paintings of Guildford High Street show how little some views have changed.
“Sage was a popular local figure. We still get gallery visitors who can remember him on his tricycle, with his easel strapped on the back, travelling up and down the lanes in the Guildford area.”
In Memoriam III @ The Lightbox
In Memoriam III by Dame Elisabeth Frink (Photo © 2007 Frink Estate)
Visitors to The Lightbox in Woking (find out more here) will almost certainly have done a double-take walking past this giant bronze head. Created by Dame Elisabeth Frink in 1983, In Memoriam III weighs about 300kg and takes five people to move it!
“Throughout the 1960s, Seventies and early Eighties, Frink sculpted a whole series of human heads and faces,” says the gallery’s arts and collections officer, Peter Hall. “In the Eighties, she became increasingly interested in the speed and proliferation of images that the media relayed concerning atrocities from around the world. For Frink, the public were becoming desensitised to the stories or “brutalised,” as she put it.
“Her art at this time can be seen as a way of setting down a permanent memorial for those who were persecuted for their beliefs. Placed in a wider context, it relates to her support of Amnesty International and the human rights movement.”
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This sculpture was on display at The Lightbox during until September 2008. The Lightbox, Chobham Road, Woking, GU21 4AA.
Love and Life @ Watts Gallery
Love and Life, 1884, GF Watts OM RA (1817-1904)
Love and life is a theme that recurs throughout the work of G F Watts,” says Mark Bills, curator of the Watts Gallery in Guildford. “In this painting, we see Life, struggling to find her way along a rocky path, reaching solace and the hope of guidance in the arms of Love.”
This beautiful painting forms part of the permanent collection at Watts Gallery, in Compton, which is currently undergoing a massive restoration project (find out more here)
Kind thanks go to all the Surrey art galleries who have contributed to these pages and continue to spread the word about art in Surrey.