RONA GROup OF ARtIStS

IMAGINE

LANGHAM GALLERY

12th to 23rd June 2012

the paintings in this show by eight artists

(including overleaf, a special focus on the

painter Lee Madgwick) reveal a fascinating

variety of innate styles and contrasting

approaches - ranging from poetic hyper-realism

to evocative impressionism to a fresh childlike

naiveté.

An example of the first of these approaches is

Then and Now, a subtly contemplative painting

by Michael Kidd. Here, St. paul's Cathedral's

ornate, curvilinear form is seen reflected (and

scintillatingly abstracted) in the flat, extensive

glass facade of a modern office block. Kidd also

portrays a spare rural scene (Five Fields) of

entrancingly diverse colours and patterns, and

the wooden breakers on Whitstable beach as a

range of dazzling kinetic shapes.

using only very fine watercolour brushes, and

eschewing the use of pen and pencil, Varsha

Bhatia delineates the exterior of the Houses of

parliament with immaculate intricacy. the

building's perpindicular Gothic-style detailing is

set against a lucid, pale blue sky, and reflected

in the shimmering thames below.

Louis Turpin's evocatively impressionistic

paintings are set within the three river valleys

which all meet at Rye in Sussex. One picture

focuses on a vibrant, predominantly red vessel

moored in Rye harbour at low tide, with a view

towards boat-sheds and variegated small historic

buildings in the town above amid bleak wintry

branches. His painting of two cows in a Rolling

Landscape celebrates the slow rural pace and

deliciously colourful fecundity of an East Sussex

valley scene.

Alfred Daniels has returned to the rich (and

peatily aromatic) terrain of the Scottish whisky

industry in his painting of Glenfiddich Distillery.

Here, the motion of full whisky barrels being

rolled onto a truck by robust local workers is

choreographed with elegant simplicity.

In Christopher Hall's painting of a distant view

of the walled medieval provencal village of

taulignan, the pale honey-coloured stone, and

the green terraces of vines, are complemented by

enchanting cool tones of vast swathes of

lavender. Margaret Loxton's paintings,

portraying monumental French folk harvesting

grapes in golden-hued landscapes, are full of

earthy merriment and sensual felicities.

In Martin Leman's picture, Tulips and Apples,

the mass of white tulip heads appears as a

brilliant cornucopia against a stark black

backdrop. A red and a green apple on a tabletop

are painted with distinctive naïve charm.

RONA Group of Artists

IMAGINE

RONA GROUP OF ARTISTS

The Rona Group of Artists is renowned for its exhibitions marked by a sophisticated,

highly individualistic vision which today has come to characterise its unique style.

For over twenty-five years, RONA was based in a gallery in London’s Mayfair, and now

exhibits several times a year at the Langham Gallery in Bloomsbury.

14. ‘Then and Now’ Michael Kidd

Lee Madgwick – who was born in King's Lynn,

Norfolk and now lives in Ely, Cambridgeshire –

has always been entranced by the sometimes

eery, luminous spaciousness of East Anglia –

which he describes as 'a mostly low-lying flat

landscape, so vast but one with real intimacy.' As

a child he 'always had pencil or pen in hand'; as

a teenager he enjoyed depicting local buildings

with intricate realism. After studying design at

Norwich University College of the Arts, he

launched into painting around 2004, 'tried some

landscapes – trees and hills – and painted one

house', then found, to his surprise, that a

sublimely surreal lyricism began to creep in.

He likes to journey around Norfolk (with its

'rustic, edgy feel'), Suffolk (with its 'rich history,

so many variations and accents') and

Cambridgeshire, sometimes venturing further

afield to favourite terrains such as Yorkshire and

Cornish moors and dales. On these trips, he takes

lots of photographs and enjoys 'going off the

beaten track' where his 'fascination with anything

derelict or abandoned' is sometimes satiated in

magical encounters with, say, dilapidated

vehicles or odd bits of rusting detritus in fields

(such as three toddlers' tricycles once seen

ambiguously abandoned within a crop circle,

though perhaps, in this instance – the subject of

a painting – the children had simply gone off to

play in the woods) or buildings like a 'stunning

16th century Norfolk farmhouse, completely

abandoned fifty years ago, with enormous

cracks, and surrounded by weeds, with trees

growing out of the exposed basement area'.

His painting Guarding the Realm – depicting an

entirely imaginary white stucco Victorian

townhouse curiously re-located in a remote rural

setting, and, even more bizarrely, surrounded by

a drawbridge-less moat – invites from the viewer

what the artist calls 'many unanswered questions.

In all my work, it's important for the viewer to

come up with their own narrative. I've always

liked stories with lots of mystery and make-

believe but there has to be something you can

relate to definitely at the same time, like a

familiar image in a strange landscape.' (It is

unsurprising to learn that Madgwick greatly

appreciates the macabre, Gothic tales and poetry

of the American Edgar Allan Poe, and that he is

transfixed by the post-apocalyptic wastelands –

barely inhabited by traumatised survivors – in

gripping, harrowing novels by J.G. Ballard and

Cormac McCarthy). Titles of his paintings he

counts as highly significant; finding them, he

says, 'tends to take time. They add another

element.' The title Guarding the Realm may

make a viewer ruminate on the building's

possible owner: 'a paranoid little Englander

perhaps, with a shotgun for intruders, with no

drawbridge to let in the world beyond.'

'I've always liked a fairly dark fairy-tale take in

stories, films and books I've read', and this

opaque magic is reflected in his paintings' 'very

moody settings, dark, ominous-looking clouds,

with a soft glow or a tint of light.' His brooding

skies are painted with water-based oils, squeezed

from tubes, then manipulated with fingers:

mainly titanium white, but then overlaid with

grey and black. He says he simply 'stumbled on

this technique, this way of making interesting

cloud effects'. The remainder of each painting is

painted with brushes in acrylic.

Using a deliberately attenuated palette adds to,

and accentuates, what he calls 'the story element.

I don't want to overbear with colours. I love

earthy colours, nothing false or man-made, love

greens especially but I like to keep green as

subtle as possible. It depends on what light is

hitting it; for instance, I like a yellow-green tone,

rather than a bluey-green one, when it's been

pouring down.' He's taken subtle pleasure in

evoking spidery cracks on stucco, and the damp

mossiness staining the facade of the spooky

house in Guarding the Realm.

A key, recurrent theme is an imaginative

encounter with an inexplicably stranded or

seemingly forsaken metallic artefact in a rural

MAGICAL ENCOUNTERS:

THE ART OF LEE MADGWICK

setting. The pivotal

balustrade-like form placed

with elegant centred

symmetry in his painting

Play in the Glade, a deserted

playground roundabout

whose patina is like

beautifully weathered copper

verdigris, suggests the ghost

of a human presence, with

'arms radiating. There may

be mischievous children

hiding or playing in the trees

beyond. It feels like you're

being watched. I don't like

my paintings to be too dark, I

like a certain element of

mischievous humour. The

birch trees here [with their

shimmering silvery

gradations] were very

interesting to paint; they

reflect light but also the

intimations of night. There is

just this inkling of a path into

the woods, one you feel you've just stumbled

upon.'

He loves 'the way history and nature quickly take

over places such as abandoned fun fairs and

theme parks, leaving [instead of noisy mayhem]

just peace and quiet'. In his painting, An Ocean

Far and Free, it seems that the rusting buoy, so

poignantly and enigmatically marooned on

oceanic landscape waves of treeless Scottish

moors, is listening out for unknown

communications from outer space. The buoy is

partly perhaps inspired by a World War One ruin

he once saw, an enormous, gramophone-like

object in isolated countryside. The uncanny

displacement of this inexplicable object shows

an affinity with Magritte's wittily surreal

pictures, and the characteristic expansive (quite

cinematic-like) panorama here is somewhat akin

to those seen in paintings by Caspar David

Friedrich, the 19th century German Romantic

painter, much admired by Madgwick.

He says he 'likes the idea of human presence in

a painting though you don't need actually to see

a person or figure – as long as you know they are

not far away.' In The Orient, one carriage of a

curvilinear Art Deco-era train has somehow

landed in a field, engine-less, a kind of 'post

apocalyptic getaway with dishevelled chipboard,

all mouldy and grimy, and a door to the right

made up from a corrugated iron fence with, over

time, very weakened graffiti.' Human presence

is suggested by small details in the picture: a

little ladder giving access to the carriage, a white

cup deposited in a corner, what he calls a

'mischievous hint' of a path through high, bouncy

grasses portrayed with myriad, feathery

brushtrokes which are deliberately slightly out-

of-focus, so that the viewer penetratingly

focusses on the transfigured railway carriage.

Madgwick says it is entirely up to the viewer to

determine the story behind this mysterious and

disquietingly serene scene, to choose whether it

has a 'melancholy or happy narrative'.

PHILIP VANN

Philip Vann is author of Face to Face: British

Self-Portraits in the Twentieth Century, and

several books on modern British artists. He lives

in Cambridge.

29. Play in the Glade Lee Madgwick

30. ‘Coldacre Barn’ Lee Madgwick

27. ‘An Ocean Far and Free’ Lee Madgwick

26. 'The Accomplishment' Lee Madgwick

28. ‘The Orient’ Lee Madgwick

32. ‘Stranded Delivery’ Lee Madgwick

25. ‘Guarding the Realm’ Lee Madgwick

detail

1. ‘Houses of Parliament’

Varsha Bhatia

34. ‘Rolling Landscape’ Louis Turpin

8. ‘Lavender, Taulignan’ Christopher Hall

33. ‘Harbour, Low Tide’ Louis Turpin

20. ‘Tulips and Apples’ Martin Leman

16. ‘Five Fields, Cotswolds’ Michael Kidd

15. ‘Whitstable Breakers’ Michael Kidd

5. ‘Glenfiddich’ Alfred Daniels

21. ‘Grape Harvest, Chambolle Musigny’ Margaret Loxton

22. ‘Collecting the Grapes’ Margaret Loxton

Varsha Bhatia

Varsha Bhatia was born in Bombay in 1956 and

graduated from Bombay University’s Sir

J.J.College of Architecture in 1978. She moved to

England in 1982 and has exhibited at the Royal

Society of British Artists and Royal Watercolour

Society Sunday Times Exhibition.She was recipient

of the Frank Herring Award for Architectural

Painting in 2002, and a Winsor & Newton Award

in 2004.

alfred daniels

Alfred Daniels was born in London's East End in

1924. In the late 1940s he studied at the Royal

College of Art, London; as a young graduate, he

toured Florence, Venice, Ravenna and Siena, where

he was deeply impressed by the Italian Primitives.

His award-winning murals (1952-4) at

Hammersmith Town Hall, depicting life on the

Thames, are regarded as a modern classic. His

much admired 1997 exhibition ‘Spirit of Scotland’

at RONA Gallery was a celebration of his tour of

the great whiskey distillers. He has been a regular

contributor to Royal Acadamy Summer exhibitions.

ChristOPher hall

Christopher Hall was born in Sussex in 1930 and

studied at the Slade School of Art. Since first

visiting Italy in 1954, he has enjoyed exploring

remote continental regions, discovering, and

depicting, enchantingly remote villages and

archetypal landscapes. His work is represented in

collections of the Arts Council, the Museum of

London, Barclays Bank, the National Library of

Wales, Shell UK and the Ashmolean Museum,

Oxford. He was elected RBA in 1988 and to the

Royal Cumbrian Academy in 1994.

MiChael Kidd

Born in London in 1937, Michael Kidd studied at

the Royal College of Art in the late 1950s. Fellow

pupils included the now-renowned film director

Ridley Scott and the painter David Hockney, both

of whom made a strong impression on him.

He went on to become an award-winning

television commercials maker but returned to

painting in 1981. Since his seminal exhibition,

The Genius of the Place in 2000 at RONA Gallery,

he has devoted all his time to painting. He has

become appreciated for his ability to evoke the

sometimes disquieting and surreal essence of a

particular place.

lee MadGWiCK

Lee Madgwick was born in King’s Lynn in 1980. In

2009 he won the Best in Show, Eastern Open,

King’s Lynn Arts Centre, and in 2010 the Woodhay

Gallery Award at the RBA Annual Exhibition. He

exhibited in the Royal Academy Summer

Exhibition in 2009.

Martin leMan

Martin Leman studied at Worthing School of Art

and the Central School of Art and Design, London.

After working as a designer and illustrator, he

started painting full-time in the 1960s. He shows

regularly at the Royal Academy Summer

Exhibition, The Mall Galleries and London’s

Bankside Gallery. He became a member of the

Royal Society of British Artists in 2007, and an

Associate of the Royal Watercolour Society in

2010.

MarGaret lOxtOn

Margaret Loxton was born in Middlesex in 1938.

She has always felt a deep kinship with farmers –

and she herself worked on the land for many years

before, in 1981, embarking on a full-time painting

career. Regular travels through regions of France

have resulted in several series of paintings of

paysan life, farmers, vineyard workers and café

habitués. There have been two books devoted to her

paintings, ‘Travels through Burgundy’ (1991) and

‘Provence’ (1993), with text by Peter Mayle.

lOuis turPin

Louis Turpin was born in London in 1947. He

studied Fine Art at Guildford and Falmouth College

of Art. After graduating he worked for several years

as a film-maker. In 1974 he moved to Sussex and

began painting full time. He is also a musician

playing blues-based guitar at venues around the

Sussex region. His paintings are set within the three

beautiful valleys of the Rivers Brede, Tillingham

and Rother which all meet at Rye.

VARSHA BHATIA

1. ‘Houses of Parliament’ Watercolour 12 by 24 inches2. ‘St Paul’s and Millennium Bridge’ Watercolour 11 by 19 inches3. ‘Great Hall, Lincoln’s Inn’ Watercolour 18 by 37 inches4. ‘Middle Temple Hall’ Watercolour 18 by 32 inches

ALFRED DANIELS

5. ‘Glenfiddich’ Acrylic on board 16 by 24 inches6. ‘Dufftown Cooperage’ Acrylic on board 16 by 21 inches7. ‘Old Billingsgate Market’ Acrylic on board 17 by 22 inches

CHRISTOPHER HALL

8. ‘Lavender, Taulignan’ Oil on board 11 by 20 inches9. ‘Avenue in Gerbery’ Oil on board 15 by 9 inches10. ‘Les Tilleville Café’ Oil on board 12 by 8 inches11. ‘Monpazier, Dordogne’ Oil on board 12 by 14 inches12. ‘Nizas, Languedoc’ Oil on board 10 by 13 inches13. ‘Monbazillac’ Oil on board 9 by 11 inches

MICHAEL KIDD

14. ‘Then & Now’ Acrylic on board 24 by 32 inches15. ‘Whitstable Breakers’ Acrylic on board 24 by 32 inches16. ‘Five Fields, Cotswolds’ Acrylic on board 24 by 32 inches17. ‘The Gherkin’ Acrylic on board 24 by 32 inches18. ‘Chateau Latour Dovecote’ Acrylic on board 24 by 32 inches

MARTIN LEMAN

19. ‘Tulips’ Acrylic on board 14 by 14 inches20. ‘Tulips and Apples’ Acrylic on board 17 by 12 inches

MARGARET LOXTON

21. ‘Grape Harvest, Chambolle Musigny’ Oil on board 16 by 24 inches22. ‘Collecting the Grapes’ Oil on board 20 by 16 inches23. ‘Grape Harvesters Rest’ Oil on board 20 by 16 inches24. ‘Three Ladies of Gevrey Chambertin’ Oil on board 20 by 16 inches

LEE MADGWICK

25. ‘Guarding the Realm’ Oil & acrylic on canvas 40 by 40 inches26. ‘The Accomplishment’ Oil & acrylic on canvas 40 by 40 inches27. ‘An Ocean Far and Free’ Oil & acrylic on canvas 32 by 48 inches28. ‘The Orient’ Oil & acrylic on canvas 32 by 48 inches29. ‘Play in the Glade’ Oil & acrylic on canvas 28 by 28 inches30. ‘Coldacre Barn’ Oil & acrylic on canvas 32 by 48 inches31. ‘The Noble Oak’ Oil & acrylic on canvas 40 by 40 inches32. ‘Stranded Delivery’ Oil & acrylic on canvas 40 by 40 inches

LOUIS TURPIN

33. ‘Harbour, Low Tide’ Oil on canvas 28 by 26 inches34. ‘Rolling Landscape’ Oil on canvas 28 by 26 inches35. ‘Great Dixter’ Oil on canvas 28 by 26 inches36. ‘The Glasshouse, Scampston’ Oil on canvas 28 by 26 inches37. ‘The Glasshouse’ Indian ink 20 by 20 inches

For further information please contact Dominic at info@langhamgallery.com telephone 0207 242 0010

LIST OF EXHIBITS

LANGHAM GALLERY34 Lamb’s Conduit Street, London WC1N 3LEt: 020 7242 0010 e. info@langhamgallery.com

Mon - Fri 10am - 6pm Sat.10am - 4pm

33. ‘Harbour, Low Tide’ (detail) Louis Turpin