Priscilla Ritchie Landscapes - Chichester exhibition

Priscilla said: “This is my first exhibition in Chichester for many years. After a career spent mostly working in oil I have been exploring Sussex landscapes in acrylic and enjoying the urgency it has triggered in my paintings. Born in York, I moved to London to study at The Byam Shaw under Peter Greenham, Charles Mahoney and Bernard Dunston. I got on very well with Bernard and when he was commissioned to paint The Queen I was asked to sit for him wearing her robes which was quite an experience! I learnt a great deal from him about form and composition. I went on to exhibit at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition as a 20-year-old, as well as at the Royal Portrait Society, Royal Society of British Artists, New England Art Club and in Paris. I moved to Slindon in the late 60s and had a son and daughter. I joined the Chichester Arts Society, winning The President’s Cup twice and was invited onto the selection committee. Exhibitions, commissions and teaching took me to all corners of Sussex and beyond and I was featured on BBC2's Painters at Denman’s Gardens in the late 80s where I was also a teacher.

“I have had a visceral need to draw, paint and create ever since childhood. My teachers never complained at the exercise books whose margins were filled to capacity with drawings ‘She can’t help it and it would be cruel to stop her’ they told my parents! I have always explored colour, light and shade through confident brush strokes and more recently have been urging myself to make ever bolder works with stronger marks. Acrylic has a vibrancy and urgency compared to oil that has helped in this respect, particularly as it dries faster. Over the years I have worked with all kinds of subject matter from still life to portraits but I am always drawn back to landscape, and the richness of Sussex landscapes and skies in particular. Ironically as my eyesight has started to fail, my work has become stronger in many ways. Composition, structure, colours and contrasts become ever more important and I spend less time fussing with details.

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