Richard Adams: End of August.

Open studio: Jane Beecham and Richard Adams

Jane Beecham and Richard Adams’ are holding an open studio in Rye. Siobhan O’Hanlon reports.

Jane Beecham was born in the Midlands and grew up on the west coast of Scotland. She came back across the border to do take a foundation course at Cumbria College of Art and Design and a BA Honours degree in graphic design at Leicester Polytechnic, specialising in animation, film and TV graphics. Jane then freelanced in the trace and paint departments of animation studios before landing a job as studio manager at Animation City.

Jane Beecham: Absolute Zero.

When Animation City merged with film production company Quick On The Draw, Jane went on to direct TV and radio commercials mainly for the music industry. She moved to Sussex after her first daughter was born and discovered a love of printmaking after attending a leisure course at Hastings College. This led to local exhibitions and further to shows in London and Devon.

She became a member of the Rye Society of Artists in 2012 and has recently been teaching workshops locally. For the last seven years she has opened her home to show her work and that of her partner Richard Adams.

Jane Beecham: Little Green.

On this occasion Jane is showing monotypes and works on paper, including collagraphs and solar etchings based on ice, frozen ponds, frozen seas, icebergs, ice caves and ice entrapment, and a recent selection of drawings made locally beside the River Rother,  St Ives and Dungeness.

Richard Adams, who is also a member of the Rye Society of Artists, was born in Hampshire in 1960, and brought up amidst the south Cotswold countryside, a landscape that has had a strong and lasting influence on his work. Since receiving a BA Honours in graphic design at Leicester Polytechnic, he has won many awards, exhibiting regularly in London and elsewhere in Britain to great acclaim, and internationally in Sydney, Washington, Bremen and Madrid.

All Richard’s paintings are produced using chalk pastel. They are then fixed and soaked in a special varnish that leaves an impervious surface, a process that is reminiscent of Degas.

Richard Adams: The Girls.

They depict numerous scenes of jollity and the bizarre, from interiors such as bathrooms, manor houses to caravans, boats and planes to rugby pitches, mazes and landscapes. All manner of characters inhabit the spaces, from mermaids to farmers, pigs, dogs and a multitude of cars and bikes.  The scenes are full of mischief and surprise, always with something to be discovered in the cabbage patch or from behind a curtain.  They are comical, amusing, and at times ethereal, portraying a dark humour. They are full of colour and life – a home with a Richard Adams is a happy home.

Evie Adams: Tree.

Showing with her parents for the first time is Jane and Richard’s daughter Evie, now in her third year studying illustration at Norwich University of the Arts after completing an extended diploma in art and design at Sussex Coast College.

Open Studio: Jane Beecham and Richard Adams White Cottage, Rectory Lane, Peasmarsh Road, Playden, Rye TN31 7UH. Sat 6-Sun 7 and Sat 13-Sun 14 September, 11am-5pm. 01797 225 589, janebeecham@beamingmail.com.

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