Artist friends combine for Festival of Chichester

Both are exhibiting at this year’s Festival of Chichester.

Both had worked in London, had studied at Goldsmiths’ College and had both taught at some time in their careers.

Fiona Bell Currie grew up surrounded by fields in Cheshire before moving to London to study at Goldsmiths’ College. She taught a huge range of ages, including adults who’d not drawn since childhood.

In the 1990s she illustrated magazines and books, packaging for Boots, Sainsbury’s and Crabtree & Evelyn and created merchandise for The National Trust. She also did artwork for the herbarium at Kew and won medals from the RHS for botanical studies.

Now installed in Chichester, Fiona is painting most of the time but can’t resist designing interesting garden projects. Her work can be seen on www.fionabellcurrie.com. From late September she will be running a painting and drawing class for adults on Thursday mornings held in Lavant Memorial Hall.

Before that, you can visit Fiona’s studio and see her work during the Festival of Chichester on Friday, July 1, Saturday, July 2 and Sunday, July 3 between 10am and 6pm, then trot around two corners and visit Catherine Barnes’ Pictures in the Porch, open at the same time.

Catherine explains: “Pictures in the Porch was hatched in 2020 when we were following Covid restrictions. It turned out to be very popular as it gave the visitor a personal choice of what to see.

“The porch will have about 20 original and unique art works hung or in a browser. But in the open air of the car port are lists of another hundred or so other paintings I have in the store available to view. Visitors can see all the information about them and choose to see a few. We will bring them from the store and hang your choice. You may like to discuss them with me or simply be left with your own thoughts.

“As well as the hundred works in the store available to view I am showing a series of recent paintings inspired by the new wetlands in Parklands – now called The Platinum Jubilee Country Park – a clumsy title for a surprisingly wonderful space of shallow water and wildlife that has appeared free of charge.

“Reacting to paintings is a private matter as is listening to music or reading poetry or prose. It can hit a spot, making you feel empathy with what is heard or seen. The colours, the use of paint, the sheer presence of a painting, can make a lifelong memory, and I am touched when one of mine has reached out to another person. You choose from photos in the car port. We bring. We hang. You look.”

Catherine Barnes has been painting and exhibiting “for over half a century” after training at Folkestone School of Art and gaining a place at Camberwell School of Art and Crafts in 1965. After working at Kelpra Studio and teaching and exhibiting in London she spent a year at Goldsmiths’ College Art School before moving to Hampshire where she founded Juno Studio and was appointed a visiting lecturer in art history at the University of Southampton and a visiting artist and l ecturer at Southampton City Art Gallery.

Catherine and Fiona look forward to welcoming you on July 1, 2 and 3 from 10am until 6pm during the tenth anniversary Festival of Chichester at Fiona’s Studio, 25 Parklands Road, Chichester, PO19 3DX and Catherine’s Juno Studio, 107 Cedar Drive, Chichester, PO19 3EL.