Currently exhibiting as part of Tir ha Trig at Tremenheere Gallery, Virginia Bounds’ paintings emerge from sustained observation of landscape, light and atmosphere, moving between direct experience outdoors and the physical process of painting within the studio.
Many of the works in the exhibition began as studies made while working outside before later being translated into larger paintings at Anchor Studio in Newlyn, where Bounds was resident artist for twelve years before its renovation. This movement between landscape and studio lies at the centre of her practice: the immediacy of observation becoming reworked through gesture, surface and memory.
Alongside the landscape paintings are still lifes connected to the environments surrounding the artist’s studio and home. Still Life with Calendula and Verbena features flowers grown in the garden at Anchor Studio, while other floral works draw from wildflowers gathered from the landscape or sourced from growers around the Marazion area. Across these paintings, place remains quietly embedded within the work, whether through landscape, weather, plant life or colour.
Bounds was also previously artist in residence at Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens, spending time drawing and painting within the subtropical landscape of the gardens themselves. That period of close observation continues to resonate within the exhibition, where experiences of Cornwall’s shifting light, dense planting and changing seasons remain present within the paintings.
Rather than aiming towards direct representation, Bounds’ work often holds landscape in a more fluid and expressive way, allowing paint itself to carry atmosphere, movement and sensation. Her surfaces build through layered marks, scraping, reworking and gesture, balancing abstraction with a strong sense of place.
Artist and writer Marie-Claire Hamon describes the work as paintings that “demanded attention”, writing:
“Taking her clue from her outdoor sketches and paintings, she returns to the studio where she thrusts the energy of the elements into her practice.”
Hamon continues:
“Whether she is painting flowers, hills, or woodland, she feels them as a profound experience of colour, composition and marks and situates them firmly in a sense of place.”
This relationship between observation and abstraction runs throughout Tir ha Trig, where Bounds’ paintings sit alongside those of Judy Buxton in a shared exploration of landscape, memory, material and lived experience across Cornwall and Australia.
Tir ha Trig continues at Tremenheere Gallery until 6 June.
Tuesday–Saturday, 11am–4pm
Free entry
