The Stables Gallery

Reveley Lodge has been linked with the art world for many years and past owner Albert Chewett, a painter, was a pupil of Hubert von Herkomer. The conversion of the old carriage house in our Victorian stables was made possible through a generous private donation and a grant from Hertsmere’s Community Infrastructure Fund.

If you are interested in exhibiting in the Stables Gallery email stablesgallery.reveley@gmail.com.

Lorraine Benton “Cellular Interactions”

5 – 23 September 2023

Meet the artist

Lorraine Benton, will be holding her final ‘Meet & Greet the Artist’ session on Wednesday 20th September 11:30-13:30 so come along and chat about her work.

‘Cellular Interactions’

This collection illustrates a very messy, yet fun, experimental period using new materials. I wanted to experience ‘mixed media’, and created paints of varying density and hydrophilic/hydrophobic qualities, and combined each of these with flow media consisting of different ratios of substrates.

Although the nature of the products logically determined that the more dense paints would push the lighter ones further towards the surface, and the paints with greater hydrophobia would repel the more water-based substrates, the results were unpredictable and random. Even when the same combinations were used together, the outcome was never the same and yielded something unique on each occasion.

I was fascinated by the process as the resulting artforms reflected my interest in the sciences and art, reminiscent of my days in the laboratory looking at plant cells and other microscopic phenomenon. Some pieces were reworked once dry to resemble aspects of my abstract landscapes.

Biography

I discovered my interest in art as a mother of two toddlers. As the children grew and I gained more free time, my passion for this new hobby blossomed. I studied sculpture part-time for several years and was invited to undertake a Fine Art Degree by a tutor who had seen me around the University premises. The degree course, which was largely self-taught, provided me with a space to experiment and make a mess, and a library to research a host of artists and their styles and genres.

Having been trained and worked originally in a regimented role as a pharmacist, I found myself completely lost and out of my depth, in a field that had no boundaries or rules, and has taken several decades of self-reflection and experimentation to begin to discover my own voice.

I enjoy the newness of experimenting with different media and styles, having sampled acrylic paints and inks, oils and water-mixable oil paints, oil and acrylic pens and mixed media on a variety of substrates… paper, card, MDF, plyboard, cradled panels and canvas. The possibilities are endless!

I have always been drawn to the landscape. As a young pharmacy student at Bath, I would often stare out of my bedroom window on campus, losing myself in the glorious landscape and daydreaming, never realising that it would become the main focus of my work in a second life. Elements of my scientific, musical background and sculpture training often feature in my work, in the forms of chemical formulae, biological cells, musical notation and instruments, and illusory form and perspective.

My work has become increasingly more abstract in an attempt to create a looser composition that offers a broader interpretation where something new is seen each time.