Please click on 'Work' (above right) to see a selection of my paintings. They're all in oil and nearly all on canvas. Some are for sale (mostly around £350 - £900, depending on size etc).
For more info and/or to arrange a studio visit and/or to comment, please email biddypeppin@hotmail.co.uk
About:
At the Slade in the early 1960s I was given as a prize (for anatomy) 'Creative Development', a book by the then-famous sculptor and Slade tutor Reg Butler, which claimed in the first chapter that women's creativity is nearly always the result of a frustrated maternal instinct. This depressing pronouncement chimed with the prevailing beliefs of the period, and I didn't question it (!!) Bored by the prevailing 'Euston Road' orthodoxy, I was excited by tutor Harold Cohen's idea that artists can only do interesting work if they explore territory in which there are no pre-existing signposts. After the Slade I experimented with making wearable and edible sculpture, and helped to set up the two London Arts Labs (experimental arts venues in Drury Lane and Robert St). Later I drifted into Art History teaching.
Since 2004 I've painted more or less full-time. I'd return to abstraction except that the decayed, discarded and valueless things I come across seem more varied and engaging than anything I could invent; I'm also interested in Surrealism. My work tends to be metaphorical, not in the sense of particular objects standing for particular ideas, but in a more general way relating to the passage of time and/or rejection of consumerism. 2016 was a pivotal year - Brexit, Trump, politicians' lies, the refugee crisis, global warming, wars. . . . and many of my paintings since then have been prompted by feelings of unease and sometimes fury. I've never wanted to paint stylishly; instead I try to put together images that in some way resonate, both at the present moment and in future years.
This website, hosted by Crevado, is free and is easy to use (I'm a digital dumbo, but can cope with it!) I update it fairly often, and hope you'll revisit. Its drawback is that it doesn't automatically keep a tally of visitors, so I'd be grateful if you could email (address above) to let me know that you've had a look. Conversations and/or critical comments are always welcome.
Here's my CV:-
Born Oxford, 1941, daughter of a reluctant bank clerk and a part-time art teacher. Attended Oxford High School (an academic hothouse where Art was viewed as a trivial sideline).
Studied: Fine Art at the Ruskin School of Drawing (Oxford), the Slade (DFA), and, much later, at the University of East London (MA); History of Art (MA) at Birkbeck, London University.
Worked: (as gallery co-coordinator) at the Arts Lab (Drury Lane, London) and the New Arts Lab (Robert Street, London): (as a History of Art lecturer) on accredited American university study-abroad programs in London. Senior Lecturer in Art History at the University of East London 1996-2004.
Publications:
Books: Fantasy, Studio Vista 1974; British Book Illustration, the 20th Century, (with Lucy Micklethwait), John Murray 1985; Helen Saunders 1885-1963, Ashmolean Museum catalogue,1996.
Articles: The Thyssen 'Vorticist Composition': a new attribution, The Burlington Magazine. September 2010. Women that a Movement Forgot, Tate Etc #22, May 2011
Women in Vorticism and Helen Saunders in Elles font l'Abstraction, Centre Pompidou Paris, 2021
Helen Saunders 1885-1963; Mapping a Career in Sloan, Rachel, Helen Saunders, Modernist Rebel (The Courtauld Gallery 2022)
Recently I was invited to discuss my work in 'Emerging Voices', a quarterly webzine edited by Rose Levinson - www.emergingvoices.co.uk/visua... Winter 2020 issue).
Personal:
Partnered with David R.M. Curtis since 1965; two sons, four grandchildren. David's book The London Arts Labs and the 60s Avant-Garde (2020), draws on our experiences (and those of many others).
Exhibitions:
2022, July-September. Galvanise, a group exhibition at Spitalfields Studios, curated by Annette Fernando. Details: https://www.flipsnack.com/5B9B99DD75E/galvanise-exhibition.html 2018, July 5-6, An Arts Lab Continuum, with Di Clay, Judith Clute, David Curtis, John Lifton and Pamela Zoline, a pop-up exhibition at Spitalfields Studios, 7-15 Greatorex St. London E1 5NF (in conjunction with the Whitechapel Art Gallery's 'First Thursday' programme)
2017, July 6-7. Observations, with Angela Allen, a pop-up exhibition at Spitalfields Studios (in conjunction with the Whitechapel Gallery's 'First Thursdays').
2016, April 7-8. Solo pop-up exhibition at Spitalfields Studios (in conjunction with the Whitechapel Art Gallery's First Thursdays’)
2014, Jan 31 - March 1. Three Painters: Caroline Kha, Dean Marsh, Biddy Peppin, at the Dalla Rosa Gallery, Clerkenwell, London.
2013, Beckford Fine Art, group exhibition, Bath, Somerset.
2006, Philoscope Group exhibition, APT Gallery, Deptford, London
2006 onwards - Bruton Art Society - annual exhibitions
2005, Philoscope Group exhibition, RKB Gallery, Borough, London.
'Open Studio' shows:
2023, June. Open studio, Cockhill, with Will Vaughan
2022, Sept 24 - October 9. Open Studio, Cockhill, with Will Vaughan (Somerset Art Weeks)2021, Sept - Oct. 3. Open Studio, Cockhill, with Will Vaughan (Somerset Art Weeks). 2020, Sept. 19 - October 4. Open Studio, Cockhill, with Will Vaughan (Somerset Art Weeks). 2019, Sept 21 - October 6. Open Studio, Cockhill, with Rob Curtis and Will Vaughan (Somerset Art Weeks)
2018, June 9-10. Open Studio, Cockhill (in conjunction with the NGS Open Gardens scheme).
2017, September 23 - October 8. Open studio, Cockhill, with Rob Curtis and Will Vaughan (with Prospect - Somerset Art Weeks Festival)
2017, June 11-12. Open Studio, Cockhill (in conjunction with the NGS Open Gardens scheme)
2016, September 15 - October 2. Open Studio, Cockhill (Somerset Art Weeks)
2016, June. Open Studio, Cockhill (in conjunction with the NGS Open Gardens scheme)
2015, August. Open Studio, Cockhill
2014, September. Open
Studio,Cockhill (Somerset Art Weeks) with Will Vaughan
2012, September. Open Studio, Cockhill (Somerset Art Weeks) with Will Vaughan
2010, September. Open Studio,
Cockhill (Somerset Art Weeks) with David Curtis and Will Vaughan
2008, September. Open studio,
Cockhill (Somerset Art Weeks) with David Curtis and Will Vaughan
2006, September. Open Studio,
Cockhill (Somerset Art Weeks) with David Curtis and Will Vaughan