Alice Mumford and Sue Leigh are coming together this September for a project called A Painter and a Poet: Conversations in Colour.
Summer Jasmine, by Alice Mumford
As well as a book launch, there will be an exhibition of paintings — at the Borlase Smart Room, Porthmeor Studios, from 9th to 13th September, and Belgrave St Ives, Towednack, from 10th to 30th September.
This new book of paintings by Alice Mumford and poems by Sue Leigh, celebrates the intimacy and beauty that can be found in our everyday lives. It brings together exciting new work from the two makers in which art and language sit side by side, each illuminating the other.
Painter and poet discuss their experience of working in their respective media. They talk about their sources of inspiration, how they might choose a subject, and the process that surrounds the making of their work. What do they share in their creative lives and how do they differ?
As Kelly Grovier writes in the insightful foreword: “Colour, it turns out, is the lucent lexicon in which the imaginations of these creators eloquently conspire.” For instance, a sunlit blue room with a spray of Jasmin is juxtaposed with the following poem:
summer jasmine is
so white and starry
it might be night, might be
moonlight
Alice is a painter who is entirely focused on her craft. Following training at Dartington, Camberwell, Southwark, and Falmouth colleges of art, she has become one of the most popular painters currently working in Cornwall.
After early successes with Cobra & Bellamy, Julian Lax, and Badcocks Gallery, she has been represented by Belgrave St Ives since 2005. During this time she has established herself as a pre-eminent painter of still life interiors that draw heavily on her own domestic life. Sansom & Co published a first monograph of her work in 2015. Copies are available at the gallery, along with signed copies of the new book.
Alice Mumford’s studio
Sue Leigh teaches at Oxford and runs her own poetry courses. Her first book, Chosen Hill, was described by the TLS as “an intelligent and considered collection that pays homage to the act of paying attention”. Her other published work includes Her Orchards (Two Rivers Press, 2021) and Chalk(Evergreen Press).
A Painter and a Poet: Conversations in Colour is being published by Casemate Publishing.
