In Conversation with Stephen Bithell: Starts at 2.30 PM

Stephen Bithell found the River Frome through an artistic lens many years ago, on family days out at Moreton Ford and later at Wool, where he was caught by its gentle meanderings and the wide water meadows along its banks.

He began as he always had, in oil on large canvases and heavy boards. Outdoors it was hopeless. The boards caught the Dorset wind like kites, and he spent more time holding on than painting. So he made everything smaller: five colours, two blues, two yellows and one red, a few brushes, and boards of six by four inches. It freed him entirely.

His journey downstream eventually came to a fence, but the connection remained. In 2016 he visited Sculpture by the Lakes, and not long afterwards was invited to spend a day painting plein air here. He made four pieces that day, and something between the artist and the place took hold.

Join Stephen at the gallery to hear how a river shaped a way of working, and why the smallest boards can hold the most.