Frances Hatch: Sensing Place
An exhibition of ‘place palettes’, sketchbooks and paintings made along the Jurassic coastline over the last 20 years.
Sensing Place focuses on Frances Hatch’s process as a plein air painter and the ‘place palettes’ she makes at Dorset coastal locations using found earths, clays, organic matter and man-made materials like litter. Accompanied by written and painted notes, the palettes become portraits of place that inform her paintings, a small number of which will be on show in the exhibition.
Working outside and combining these found materials with water-based media, such as watercolour, acrylic and gouache, Frances allows the weather – rain, snow, humidity, wind, sun – to participate in the shaping of the work.
Infused with the geology of each place, traces of weather, circumstance and happenstance, the palettes and paintings are witness to and a record of time spent with the ever-changing Jurassic coast.
10am-4pm, Wed-Sat
Free (voluntary donation to BAC)
Exhibition events
Frances Hatch – Artist’s Talk
Sat 18 Apr, 11am-12pm
Join artist Frances Hatch in the gallery for a tour of the exhibition.
Drawing With West Bay
Thu 30 Apr, 11am-2pm
Join artist Frances in West Bay on a guided drawing walk, recording the sights, sounds and materials of the Jurassic coast. Booking essential.
Painting the Weather in West Bay
Wed 10 Jun, 11am-2pm
Supported by Frances, participants will create small scale paintings of the light, atmosphere and weather with an option to include found materials. Booking essential.
BAC recommends…
Sladers Yard Gallery in nearby West Bay will be exhibiting paintings by Frances between May and July – a great opportunity to see more of her paintings.
Frances Hatch RWS
As a child Frances painted in watercolour out on the black lands of the Isle of Ely fen. She grew into a plein-air painter simply because it was when she was outside that memorable things seemed to happen: mundane miracles like a storm moving through a stand of poplars would stop her in her tracks. These were experiences she didn’t want to forget, they made her feel different and she wanted to share them. Frances now lives in Dorset with a studio base on the Isle of Portland – close to the Chesil Beach. She still chooses to make her work outside, but as well as describing earths and landforms with paint, she integrates materials indigenous to the place within the fabric of the work. Her works have become containers of an experience.
Hatch trained at Aberystwyth University College of Wales, L’Ecole des Beaux Arts, France, Goldsmiths’ College, London and Wimbledon College of Art. She exhibits widely throughout the UK and was awarded the Shenzhen International Watercolour Biennial Prize in 2016, which recognises innovation and experimentation in contemporary water media.
She was elected member of The Royal Watercolour Society in 2022 and is represented by Sladers Yard Gallery, Dorset, Kevis House, West Sussex and Bankside Gallery, London.
