Brita Granström

Brita Granström (born 1969) is a Swedish artist and illustrator living and working in Great Britain. She is represented by The University Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne and has won The People Show twice.

Works

Brita Granström is a painter and illustrator. She draws and paints on location, and in all weathers. Her latest show at Newcastle's University Gallery (2008) was called 'Undressed' and catalogues are available from the gallery. Examples of her painting can be seen on the gallery page at www.mickandbrita.com

'If there were an Alternative Turner Prize, devoted this time to what Turner actually did, which was to work outdoors in all weathers (on one occasion being strapped to the mast of a ship during a storm), Brita Granström would have to be a serious contender for it.A photograph of her in a recent catalogue shows her seated on one of the foothills of the Cheviots, apple-cheeked, buffeted by the wind, tucked into her parka as she keenly observes the landscape in front of her. She’s caught in the act of painting, totally concentrated and oblivious to anything else around her, including the cold.

As she puts it, “I need to paint – it feeds me. Painting and illustration feed each other.” This is not an ideological pronouncement, simply a statement of fact, but given the endemic prejudices of the art world, it needs to be said. There are many illustrators who are substantial painters, Daumier, for example, or Heath Robinson, who was a visual poet of real distinction.As to how she paints and what she paints, they are, of course, symbiotic. Not by nature given to manifesto pronouncements she would settle, I suspect, for the old “News of the World” slogan, “All human life is there”, to describe her subject-matter. She says, “I love the hustle and bustle of people getting on with their lives.” In her painting of a market for example, the buggy pushed by the young mother wearing trainers has a coverlet of blotches of terra cotta and ochre, while the old codger in the middle distance wears an urgently cross-hatched pullover. These are, indeed, “people getting on with their lives” but if supposing a mugger had invaded the scene she would have dealt with that too.

The clearest evidence of her sustaining philosophy, however, lies in the way in which she handles paint. In its directness it is reminiscent of the late Winifred Nicholson: a wash is applied here, a patch of sky is laid in there, while percussive marks establish light, fronds of leaves or a ploughed field (you can almost work out which brushes she has used by the vigour of the marks she makes). Whether her subject is of people, landscape, or a bowl of flowers in front of a window, the underlying purpose is always the same: the energy of nature finds its equivalence in sweeps and scribbles of paint, shapes and colours which together encompass a myriad of feelings. In this language beyond words one senses nature burgeoning, decaying and indefatigably renewing itself. In a world damaged by violence and antinomianism, Granström’s painting is an art of affirmation and an art of healing. Shakespeare would have called it an art of "largesse.""'

"Extracts from an article by William Varley, Art CriticApril 2006

Granström is also an award winning children's book illustrator and often collaborates in this field with her partner, the author/ illustrator Mick Manning; together, the pair have produced children's books such as "What's Under The Bed?", "Voices of the Rainforest" "Roman Fort" "My Body Book" and "Viking Longship". She has also collaborated with other award-winning illustrators, such as Judy Hindlay ("Does a Cow Say Boo?", "Eyes, Nose, Fingers, Toes!") and Joyce Dunbar ("A Chick Called Saturday").

ee also

*Mick Manning
*Judy Hindlay
*Joyce Dunbar

External links

* [http://www.mickandbrita.com Official Web Site]
* [http://www.wattspub.co.uk/mmannfw.htm Brita Granström] at "The Watts Publishing Group"
* [http://online.northumbria.ac.uk/gallery/default.htm The University Gallery]