_Anthea Eames uses the pigments and textures of the earth itself to create pictures which reflect ancient landscapes lying just below the surface of the familiar and new. We are creatures of time and our past is always part of our present whether we are aware of it or not.

She uses chalk and woad, the vegetable die with which the Icenae people of Norfolk decorated their bodies for war, and which is still produced by a farm in the district, to create the soft, subtle blues of her paintings of the land and seascapes of Southern England. She uses shades of ochre to represent the hot colours of the Sahara and Australia. She grinds the dies herself and mixes them with acrylic medium to turn them into paint. Inspired by Australian Aborigine art, she gives texture to her paintings by adding ground shingle, sand and grains of gold, and scorching the surface to recreate the power of fire. The result is tactile, original, many layered and immensely pleasing.

Le Mur Vivant, Pimlico, London
Reviewed by Crispin Wellbeloved
15th February 2012