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Margaret Hamlin

Today, it is clear that the abstract and expressive style I now often paint in is a culmination of earlier work. For many years I painted in a detailed representational style, capturing even individual petals in a landscape. Now my priorities are to express the emotions that are related to the natural objects themselves, and to the intense memories behind them, rather than the objects themselves.

Now I am able to paint full time, I have created a website [margaret-hamlin-artist.com] on which to sell my artwork. I have consistently sold my work in the past, but mostly this has been through word-of-mouth and private commissions. Here are some of the few times when my work has been exhibited:

2002 saw my first experience of being exhibited online by AnotherSun.co.uk - a pioneering literary and arts ezine. In 2000 I joined the Barnet Borough Arts group. We exhibited in various locations throughout Barnet, and I was surprised at how easily I sold work, and at the private commissions I obtained from as far away as Switzerland.

In 1986, missing Guernsey, I began painting island scenes with extreme realism to record for myself personal parts of the island I love so much. At that time my work was shown for a brief period at the Madden gallery, off Bond Street. Evening classes at the Camden Institute resulted in, among other things a 9 foot high vertebral totem pole sculpture, which was displayed in the Swiss Cottage library for a while. Another door-sized piece was later bought from me for a residential home.

Biography

I was born in London during the war. There were visual artists on both sides of my family. My maternal grandfather painted all his life, and my father worked as a freelance artist and illustrator (often taking on commissions for books about natural history). My earliest memories are of painting with him as he worked. Later I remember drawing my father’s collection of stag beetles for example. This created in me a fascination with natural forms which has haunted my work ever since. And even the wrench of being evacuated from London to Elstree was probably mitigated by fascination for the frogs, chickens and so on I encountered at that time.

When I was fifteen I went to the North London Collegiate School where I took my GCEs. In 1957 I was awarded a place at The Hornsey College of Art where I studied fine art for a year before being deflected from this course by well-meaning parents and various life changing events.

After a period of turmoil I moved to Guernsey and lived with my parents and my children where the beauty of the island restored my spirit and filled my mind's eye. I returned to England in 1966. I started a teaching degree in 1969, with art as my main subject, but contracted glandular fever and had to drop out from the course.

In 1971 I joined the Civil Service to provide security for my children, but continued to paint whenever I could and undertook commissions from my colleagues. During this period I began painting in oils again. I continued to work there for many years, specialising ultimately in work to do with Industrial Diseases. I have travelled in Europe and North America, especially California where my husband is from, and Canada where my younger son lives. I live in Edgware in north London, and travel to my spiritual home of Guernsey whenever I am able.

Website: margaret-hamlin-artist.com

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