Frances Hatch is, in her own words, a “radical landscape painter,” whose artwork is rooted in her immediate surroundings. The artist’s studio is situated in Weymouth, a substantial seaside town in Dorset, and part of The Jurassic Coast. This stunning coastline forms part of a World Heritage site: its layers of sedimentary rock reveal the history of the Earth across 185 million years. Hatch’s remarkable paintings are dedicated to transmitting the transient beauty of tide and weather along with the ‘deep time’ present in its geology.
Hatch works outside. In addition to the limited tools she takes with her into the landcape, she samples and gathers various types of soil and clay found on each site. Her ingenious use of local pigments can be seen embedded in works like “Fremington Beech Flurry” and “Eleven Percent Moon.” Some of her work is made entirely from pigments found in a site. Each painting is literally ’site specific’ in both form and content. Her painting is an immersion in the perpetually fluctuating world of nature, and a participation in its constant metamorphosis.
