As part of a series of studio visits last week, Christina Jansen made her way to see Geoff Uglow at his home and studio in Cornwall. Uglow’s work will be the subject of our main exhibition for the Edinburgh Art Festival in 2024. Uglow was a star graduate from the Glasgow School of Art in 2000 and has developed a phenomenal language of painting. Our Festival will contain a very specific Dialogue. The gallery has represented Uglow since the late 2000s.
The Studio Visit
A studio visit is the only way to get to know an artist, understand where they come from and the heart of their practice. Uglow responds emotionally and physically to the landscape around him. He is originally from a farming family near Launceston, where he still lives with his artist wife Emma and his young family. When he was 12, his father and brothers planted a woodland which he now enjoys looking at from the hill beyond his studio. This innate and physical understanding of the landscape around him informs his work. The studio visit took place over two 12 hour days, which involved looking back at his earlier work and gradually working our way to his recent series of rose paintings, seascapes and Italian landscapes.
His studio also holds a substantial rose garden, which he planted from seed and is now just beginning its spring journey…
The work continues in Edinburgh next week, when Uglow will be make preparatory sketches for a new series of Edinburgh works. This is just the beginning.