This Scepter'd Isle: Dione Verulam

"One of the Gorhambury Group tutors said to me that artists should respond to what they know and love best. In my case, this has been my family, Gorhambury, the house and the land, Scotland, country sports and adventurous travel. And of course the Gorhambury Group tutors have been very influential."  - Dione Verulam

Dione Verulam's work is inscribed by histories and traditions. Her romantic depictions of British pastimes, aristocracy and travel are resonant with the touches of past masters: Matisse, Braque, Cézanne. Her sensitivity towards the history of art is reflected in the wide range of media with which she has experimented, beginning with watercolours, pen and ink and pastel, moving on to oils on canvas and paper, and most recently and most excitingly, collage.

Verulam's collages will provide the focus for her first solo show at the Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery. Created from pieces of her old lithographs, monoprints, paintings, and book-binding papers from her mother's practice,  and haunted by ancient motifs such as St Albans Cathedral or the Roman Venus of Verulamium, it is these works which best capture a sense of heritage and history in both subject matter and form.

Starting her creative career working alongside her mother trading Verona Stencilling, Verulam then co-founded the Gorhambury Group and under its tutors, she studied painting. She has recently had a solo exhibition in London at The Fleming Collection and was selected to exhibit with the New English Art Club.