Brian Graham

Dorset Summer Show

14 May – 2 July 2022

We are delighted to show a selection of Brian Graham’s Great Heath paintings in this exhibition of Dorset art.

Celebrated by Thomas Hardy, the heath originally stretched between Dorchester where Hardy grew up and Bournemouth where Brian Graham grew up. As an important habitat, it is now being restored by the National Trust, RSPB and Natural England amongst others. For Hardy it was the atmospheric setting for The Return of the Native and also appeared in The Mayor of Casterbridge as a form of Shakespearean elemental heath. Brian Graham’s paintings feel their way back in time to the periods Hardy described and also much further back inspired by the Paleolithic and Bronze Age remains that have been found in the area. These paintings bring Brian Graham back to his own earliest childhood memories; memories which seem to have shaped a part of his dreams and emotional landscape ever since. Brian’s experimental and exploratory use of colour, tone and texture speak to the heart. The paintings in the exhibition are shown immediately below with a fuller collection of the works further down the page. Viewings of particular paintings not in the exhibition can be arranged by appointment. Please contact the gallery with any enquiries on t: 01308 459511 or email gallery@sladersyard.co.uk

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  Within the gravels 1. 2018. acrylic on Fabriano paper 28 x 23cm. £1,200 framed

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  Behind, the scene is wilder II (Thomas Hardy). 2018. acrylic on canvas. 50 x 50cm £3,700 framed

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  A stunted thorn stands here and there I. 2018. acrylic on canvas. 51 x 51cm. £3,700 framed

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  Murmuration, Egdon 2019. acrylic on canvas. 33 x 24 cm £1,600 framed

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  Autumn Summit 2019. acrylic on canvas. 76 x 61 cm £4,500 framed

Please contact us on gallery@sladersyard.co.uk or call 01308 459511 with any enquiries.

Now based in Purbeck, artist Brian Graham has enjoyed a lifelong fascination with places where evidence of our earliest human ancestors has been found. His work has been enthusiastically embraced by archaeologists and art lovers alike. The Natural History Museum, London, possesses and has exhibited one of his portfolio works, The Book of Boxgrove. In January 2009 he shared a Nature Live Event there, entitled Boxgrove Art and Artefacts, with Professor Chris Stringer, Merit Researcher at the Natural History Museum and co-author with Professor Peter Andrews of another publication about Brian’s work entitled Starting From Scratch.

Brian Graham’s work is in several prestigious private collections and in many public collections including The National Museum of Wales, the art galleries of Dorchester, Southampton, Leicester, Huddersfield and York as well as the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Southampton and London. In 2008, Brian Graham was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Arts by Bournemouth University where for some years he acted as visual arts consultant. Also that year, a richly illustrated hardback monograph, Brian Graham, Flint and Flame, written by critic and broadcaster Charlotte Mullins was published by Hart Gallery, who represented him in London between 1998 and 2012.  

Brian Graham’s first solo show at Sladers Yard, Palaeoscapes in 2014, featured paintings of the places where Palaeolithic human remains have been found in this country. In 2018 Brian Graham’s exhibition Towards Music, exploring the evolution of music and dance through specific pieces of music and their composers, showed at Salisbury Museum and then at Southampton University. Sladers Yard first showed The Great Heath paintings in a solo show in 2019. In 2021, Professor Simon Olding wrote a lecture for the Thomas Hardy Society which was published in The Thomas Hardy Journal XXXVII, entitled “‘A vague stretch of remoteness’: Brian Graham’s paintings of Egdon Heath (https://research.uca.ac.uk/5674/)

A lavishly illustrated full-colour 40 page A4 sized catalogue, The Great Heath, is available from Sladers Yard at £10 plus £2 p&p within UK.

Arborial Crown 76 x 61 cm

Sudden Deluge 76 x 61 cm

Autumn Summit 76 x 61 cm

Beyond the Pines 76 x 61 cm

Rain, Sleet and Snow 31 x 25 cm

Murmuration, Egdon 33 x 24 cm

Two Remaining Pines 33 x 24 cm

A stunted thorn stands here and there I 51 x 51 cm acrylic on canvas £3,700

Behind, the scene is wilder II (Thomas Hardy) acrylic on canvas 50 x 50 cm £3,700

Civilisation was its enemy I acrylic on canvas £8,000

Nothing save its own wild face was visible II acrylic on canvas £8000

A vague stretch of remoteness acrylic on canvas 122 x 91.5 cm £8,000

An aged highway, and a still more aged barrow (Thomas Hardy) acrylic on canvas 122 x 91.5 cm £8,000

Tufts of fire one by one began to arise (Thomas Hardy) acrylic on canvas 122 x 91.5 cm £8,000

Sombre stretch of rounds and hollows (Thomas Hardy) acrylic on canvas 122 x 91.5 cm £8,000

Antique brown dress (Thomas Hardy) acrylic on canvas 122 x 91.5 cm £8,000

Blasted clump of firs on the summit of a hill (Thomas Hardy) 122 x 91.5 cm £8000

The sun had branded the whole heath with its mark (Thomas Hardy) acrylic on canvas 112 x 86 cm £6,000

To lasting barrows and long vanished barracks (Louis MacNeice) acrylic on canvas 102 x 86 cm £5,500

The place became full of a watchful intentness (Thomas Hardy) acrylic on canvas 101.5 x 86 cm £5,500

In the Bleak Midwinter (Christina Rossetti) acrylic on canvas 70 x 92 cm £4,700

A Stunted thorn stands here and there ll (Thomas Hardy) 73 x 92 cm

Haggard Egdon I (Thomas Hardy) acrylic on canvas 61 x 61 cm £4,000

Above the plain rose the hill, above the hill rose the barrow (Thomas Hardy) 61 x 61 cm acrylic on canvas £4000

Colossal and mysterious in its swarthy monotony (Thomas Hardy) 61 x 61 cm acrylic on canvas £4,000

Civilisation was its enemy II (Thomas Hardy) 51 x 61 cm acrylic on canvas £3,900

Charred but defiant I 46 x 61 cm acrylic on canvas £3,800

Behind the scene is wilder ll (Thomas Hardy) 50 x 50 cm

It could best be felt when it could not clearly be seen (Thomas Hardy) 51 x 51 cm acrylic on canvas £3,700

Turbaria Bruaria (Thomas Hardy) 51 x 51 cm acrylic on canvas £3,700

A Stunted thorn stands here and there l (Thomas Hardy) 51 x 51cm

Slighted and enduring 51 x 40.5 cm acrylic on canvas £3,400

The heath appeared slowly to awake and listen (Thomas Hardy) 46 x 35.5 cm acrylic on canvas £2,500

Nothing save its own wild face was visible I (Thomas Hardy) 46 x 35.5 cm acrylic on canvas £2,500

This obscure, obsolete, superseded country 33x 24 cm acrylic on canvas £1,500

Winter Pines 33 x 24 cm acrylic on canvas £1,500

Winter darkness, tempests and mists acrylic on canvas £1,400

The long laborious road, dry, empty and white (Thomas Hardy) 30.5 x 22 cm acrylic on canvas £1,300

Something was about to happen (Thomas Hardy) 30.5 x 22 cm

Heath and furze are everything that seems to grow and thrive (Thomas Hardy) 30.5 x 22 cm acrylic on canvas £1,300

Bossy Projection (Thomas Hardy) 30.5 x 22 cm acrylic on canvas £1,300

Unenclosed wild embrowned itself moment by moment (Thomas Hardy) 30 x 21 cm acrylic on canvas £1,300

The first tall flame sprang into the sky (Thomas Hardy) 30 x 20 cm acrylic on canvas £1,200

Yet Egdon remained (Thomas Hardy) 30 x 20 cm 30 x 20 cm acrylic on canvas £1,200

Towards Dusk acrylic on Fabriano paper 31 x 18.5 cm £1,200

Flint and birch 28 x 23 cm acrylic on Fabriano paper £1,200

Quietly watching 28 x 23 cm acrylic on Fabriano paper £1,200

Unexpected encounter 28 x 23 cm acrylic on Fabriano paper £1,200

Within the gravels 1 28 x 23 cm acrylic on Fabriano paper £1,200

Tumuli 28 x 23 cm acrylic on Fabriano paper £1200

Glowing scarlet from the shade Acrylic on Fabriano paper £1200

Charred but defiant II acrylic on Fabriano paper 19 x 28 cm £1,100

Wounded Gold II 28 x 19 cm acrylic on Fabriano paper £1,100

Onset of Winter 2018 11 x 41 cm acrylic on Fabriano paper £1,100

Recumbent Flint 2011 25 x 17.5 cm acrylic on Fabriano paper £1,000

Dawn Chorus acrylic on Fabriano paper £1,000

Haggard Egdon II (Thomas Hardy) 16 x 25 cm acrylic on Fabriano paper £900

So wild it was when first we settled here (Thomas Hardy) 2018 11.5 x 35.5 cm acrylic on Fabriano paper £900