COMPTON VERNEY.- As part of a £100,000 project to reimagine its Folk Art galleries in 2018, Compton Verney’s curatorial team worked with Mark Hearld on the re-hanging of its extensive collection in which he displayed several new works, not only inspired by objects within the collection but also by the animals and rural communities surrounding the Grade 1-listed Georgian mansion and Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown-landscaped parkland.

One of the objects Hearld created was a mixed media work, The Compton Verney Collage (left), which features a patchwork, made in the mid-1800s for the 98th Regiment. Mark says: “I felt it would be exciting to make a large-scale work as a visual foil for the military quilt at the far end of the gallery, something that had graphic impact and scale – in effect a paper collage quilt. I decided that a large-scale work made up of a series of individual pieces would be an interesting way to respond. I’ve attempted to create my own folk art world, with motifs that echo objects and images in the Collection and draw upon a cast of characters from my own menagerie of birds and beasts.”

He also produced six cut-out metal silhouettes of animals and birds, all of which directly refer to specific objects and paintings in the collection, and which will now be permanently housed in Compton Verney. These are Cockerel, Hare and Partridges, Swan, Pigeon Flight, Owl and Ratter, which depicts a terrier pursuing a rat. All were made in 2018, from either brass or steel sheet, for Mark by Dave Trigwell in Cornwall.
Again, these works were created as a direct response to the British Folk Art Collection, as Mark describes: “The graphic quality of the cut metal silhouettes and weathervanes in the collection relates directly to the shapes I cut out with scissors wi th sharp contours and definite profiles. It felt natural to collaborate with a metalworker who has interpreted my cut paper designs into sheet metal silhouettes that will now sit alongside the Collection.”

Compton Verney houses the UK’s largest collection of Folk Art, which encompasses a diverse range of objects, including weathervanes, shop signs, paintings of prize farm animals, street scenes, items of furniture, agricultural implements and collage pictures. The term ‘folk art’ is used to cover a wide-ranging number of artistic and/or artisanal objects created by people who were not formally trained, or whom transferred skills from other professions – such as sign-writers who were able to use their talent and eye for painting to create their own artworks.

Julie Finch, Director-CEO of Compton Verney says the new acquisitions will continue the legacy of historic craft traditions: “Our Folk Art collection spans over 300 years of making a wide variety of objects, from a chair made in the 1700s, to 19th century trade signs and children’s toys from the early 1900s. The addition of Mark’s fantastic collage and metalwork brings us up to date and reflects that even in our age of smart phones, Zoom calling and electric vehicles, there are still people who make beautiful objects with their hands and own imagination. We are grateful to the Compton Verney Settlement Fund for supporting the acquisition of these works.”

Mark Hearld was born in York in 1974. He studied Illustration at Glasgow School of Art from 1994-97 and went on to the Royal College of Art to study for an MA in Natural History Illustration. A fascination with animals and plants lies at the heart of his work, with chicken runs, pigeon lofts and foxes appearing often. Mark's main inspiration is Picasso but he also greatly admires the work of Edward Bawden, Eric Ravilious and John Piper and the Neo-Romantic artist/illustrators Keith Vaughn and John Craxton.