Feature: Exhibition - Views of Hampstead - NW3x8 – Eight painters, Burgh House,

FROM John Constable’s studies of sunsets and rainbows across east Heath to  Ford Maddox Brown’s Heath Street scenes, the beauty of Hampstead has long drawn artists to the area.

Now a new exhibition by eight graduates from an advanced painting course at Morley College in Westminster have turned their brushes and easels in the direction of the Heath and it’s surrounds – and created a series of pieces that shows a range of different views in a range of different styles.
 

Artist Deborah Burnstone has chosen streetscapes for her works. She has always been fascinated with painting scenes that feature roads, streets and even motorways – and because she walks through the Holly Lodge estate on her way to the Heath, chose the 1920s and 1930s villas that snake up Hillway for her subject matter. 

“I ended up wandering around looking for something I would like, and I just kept coming back to the Holly Lodge estate,” she said.

“I love painting the built environment. And having done a variety of roads and motorways, I thought it was time to move into suburbia.”
 

But while Hampstead has long attracted artists, Deborah says the exhibitions offers a 

new take on a familiar topic.

“We were worried about it being a little twee,” she adds. “But Hampstead is lovely – and everyone has done so many different things, there’s not a quaint tea shop in sight. 

“Some of us are figurative, while others are really quite abstract. There is a good range.”

• NW3x8 – Eight painters take on Hampstead, Burgh House, New End Square, NW3, July14-25, 

020 7431 0144 www.burghhouse.org.uk

Pictured top:  Annie Price’s Hampstead Pond
Pictured below:  Deborah Burnstone’s Neighbours