Abstract

HOME GROUND, 2005-10: a body of work comprising 20 large painting and a portfolio of drawings and prints and a publication. http://www.virginiabodman.com/Home%20Ground.html
Sixteen large paintings shown in the solo exhibition HOME GROUND, 10.05.2006-23.06.2006, sandford goudie gallery, Customs House, Arts Centre, South Shields. “The Customs House is South Tyneside's premier arts centre offering great arts & entertainment for all”.
One large painting was included in group exhibition, Forest Dreaming, 2006, CCANW Gallery, Haldon Forest, Exeter, Devon: http://www.ccanw.co.uk/past-exhibitions.htm
“The experience of entering a forest stimulates our imagination and sharpens all our senses. The feelings it can evoke range from ones of fear and mystery to those of enchantment and wonder. This year-long, evolving exhibition curated by Clive Adams and Angela Kingston, showed work by over 50 artists who have responded in different ways to the forest environment.”
Research and making costs: AHRC Small Grant, PaintingSunderland; catalogue funding: Arts Council England and University of Sunderland GRS Research Fellowship. Transport of work to Exeter: CCNW.
Home Ground: Paintings and Drawings by Virginia Bodman, 2007: published by Art Editions North and the Globe Gallery, Newcastle, ed. by Angela Kingston, essays: Rosemary Betterton, Stella Beddoe, Tony Godfrey, Angela Kingston, ISBN 978-1-873757-81-9
“The essays critically reflect on the Wiltshire landscape explored in the work, Rosemary Betterton, in her essay, Her Dark Materials, explores dispossession and the pleasurable references Bodman makes to the sensual and intellectual act of painting. Stella Beddoe writes about the continuing influence of the ornately patterned and often vibrantly coloured fabrics and china in Bodman’s childhood farmhouse home, and also reflects on her more recent interest in the interiors of grand country houses. Tony Godfrey’s essay discusses how Bodman’s paintings of the landscape are infused with her intimate knowledge of farming and profound sense of connectedness to the earth.”
Rashida Davison, Globe Gallery, 2007