Shilbottle home with history inspires Pam's art (June 2009)
The Journal’s Karen Wilson reports on how living in a historic home with one of Northumberland's oldest Pele Towers has been a real inspiration for artist Pam Vardy.
With its fascinating history, warren of quirky rooms and one of the oldest Pele towers in Northumberland, artist Pam Vardy's six-bedroom home is a real inspiration to her work.
And now she's flinging open the doors of the former Shilbottle vicarage to the public as part of The Art Tour, so visitors can see her watercolours and acrylics in situ.
"The house has a lovely atmosphere," says Pam. "I strongly believe this encourages me to paint. The changing seasons in the garden and surrounding landscape with evolving colours seem to have an affect on my mood which is reflected in my paintings.
"It's full of the unexpected - no wall is straight and no job undertaken is simple. With my art, particularly my watercolours, there is also an element of surprise. The paint never reacts to order."
Pam, who's taken part in The Art Tour since 2003, says her home is the ideal setting to display her work. "Different rooms have different characters," she says.
"I now try to co-ordinate paintings with the different colours in each room, as well as the different themes I paint. This is so visitors on The Art Tour will be able to visualise a painting in their own home."
Pam has lived in the house since 1986 with husband Paul, who is managing director of Portland Financial Management Limited. Their two grown-up children Emma, a doctor at Hope Hospital, Manchester and Esther, who works in television and film production, have since flown the nest.
"The house had been a vicarage for many years and was pretty basic," says Pam, who grew up in Hepscott, Morpeth.
"The family that purchased it from the Church, before we bought it from them, had stripped doors and shutters and put in an uneconomic and inefficient heating system. But the Pele Tower completely bowled us over.
"When I saw the barrel vaulted room at the base of the tower, used as a sewing room, I knew it would make a fantastic dining room. It's been an ongoing project ever since."
One of the first things Pam and Paul did in the dining room was to commission some stained medieval glass windows inscribed with the date they moved in.
They also restored the parquet floor. "We tracked down the right furniture and I think it is fair to say the room is pretty unique as a dining room," says Pam. "It's not a useable room during the day so it's really made for entertaining."
She also began researching the history of Pele House. It was originally owned by Henry Percy, the first Earl of Northumberland and was later confiscated after a fall-out of favour with Henry IV.
In 1461 it was granted to Robert Lord Ogle, before the Percys mysteriously reacquired the property by some unknown private arrangement in 1472.
A number of changes were made in 1863 for the Reverend JB Roberts, including adding a wing to replace a tithe barn. It was sold by the Church in 1981.
"There has been a multitude of vicars and their families," says Pam. "Obviously when the house was used as a defensive tower there would be foot soldiers manning the tower on a rota basis. It's great to think that we are amongst a long line of people that have lived here or have been involved in the property in some way."
Pam and Paul have carried out plenty of their own alterations too.
They've turned the former coachman's quarters and adjoining hayloft into a self-contained two-bedroom holiday apartment, added a conservatory and converted the dilapidated Victorian wash house into an art studio with a grant from Northern Arts.
Now they're revamping the second bathroom and turning it into an en suite.
Says Pam: "I have tried to give the house a contemporary feel, but at the same time not losing the traditional side of the interior. It's a wonderful house for entertaining and it is magical at Christmas when we have the decorations and lights up and a log fire burning."
The garden continues to evolve too. "I have nurtured the garden, adding colour like a paint palette with flowers and shrubs," explains Pam.
"I have loved making areas that are hidden and one comes upon unexpectedly in the garden, whilst at the same time maximising any view points of the house and church."
While much of the ground floor and gardens will be open to the public, the family's more formal living room is off limits. As up to 40 visitors a day came last summer, you can understand why.
"We do need to have one bolt-hole," says Pam who gives me a sneaky peak. It's a quirky mix of old and new including original shutters that screen off the graveyard next door, furniture inherited from the governor of Malta and an antique planner's chest that Pam cut down into a coffee table.
Pam has always painted alongside various PA jobs at North East companies including Wilkinson Sword, Berwick Council and the Theatre Royal.
However she abandoned it in 1993 while her children were growing up. A few years later she became a full- time mature student at Northumbria University reading the history of modern art, design and film.
Bitten by the learning bug, she gained a post graduate diploma in arts and cultural management in 2001. It was after this, when prompted by a friend, that she returned to painting with a fresh enthusiasm.
Since 2003 she has taken part in exhibitions across the region, including the Bondgate Gallery, Alnwick and the Art Works in Newcastle. She sells 30 to 40 paintings a year, mostly through the Art Tour, and now teaches watercolour painting as well as offering workshops from her home.
Says Pam: "My most recent work has been based on the heathery colours of autumn Simonside, snow scenes with people with their umbrellas and I have started on townscapes - Venice and Alnwick. I also paint what I think people will like, hence I always have local castles and local scenes.
"I'd like to get back to oil as well, which was messy and tricky when the children were young."
Pam's main concern is to capture the mood and spirit of the landscape, rather than a photographic reproduction and she's inspired by artists such as Max Ernst, Caspar David Friedrich, Turner and Jackson Pollock.
The studio conversion has also allowed Pam to experiment with large acrylic landscapes and abstracts. Some have added "gems" which catch the light and sparkle.
Her "there and back" series of abstracts, for instance, are all about life's journeys. "Our path through life physically takes us to various places, such as holidays, visits, work," says Pam.
"But we always return to home base. On a spiritual plane, however much we may resist, we generally return in some way to our past even though we change."
Now Pam is looking forward to welcoming all the Art Tour visitors, whether they want to purchase something or just browse.
"The Art Tour has multiple benefits for me," says Pam. "It triggers a frenzy of painting. It is also a great incentive to make any changes or improvements in the house, as suddenly there is a deadline for completion and of course, June and July are the months when the garden can look its best, so there is a surge of planting and tidying. By the time the Art Tour starts, I'm glad to relax and have a rest!"
And if you're lucky, you may even spot the odd ghost. But that's another story...
July 9, 2009 10:58am
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