Francis Hamel b. 1963

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He favours the rawness of dawn – “you get these extraordinary moments as the temperature changes” – to the elegiac quality of dusk, developing an unusual chromatic register in which rich greens, blues, purples or ochres often appear to dominate, but which in fact allows other colours to sing out from within.

Tim Richardson
Available Work Enquiry
Francis Hamel has built an international reputation for his landscape paintings, portraits as well as his finely structured compositions of trees and flowers. In 2019 the V&A held an exhibition of his portraits, ‘Behind the Curtain’, and in the same year a monograph was published.

Born in 1963 and trained at The Ruskin School, Oxford Francis Hamel has lived and worked in a studio next to the reowned William Kent gardens at Rousham in Oxfordshire since 1997. The gardens and surrounding park have been a constant source of inspiration, evident not only in the paintings of his surroundings, monumental tree portraits in particular but from what he has learned about the connections that exist between gardens and the landscape in which they sit. This exploration has taken Hamel to Italy to paint the formal Italian gardens of Tuscany and Umbria, as well as the wilder landscapes of Le Marche.

In 2021, prompted by lockdown, he made a collection of paintings of Rousham which coincided with publication of a second book 'The Gardens at Rousham'. Since then he has continued his painterly exploration of gardens travelling around Great Britain visiting and painting numerous public and private gardens, parks and allotments

Hamel’s work is held in public & private collections throughout the world including Fortnum & Mason, The Ashmolean Museum, St John’s College Oxford, Goldman Sachs, HRH King Charles III, Rolls Royce, The Victoria Palace Theatre, The Sondheim Theatre, Wyndham's Theatre, The Noel coward Theatre, The Prince of Wales Theatre, The Prince Edward Theatre, Lady Margaret Hall, Farrer and Co & Sir Cameron Mackintosh.

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Solo Exhibitions

2023 Thirty Gardens, John Martin Gallery, London

2021 Rousham, Through The Gardens, John Martin Gallery, London
2020 Painting The Yellow Mountain, John Martin Gallery, London
2019 Paintings and Drawings – Book Launch, John Martin Gallery, London
2017 A Certain Tree, John Martin Gallery, London
2014 Rachel’s Flowers, John Martin Gallery Chelsea, London
2012 Oxford Paintings 2012, John Martin Gallery, London
2011 Edward Cutler Gallery, Milan
2010 Italian Formal Gardens and Their Landscapes, John Martin Gallery, London
2009 Theatre Paintings, John Martin Gallery at Art London, Chelsea
2008 Three Years in the Italian Marches, John Martin Gallery, London
2007 Paintings, John Martin Gallery, London
2006 2004-2006, John Martin Gallery, London
2004 Paintings, John Martin Gallery, London
2003 Work 2002-2003, John Martin Gallery, London
2002 Francis Hamel, John Martin Gallery, London
2000 Francis Hamel, John Martin Gallery, London
1997 Francis Hamel, John Martin Gallery, London
1995 Francis Hamel, John Martin Gallery, London
1984 Magdalen College, Oxford
1983 Newman Rooms, Oxford

Group Exhibitions

2019 The Winter Show, John Martin Gallery, London
2012 20th Birthday, John Martin Gallery, London
Publications
- Thirty Gardens
  Francis Hamel John Martin Gallery, 2023
  Paperback, 23 pages
  Publisher: John Martin Gallery
  Dimensions: 23cm x 27.5cm
  Read more

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