Home Ground presents paintings and drawings exhibited by Virginia Bodman between 2002 and 2007.

The four essays critically reflect on the locations explored in the work – the Wiltshire landscape, the North East coastline and the undersea.

Rosemary Betterton, in her essay, Her Dark Materials, explores dispossession and the pleasurable references Bodman makes to the sensual and intellectual act of painting.

Three shorter essays follow; 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 then takes us outdoors, discussing how Bodman’s paintings of the landscape are infused with her intimate knowledge of farming and profound sense of connectedness to the earth.

Angela Kingston reflects on how Bodman has recently pushed beyond the familiar landscape, choosing to create artworks about the undersea.

Virginia Bodman was born in Wiltshire in 1954. She studied painting at the Royal College of Art, 1978–81. She lives and works in Sunderland and is currently a Senior Lecturer at the University of Sunderland.