Art and the Experiment

A Modern Artist in Broadway. by Jane Sullivan. Worcestershire Life. August 2009

The beautiful village of Broadway has been a centre for the arts for many years but there have been very few home grown artists. Step forward Jeremy Houghton who was born and raised in Broadway.

Standing in the garden of Jeremy Houghton’s pretty little Cotswold stone cottage its hard not to feel inspired. The workmen laying a new patio have downed tools for a coffee break and are enjoying the sunshine. The grass on the hills is that lush green that only comes from plenty of spring rain. Broadway tower glints at the top of the hill, just as it has done for over 200 years. It’s a scene that has changed for centuries, a scene that has inspired generations of artists.

“John Singer Sargent used to paint in this orchard,” says Jeremy indicating the land backing onto his garden. “He did a lot of painting here.”

Newly married to Jess, the couple have been renovating the cottage and grounds and the orchard has just been cleared of brambles. As we survey the scene dog walkers pass by on the footpath next to the garden, all receiving a cheery wave from Jeremy. It seems that he knows everyone, and that’s not far from the truth.

Jeremy, aged 35, was born and brought up in Broadway, and went to the local village primary school. Both his parents are from the area and his grandfather was the local GP for 50 years from 1935, living in the house that is now Jeremy’s. When I arrive Jeremy shows me one of the twelve large volumes compiled by his grandfather, filled with postcards, newspaper cuttings, letters, photographs – a documentary history of Broadway.

“My grandfather had about 2000 patients and when he went on his rounds he would collect these bits and pieces and make copies. People would collect things for him too, and he amassed these great albums all about Broadway, which I now have. I can spend hours looking through these books, they make me feel part of Broadway.”

Looking around the cottage it’s obvious that Jeremy has travelled. There are paintings of desert scenes, a wonderful piece of tree carved into the shape of an elephant, a range of spears and African artefacts.

Jeremy was head of art at the international school of Cape Town for five years until 2005. He spent time in Africa with historian David Rattray, who was murdeeded two years ago. He has also spent time with Bedouin people, immersing himself in their culture and producing some stunning landscapes as a result.

But all the time Broadway has beckoned him back. “It’s been my roots. It’s been very grounding to have it always here. It almost gives me the confidence to go and travel knowing that I have this here when I get back. I could never have been an ex-pat because I have too much to leave behind and I wouldn’t want to see my family only once a year. I sometimes think that ex-pats are running away from something….

“I was out in Africa for five years but it feels like a very short moment in time.”

I’m examining some stunning line drawings of African people that adorn the hall. “Those are done in Biro,” He tells me. “They’re hard to do. You can’t make a single mistake because you can’t rub it out and Biro’s blob after a while. I wanted to do something no one else was doing.”

Doing something that no-one else is doing is a theme in Jeremy’s life. Take the art. While the rest of his family have taken the conventional path through life – his father a solicitor in Warwick, his grandfather a GP – he decided from a fairly young age that art was his thing. But it wasn’t going to be an easy career choice.

“I studied at the Slade and then went to law school. My father, whose quite old school, said I couldn’t possibly make a living as an artist!”

After law school came a job teaching in Oxford before the move to Cape Town. “Teaching was the stepping stone to art,” says Jeremy, who, today, is a full-time professional artist.

“It was a massive transition from amateur to professional. You’re not just painting for your own amusement you’re painting for a living. It’s a much bigger step than people think. It took me a good year to get into the psyche and understand how it works.”

One of the challenges is that Jeremy has no agent or gallery looking after his work so that he has to do all the admin, marketing and organising exhibitions.

“I quite enjoy the business side of things and I have been quite reluctant to get an agent or gallery because I don’t want to give 50 per cent of my painting to anyone else! When you start out painting you’re not going to earn a great deal – perhaps £400 for a painting - £400 between two of you isn’t very much!”

Instead of having a permanent gallery Jeremy hosts exhibitions around the country – this year he’s been in Oxford, Edinburgh, Gloucestershire, Berkshire. “I invite about 300 people to the opening and I always get around 100 who turn up. That’s what I call my bread and butter money.”

Looking at Jeremy’s work it’s impossible to define his style or even his medium. He works in oils or watercolours, or Biro… “I am quite versatile, I don’t just do one thing,” he says.

The studio where Jeremy works is a mile or so out of the village in a converted farm building where we are greeted by a small black dog. “That’s Zulu. I brought him back from Cape Town. I had the unfortunate experience of waking up in the night with a big, menacing man at the end of the bed. I decided I’d rather be woken up by a dog barking!”

The studio is full of work in progress. There is a dazzling blue and pink watercolour painting of flamingos which reminds me of Indonesian batik. There’s a large oil painting of sand dunes in the desert with a tiny figure on a camel. “That’s really what it was like. These vast expanses of sand and then you’d see just this tiny figure on the horizon.”

Some of the most stunning pictures are black and white watercolours of Olympic athletes. There’s Victoria Pendleton on her bike, rowers Andy Triggs-Hodge and co in their coxless four, Ben Ainslie in a sailing boat. They’re stunning because they capture the movement of the sporting moment without colour.

“I’m doing the work for Lloyds TSB as part of the build up to 2012. I chose black and white watercolour because not many people are using watercolour in this contemporary style,” says Jeremy.

Once again, this urge to be different. Like when he approached the Park Lane Hotel in London and persuaded them that they needed an artist in residence. Or approaching Longborough with the same idea because Glydebourne has an artist so why not the rather smaller scale Longborough Opera. Or working with the army for a series of paintings of Her Majesty’s Gentlemen at Arms (on show at The Manor Farm Barn Gallery, Broadway, until the end of August). And the ultimate accolade, painting a picture of Her Majesty the Queen, a work that’s still in progress!

This year the projects have come closer to home. On 22nd August Jeremy has an exhibition in St Eadburgha’s church in Broadway.

“It’s the church where I was christened and where my parents were married, and where my grandparents are buried, so I am quite attached to it. “It’s such a lovely space. I want to show people that we can use if for something other than hymns and prayers.”

Another project is CACTUS – Cotswold Arts & Crafts Team Utterly Splendid – which is a group of 40 artists and craftsmen from the area who are working to transform an empty Victorian barn conversion into a beautiful home. The results will be revealed on 18th September. Be prepared for ‘an event’ rather than just an exhibition, says Jeremy.

Then there is the Broadway Arts Festival scheduled for next year which will involve all sections of the community – the galleries, the shops and tea rooms, the pubs, the schools and more.

“We are keen to get the children involved. When we were at school in the village it was always very much the case that children weren’t allowed anywhere near the art…. That’s changed!”

What hasn’t changed is that Broadway’s art scene is healthy and thriving and with such an enthusiastic, and home grown, champion it will remain a centre for art for many more years to come.

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