Visual Arts

Pam Rex was a painter and printmaker for 48 years. Although she had a number of one-woman shows, this exhibition is the first opportunity to see such a large number of her paintings, prints and books together.

Pam trained at Leeds College of Art from 1959 to 1964 under Harry Thubron on the Basic Design Course. Based in Leeds, she drew and painted with a persistent and serious passion for the rest of her life.

Her early life in southern Africa gave her appreciation of the power and importance of light. For her it was always essential to get that right - whether it was a garden in London, a hillside in Yorkshire, a Northumberland beach, vineyards in the south of France or a dark interior.

She described how it was her intention that her paintings "led the eye around and between spaces encouraging the focus to move from inner to outer and back around again to inner, it moves on its journey, finding different paths which intersect and weave a web." Pam was driven by what she called 'the utterly basic urge to paint'.

From 1970 she taught evening classes at the Jacob Kramer College, (as Leeds College of Art was then called). She acted as a support for established artists who wanted to re-engage with observational drawing practice and a guide for those who were just beginning the journey.

This exhibition of paintings, drawings, prints and books by Pam Rex will be fittingly displayed in the Vernon Street building where she was a student and once taught. An illustrated book will be published to coincide with the show. The film of her talking about her processes of work, "Between Eye & Mind" from 2003 will also be shown in the exhibition.

Pam Rex 1929 – 2007 - An Exhibition at Leeds College of Art & Design, Vernon Street runs from Monday 10 November - Friday 28 November 2008. Opening times and further details at the college website: