Frances Hatch: Sensing Place
An exhibition of ‘place palettes’, sketchbooks and paintings made along the Jurassic coastline over the last 20 years.
Sensing Place focuses on Frances Hatch’s process as a plein air painter and the ‘place palettes’ she makes at Dorset coastal locations using found earths, clays, organic matter and man-made materials like litter. Accompanied by written and painted notes, the palettes become portraits of place that inform her paintings, a small number of which will be on show in the exhibition.
Working outside and combining these found materials with water-based media, such as watercolour, acrylic and gouache, Frances allows the weather – rain, snow, humidity, wind, sun – to participate in the shaping of the work.
Infused with the geology of each place, traces of weather, circumstance and happenstance, the palettes and paintings are witness to and a record of time spent with the ever-changing Jurassic coast.
See website for exhibition-related events including an artist's talk and drawing and painting workshops led by Frances.
18 April is World Heritage Day. And 2026 marks 25 years since the Jurassic Coast was inscribed as a World Heritage site for its exceptional and globally valuable geology, palaeontology and coastal geomorphology. We are delighted that this exhibition is one of the events included in the anniversary celebrations.
