Fred Ingrams and the Norfolk Fens

The work of Fred Ingrams appeals to me, especially his landscapes. Bold graphic compositions vivid with colour. Ingrams emerged from London's Soho after being part of the Eighties art scene and some how ended up in the peaceful and quiet Norfolk Fens. Known for his nudes now he finds excitement in the striking expanses of arable farmland and its rich colours. The Fens are a man-made landscape that was drained in the seventeenth century, this is a part of England full of folk stories and myths. 

Ingrams and his wife live there in a modern home of their creating. Laura Ingrams is an interior stylist and Fred Ingrams has another life as a successful graphic designer. His father was one half of the duo who started Private Eye. 

These days Ingrams feels compelled to paint often the same view again and again. This I totally understand, the light is never exactly the same, colours subtly changing and clouds in constant flux. 

I find it a little freaky when I travel to such voluminous landscapes, being in very hilly Cornwall. Our landscape is like being wrapped and secure, hemmed in but in a liberating way. But with the Fens it is more obvious how man has tamed the landscape, the fields cordoned with their man-made borders they stretch into the distance. There would never be a dull day with an Ingrams painting on the wall, a window to a world well captured.