The Diary of E W Erlam

Jéréme Crow graduated from OCA in painting with a first class honours degree last year. Next month, he is holding a one-man exhibition at Horsebridge Arts and Community Centre in Whitstable, Kent. The Diary of E W Erlam: paintings by Jéréme Crow includes a series of works based on the 1918 school-boy diary of Jéréme’s great uncle, Edwin William Erlam. Last year, Jéréme was named as the winner of the Richard Robbins Award, which OCA gives each year in recognition of artistic excellence in a painting student. He has chosen a public exhibition as his prize.

To create the paintings included in the exhibition, Jéréme researched his ancestor by visiting the house in Primrose Hill, London where Edwin lived when he was writing the diary. The diary entries record the bombardment of London by ‘hostile powers’, a sighting of German prisoners of war, visits to the theatre and the zoo, school prize day and his first appearance in long trousers. Jéréme collected artefacts and materials that form the basis of a series of still lifes painted in his studio in Dover. The paintings elaborate on the diary entries and bring together collections of apparently disparate objects, the flotsam and jetsam left in the wake of a person’s life.
‘In all my work, the application of the paint and that process is perhaps more important to me than the original conception,’ explains Jéréme.  ‘I like to start by marking out my image in oils with white spirit to create a tonal grisaille layer. This then acts as my guide for the introduction of colour and a more expressive application of paint.’
He works in a studio with a south-facing window.  On a slightly overcast day the lighting is perfect. On bright sunny days, he has to rig up blinds, curtains and umbrellas to dampen the light. He tries to rely entirely on natural light in the autumn and winter but recreates natural light with spotlights if he has to, to get extra painting time in the short winter days.
Jéréme did a foundation in fine art after leaving school but never quite made it to university. He has done all sorts of jobs to subsidise being an artist, including a brief spell in the army, a stint as a chef in a Little Chef restaurant on the A12 outside Colchester, time as a boat builder, and a period as a teaching assistant with teenagers with behavioural difficulties. Regardless of how he has earned his living, he has carried on painting, successfully exhibiting and selling his works.
As well as the exhibition in Whitstable, Jéréme’s paintings were included in the Art of Remembering exhibition at the Rheged Centre in Penrith last November. The exhibition is touring to The Dock Museum in Barrow and The Beacon Museum in Whitehaven in the summer.
The Diary of E W Erlam: paintings by Jéréme Crow runs from 4 to 10 February. Entry is free.  

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