CRITICAL COMMENT
Gerard Stamp turns architecture into art. He converts stone and brick, light and shadow, the tilt of a roof and the line of a wall into a living, exhilarating picture. His eye for the power of style is unerring, whether the fluting on a pillar or the tracery in a window. He gives depth and character to the simplest buttress or the blandest patch of limestone.
Above all, his pictures evoke the mystery of English churches.Under his brush, buildings that have often become functional and banal are restored to their gothic glory. He fills space with atmosphere by a shaft of light or a splash of colour. Stamp is clearly inspired by the gallery of church architecture. He shows that the only true museum - and every church is in part a museum - is one filled by local people who have used and improved it day by day, one that embodies their memories and their achievements.
In his depiction of churches great and small he celebrates the most genuine English art, that of the church, and does so in terms that genuine English artists would applaud.
SIMON JENKINS
Journalist and author, his books include England's Thousand Best Churches and England's Cathedrals
Delicate watercolours of empty stone spaces capture the unearthly atmosphere of Ely's great fenland cathedral
RACHEL CAMPBELL-JOHNSTON
Critic’s Choice, The Times Saturday Review
...there is a sense of timelessness about his paintings and you feel drawn into them, as if you could walk through the frame straight into the church or cathedral. The peace and tranquillity is overwhelming and I could sit and look at them for hours. I envy anyone coming across these paintings for the first time. They take your breath away.
DAME JUDI DENCH
...what is immediately striking in his evocative paintings is an extraordinary ability to capture the elusive quality of light, and to convey, almost tangibly, the texture and strength of aged stone.
LOYD GROSSMAN OBE FSA
The more delicate the marks this artist makes, the more he suggests monumentality and infinity. What he loves most is the atmosphere evoked by the beautiful illusion of timelessness.
IAN COLLINS
Writer and curator, his books include A Broad Canvas: art in East Anglia since 1880
Gerard has, while toiling alone in Norfolk, blossomed, come of age as an artist of skill, power and originality.
DAN CRUICKSHANK
Art historian and television presenter
Astonishing… his watercolour church architecture is a kind of miracle in itself.
RONALD BLYTHE
Writer, (books include Akenfield) essayist and editor