Pam Franklin lives on the Great Tew estate with her partner, the furniture-maker John Callen. They have two daughters, Maya and Sienna. Pam Franklin has had three major shows at the Bruton Street Gallery in Mayfair.

“My work plays with pattern, detail and abstraction. My main source of inspiration is the Renaissance. I am attracted to the jewel-like colours and the surfaces.

“It has been said about my work that often 'the right-hand panel is the more dominant because of its detailed content, but the left-hand panel acts as the painting's lung.' The tension and energy between the panels is critical – how do these rigid structures and details help us make sense of all that is not controllable, that is unknown and elemental.

“I make gesso using a recipe first published by the Florentine Cennino Cennini in 1390. I wanted to find a surface that was more absorbent and solid than canvas, and looked originally at Russian icons. I started to experiment with making my own gesso on wooden panels. Gesso consists of several layers of whiting and rabbit-skin glue, applied in a creamy consistency and allowed to gel between layers. The total surface is 2mm thick, and when hard is like painting onto chalk. It can be sanded or etched with a fine point, and gives a lovely luminosity to the paint.”

This site was updated on the 4th February 2008.