Valerie Grove Artist
Over the past few years I have worked almost exclusively and directly with raw, natural materials and plain, white acrylic, enabling me to create highly textured paintings with the subtle colours of leaves, tree bark and natural pigments. As the light moves throughout the day, colours, textures and shadows make gentle changes across the surface of the paintings. The pale stillness of these works is a stark contrast to the constant movement and intense colour saturation of our contemporary visual environments giving the eyes and the mind an opportunity to rest.  
I’m Fine
(60cm x 40cm)  £350
During lockdown there was a huge increase in calls to ChildLine and other domestic abuse helplines and charities. This painting responds to that fact but it is also an observation about the surfaces we all present, and how they rarely show the sometimes traumatic reality of what is happening in our lives.
Reconstruction II 
(90cm x 60cm)  £650 SOLD
We are constantly reconstructing ourselves, especially after traumatic life changes, but this erratic process happens mostly below the surface and in ways that only we know. This painting attempts to externalise that process.   
The two paintings below were part of Healing and Trauma, at the Espacio Gallery in Bethnal Green, an exhibition organised by Come as You Art.  Short but sweet it ran from 27th - 30th April 2022.  
The Certainty of Spring 
(80cm x 60cm)  £280
The two works below and their accompanying text, featured in the exhibition component of London's Eco-Feminism Festival at the Mile End Pavilion, London in October 2021. The third work related to the theme but not exhibited, is also included below. 
The Lonely Road
(120cm x 40cm) £550

Much of the solitude on this road  is about being unheard. We underestimate the company we are to ourselves on this road, and the power of your own counsel. As Gil Scott-Heron once said ‘I’m the closest thing to a voice of reason I’ve got’. 
Rhombus
120cm x 40cm £320

The rhomboid shape is a symbol of the feminine across culture and time. It's symbolic meanings include birth, fertility and protection and its symmetry is interpreted philosophically and spiritually as relating to balance, completion and unity.  
Ugly
(90cm x 60cm)  £400

Death denial and reluctance to discuss and accept death, has a strong correlation to our wider denial of nature and our devastating impact upon it. Wealthy nations in particular have largely outsourced death to institutions, making it invisible except to poorly paid carers who are almost always female. 
Monochrome Geometry 1 ​
56cm x 38cm
  £320
Monochrome Geometry  3
56cm x 38cm
  £320 (or set of 3 £900)
Monochrome Geometry 2
56cm x 38cm
  £320
Homage to Ryman
120cm x 40cm
  £420
Reconstruction I
(90cm x 60cm)  SOLD
black and white paintings, valerie grove,nature strikes back
black and white paintings, valerie grove,nature strikes back
black and white paintings, valerie grove, naturestrikesback,
Strata
75cm x 50cm
  £180
Tibetan Cherry
75cm x 50cm
  £220
Black Holes​​
75cm x 50cm
  £180
black and white paintings, valerie grove,nature strikes back
black and white paintings, valerie grove,nature strikes back
black and white paintings, valerie grove,nature strikes back
Black Bamboo
60cm x 25cm
  £120
Ginkgo
60cm x 25cm
  £120
Red Cedar​
60cm x 25cm
  £120
black and white paintings, valerie grove,nature strikes back
black and white paintings, valerie grove,nature strikes back
Wood for the Trees 2
50cm x 20cm
(sold)
Wood for the Trees 1
50cm x 20cm
(sold)
Wood for theTrees 3
50cm x 20cm
 (sold)
black and white paintings
black and white paintings
black and white paintings
Details
black and white paintings