Biography

Born 1947. Drawing and painting were integral to Valerie’s life. She learnt about how things worked and how relationships formed and grew.  As an undiagnosed dyslexic, it was her way of understanding things, the world around her.  As she grew up, she continued to draw and paint but felt she could not make pictures as she wished.  She did not have the tools she needed to express the feeling experienced. Living in the country, landscapes were her love with all the different parts of the composition.  The colours were overwhelming to her with the light constantly changing.

Fortunately, when Valerie arrived with her family in Ipswich, Suffolk, in 1986, she was introduced to many local artists and was invited to join Ipswich Art Society.  She also joined Colchester Art Society  and  also a daytime painting and drawing class at Suffolk College. Valerie was invited to exhibit her work with many different artists and joined exhibitions throughout Suffolk.  She spent a few years working under the guidance of Charlotte Stewart, which included a bi-weekly life group.  Exhibitions filled her with much confidence and joy, celebrating her work and encouraging her to press on with it.

In 2004, Valerie spent the year drawing silos and old mill buildings awaiting demolition.  They haunted her, with the silos looking like large cathedrals. Valerie always loved things moving and in action and in 2005, she started to draw two diggers moving spill across the site.

Standing on the waste ground of the one-way system, Valerie was completely involved in the process before her and she spent five years (2004-2009) at Ipswich Dock, visiting most days recording the activities in the area between Stoke Bridge and the Old Custom House.  It was a mammoth task. It completely absorbed her time and ended in producing a collection of 25 A4 sketch books and 4,000 A2 charcoal drawings, unfolding the story of the mill buildings’ demolition. 

This project offered her still life portraiture, action drawings and sequences, all recording the changes happening at the dock. Eleven of these drawings are now displayed at The Hold, the new Suffolk Records Office, forming an internal wall leading through the building with these images hugely enlarged. The total collection will remain with The Hold for safe keeping and future reference.

After spending four years preparing drawings for The Hold, Valerie was able to return to her love of painting in the open air.

Statement

“This charcoal drawing was executed between Stoke Bridge and the Old Custom House in Ipswich.

This entailed drawings of the pre-demolition, demolition, the interim – vehicle workshop demolition – and construction. It’s a useful drawing as it shows many aspects of the whole process of construction and transformation of this area of Ipswich Dock, from commercial to recreational. It shows many different activities and processes – men building steel armatures, a carpenter with his tool bag on his waist making tabletops, a spider pump delivering concrete to the higher levels of the build and men carrying heavy steel poles. The view across the site from north to south with the new and old buildings and the Orwell Bridge in the distance. The site banksman in charge of the movement of heavy equipment and building materials by instructing the driver of the tower crane via walkie talkies.

For me, this site offered opportunities for portraiture, landscape and still life. It was the men who drove the work forward, each skilled in their discipline, affecting how the machines behaved and setting the pace for the development. Some of my work was quick action drawings and sequences. Each day I started by finding the men, and engaging with where they were working, which was exhilarating and exciting to be so closely involved in such skilled activity. 

It was the energy of the workforce that seemed to carry me through my drawing. They energised my working process. I had not thought that what I was drawing whilst at Cranfield’s was of historical importance or that it was in fact an archive of the changes at Ipswich Dock”.

Bridget Hanley, Collections Manager at The Hold wrote, “Valerie’s drawings will be a wonderful addition to our collection and they will, I am sure, be used by many researchers and students of history, art and construction.”

Exhibitions

The Gallery, Graham & Oldham, Electric House, 9-19 February 2005 Contrasts.

Heritage Open Day 2015, The Old Custom House.

The Studio Gallery, April – August 2016.

The Whistler Gallery, Jerwood House, Dance East, Studios from Silos, 2018.

St Mary The Quay, The Valerie Irwin Archive Project Launch, 2018.

Private and public collections

Demolition and Construction, Change in Charcoal Collection held by Ipswich Borough Council at Christchurch Mansion.

Ipswich Maritime Trust, drawing of three machines working at Cranfield’s demolition site.

The Friends Meeting House, charcoal drawing of building interior.

Dance East, Jerwood House, interior construction of café.

Bibliography

Creating Constable by Emma Roodhouse and Caleb Howgego, Chapter 8 Continuing Constable, page 200

Dance East Review 2019 celebrating 10 years in Jerwood Dance House

Suffolk Magazine, December 2022, Change in Charcoal, pages 58-63

Ipswich Art Society 1874-2024 150 Anniversary, pages 81, 88, 89 and 100

Ipswich Art Society – Art at the Heart of Ipswich 1874-2024 leaflet, drawings 18 and 19