In Love With Colour

From sublime architecture to imaginative underwater scenes, Victoria Webb’s uplifting paintings are pure joy

- Sandra Smith

WINCHESTER Cathedral and river tigers are, I’m sure you’ll agree, diverse topics. As varied, I’d say, as the Barrier Reef’s marine life and a host of historic buildings in the heart of Hampshire. Still, individuality aside, these places and creatures do share a common denominator: an artist as affected by her formative years spent in the Far East as the county she moved to 14 years ago.

Victoria Webb was four years old when her family went to live in Kuala Lumpur. For the next couple of years she absorbed her surroundings, creating memories which, five decades later, continue to inform her work.

“The Far East has been a huge artistic influence: the jungles, rivers, monsoons. Life in Malaysia gave me a love of flamboyant flora and fauna. Colour was one of the big things that impressed itself on me from a young age.”

Sitting in the kitchen of her three storey Winchester townhouse – her favourite space, open plan with lots of light and preferable to an upstairs dedicated room – Victoria recalls a family member whose support and stimulation continue to resonate.

“My grandmother was a good portrait artist and from a young age we did art together, talking and going to art galleries. She encouraged me and made it fun. I still feel her around me.”

Passion and skill aside, the consensus of not being able to make a living as an artist prompted Victoria to follow an administrative career with roles which encompassed several companies spanning 30 years. Inevitably, I’m keen to discover the decision behind swapping financial security for full time art.

“Giving up my job two years ago was a courageous move,” the watercolourist admits.