Brita Granström and Mick Manning: Sea Interludes
We are delighted to announce Brita Granström’s upcoming solo exhibition and which will also include work by her husband, the artist Mick Manning, this Easter at our Aldeburgh gallery.
Brita and her husband Mick live on the East coast and every morning, whatever the weather, Brita takes her lurchers down to the seashore. These ‘sea interludes’ punctuated by the tides and seasons are precious and a time when she charges her creative batteries before beginning her day’s work at the easel. It also seems appropriate that this title for her new exhibition pays homage to four beautiful orchestral pieces from Peter Grimes, the Suffolk-set opera by Aldeburgh’s very own Benjamin Britten.
In this, her 4th exhibition with Thompson’s Galleries we will be not only be showing new seascapes and intimate interior paintings by Brita but also new work by her husband Mick, a well-known artist in his own right, Mick’s work focuses on nature and is inspired by the wild creatures he encounters on the East coast. It’s a little known fact that, although Mick grew up in Haworth, Yorkshire, he was actually born in Bury St.Edmunds, spending the formative years of his life in Woolpit where his father taught in the village school.
Brita trained at the esteemed Konstfack in Stockholm, where she honed her craft and embraced a spirit of experimentation that continues to shape her practice today. She works primarily in acrylic on canvas, capturing both the quiet poetry of domestic life and the everchanging seascapes on her doorstep - often featuring her two beloved dogs, Hilda and Nelly, who frequently appear as quiet companions in her work.
(above) Brita Granström, Hilda With Rowan, Acrylic on canvas, 23.5 x 28 " (SOLD)
Brita’s paintings beautifully distil those intimate, fleeting moments so often overlooked - glimpses of everyday tenderness rendered with her signature looseness, sensitivity and expressive mark-making.
As Brita herself explains:
“The landscapes of both Sweden and the British Isles feature strongly in my paintings; environments that are always changing, never still. Painting on location and in all weathers—both indoors and outdoors—produces paintings that, for me, encompass and celebrate themes of hope, humanity, life and mortality.”
Whether depicting people, landscapes or a vase of flowers by a window, Brita seeks the same truth - the energy of nature translated into sweeps and scribbles of paint, shapes and colours alive with feeling.
Born 1959, Mick Manning is an award-winning artist and writer who was born in Suffolk and later grew up in Haworth, West Yorkshire. He is an alumnus of the Royal College of Art where his mentors included Quentin Blake, Shelia Robinson and John Norris Wood. In 1990 Manning was invited to establish a degree programme in Illustration at the Glasgow School of Art, where he was Course Leader until resigning in 1998. Mick was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by Bradford College in 2015 and his work can be found in both private and public collections.
We look forward to welcoming you to this special exhibition at Easter in Aldeburgh.
Brita Granström and Mick Manning
Sea Interludes
Thompson's Gallery Aldeburgh
4th - 26th April 2026
