A tribute to London Group member Philippa Stjernsward by Tricia Gillman LG
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Philippa Stjernsward, 1952-2024. Born in Kenya, one of three daughters to Swedish parents, a successful model in her 20s, (dubbed ‘the Swedish Bardot’,) did the Foundation Course at St Martins and BA Fine Art at Ravensbourne, and became a London Group member in 1990. She exhibited regularly with the Group and in the Royal Academy Summer Show, also (among other venues,) having exhibitions with Art First, a solo show at the Barbican and exhibiting in ‘Small is Beautiful’ with Angela Flowers Gallery.
Philippa had two major partners, firstly with the artist Brian Fielding, (who until his death in 1987, was a much-loved member of The London Group,) and latterly with the artist Mick Moon, whose death preceded Philippa’s by a month.
I met Philippa when she was a student and we have been very close friends for 43 years. She was flamboyant, glamorous, so vivacious, driven by the fiery energy of a powerful life force, one which generated often tumultuous waves of joy, humour, anger and loving connection. She was an expressive, hugely warm and charismatic presence, a sweetly generous and welcoming hostess, a quirkily inspired home-maker, and above all, an ardently loyal friend.
This wild and wonderful Philippa quietened within the equanimity of her painting; here she gave us the crystalline evidence of the slower, quieter kernel within. Here emerged the stable, the strong, the weighted and balanced. Her beautiful work was rooted, held by energies of stillness and deep slow movement, by tactility and sensuality, all of which were lit up with economy, by jewels of patterned and coloured seduction. Their surfaces held both weight and lightness, fragility and strength, beauty and sadness; a true reflection of the deeply loved, extraordinary and passionate Philippa we will all miss so very much.
Tricia Gillman LG, 2024
Philippa Stjernsward and Tricia Gillman at a party to celebrate Philippa’s wedding to Mick Moon in 2013
