Interview with Pam Roelich at The EVAN Gallery in Penrith – March 2024 – by Polly Marix Evans
I’m on duty at The EVAN Gallery for quite a few days in March, so Pam comes to chat to me there. We sit, drinking tea, one on the bottom step of the stairs (Pam) and one on the spinny office chair (that’s me, though I did offer the chair to Pam!).
Pam’s getting ready for a break in Wensleydale in her motorhome with her husband, John, and rescue dog, Rosie. It’s a grey old day when we have our interview and I don’t exactly envy her a camping trip in the rain. We share our (horror?) stories of camping in the UK, with and without children, pets, husbands or lovers! Somebody suggested we should have a read-more-risqué-interview button, but we decided A) it may not have been invented yet and B) some things that are said in the privacy of The EVAN Gallery should stay in The EVAN Gallery!
Pam is a relatively new member of EVAN. She joined in October 2023, showing her glorious wooden houses and pastel paintings.
Pam studied art up to A level before doing her teacher training at Loughborough, with art as her second subject. She graduated in 1971. She also met her husband at university, in the second term of her first year. She was training to teach primary school; he was training for secondary school teaching. I ask if he’s arty too, but no! Apparently, he’s into science and PE, though retired now, and slightly despairs of Pam’s arty bits and bobs – though she does have a dedicated work room at her home – the former bedroom of her twins, which still contains the bunk beds for when the grandchildren visit – at which point the art has to be tidied safely out of the way. But come out when she makes houses or paintings with the grandchildren.
Pam started her teaching career in Leicester. And teaching really was her passion! She tells me a lot of people don’t like teaching art, so she often led many art classes and worked on displays, though her own artwork was shelved until she retired 18 years ago.
For the last 9 years of her teaching career, she was the head of a small village school, Lees Hill near Brampton. She started with a school of 31 children, finished with 50, though many more than this passed through the school during the years she was there. She took over a failing school and turned it around to receive a ‘very good with outstanding features’ from Ofsted, within a couple of years.
The school became recognised for its reputation for outstanding art teaching. There were initially, two teachers then three (job share), all of whom specialised in art. Pam’s enthusiasm and imagination inspired these children and her influence has aided many children to follow their dreams in creative subjects. That’s not to say that it was all floaty and arty! Pam ran a strict ship, the children knew their boundaries, but knew they were also respected as individuals, the respect ran both ways, the children worked hard because they wanted to do well for themselves and for their teachers.
Pam taught in a way the children could see links between art and design and technology with other subjects so it all had more relevance. And those subjects where Pam thought she didn’t know enough; she would bring in a specialist or go on courses to improve her knowledge. She knew she needed extra help with music, dance and drama, so she found someone to teach the children music and found ways to improve her skills in dance and drama – and some of them have gone on to degree level and even become teachers in these areas themselves.
The school used to run an annual exhibition at Dacre Hall at Lanercost Priory, showcasing the work of both pupils of the school, and sometimes their relatives too.
‘Without a broad curriculum, how can they know what avenue they want to go down?’
I think, in this sentence, Pam has summed up one of the major problems with our education system at the present time.
She really did love her teaching and, on being asked if she would do things differently if she got ‘another go’, if she’d choose a different pathway, it’s a powerful ‘No! I’d definitely still be a teacher! I loved it!’. But being a teacher and a headteacher is exhausting. It’s full on, despite those ‘apparently’ long holidays. And nobody can carry on at that pace forever. Pam retired in 2006, though she was a governor at a very different school for a further 12 years. There she continued to teach art skills to the staff, thereby improving the quality of artwork for the children in that school.
Now was the time to concentrate on her own art practise. She loved ceramics, and studied alongside Mary Rogers at Loughborough, but had no wheel or kiln. She’d go to night schools or summer schools. She always told herself she’d get a degree in art, but what with a full-time job, 12 years out of work whilst raising a family, it wasn’t till after she retired that she began to plan what she was going to do. She finally gained a BA (Hons) in Art History with the OU and learnt to play the flute. She returned to watercolours but they were a bit ‘hit and miss as to whether they worked out, some were good and some were terrible!’
During lockdown she took part in a pastel painting class online with Emma Hunt, and thought ‘this is my medium!’ Both Emma and Pam have conditions which cause long term chronic pain, and the pastel painting really helps with pain management, possibly through a distraction technique.
Pam does also keep herself very fit – she looks amazing! I tell her this quite a few times and it’s true!
As well as the pastels, Pam stumbled across making driftwood and off-cut wood houses during lockdown. Inspired by Beady Magpie, she had never previously worked with wood, but has now made over 700 of her little house sculptures. Again, she finds this type of work really helps with distracting her from her pain. ‘I can sit for almost a whole day making, and not notice the pain. It’s definitely a balance of exercise and creativity that helps me manage my condition.’
She makes the houses in batches, working either from photos (for commissions) or from imagination. Sometimes she’ll look at seaside images on the internet to inspire her, especially Cornwall.
The wood scraps come from a local carpenter. The leather roofs of the houses are made with scrap leather from a local upholsterer. The bases are driftwood and each one ‘suggests’ to Pam what it wants to be.
I ask if she pretends she’s a tiny Pam wandering through her work. ‘Yes!’ she says, ‘I always think what if I lived here, which house would be mine, what would I feel, see or be doing.’ ‘I get totally wrapped up in making the houses – the pastel paintings too – they’re completely addictive. I lose track of time and suddenly it can be evening and time to cook a meal!’
Pam has three exhibitions coming up very soon. You can see her work at Grasmere and Happy Juniper in Carlisle in April, and Muncaster Castle in May. Pam’s work is also on display at The EVAN Gallery in Penrith.