Parallel Lives: Eight Women Artists

 Dr Gill Clarke talked about the eight women artists who feature in this fascinating exhibition she co curated with Steve Marshal at St.Barbe's in Lymington. What is so interesting is that all eight women artists were born within 20 years of each other, and their lives span the twentieth century. A Barnes coach is taking a group of us to Lymington on 28 October, if you click on the Barnes' link you could book to come for £25. There are 70 works in the exhibition celebrating the lives of 8 artists.

Let's start with Enid Marx, a wood engraver who went to Eric Ravilious after hours in college because it was thought she couldn't draw. Paul Nash also tutored her. Enid held teaching posts, was a royal designer for industry and the first female wood engraver to receive a title. She is probably best known for her linocut with pastel colouring titled 'Wally Dogs'

Enid Marx designed fabrics for London Underground as seen below:

She also produced posters for the underground and stamps in the 1960s

Gertrude Hermes was engaged in sculpting and wood engraving, 'Thorn Apple' is a wood engraving of hers:

Evelyn Dunbar was the only salaried female war artist; 40 of her paintings are in existence. I am including the painting of her family garden painted between 1929-37.The tower you can just about see on top of the house in the distance is where her studio was situated. The house is now a B&B and the garden has been built on.

In the exhibition there are also paintings like the Canning Demonstration from 1940 illustrating what happened when you had a glut of fruit. The war paintings also show women's land army dairy training.

Ithell Colquhoun's work was shaped by surrealism and the occult. She also admired the work of Salvador Dali whose exhibition she saw in 1936. Nasturtiums seen below is produced using sepia ink and watercolour.

Wilhelmina Barns-Graham 1912-2004 was brought up in  St.Andrews in Scotland, and was fascinated by the natural world. This striking work from 1981 depicts St.Andrews' Bay:

She studied at Edinburgh College of Art and gained a post graduate scholarship where it was suggested she go to St.Ives 

 'Island Sheds' produced in St.Ives appears to have been influenced by Alfred Wallis (1855-1942)

Wilhelmina produced abstract work in her final decade and was given an OBE in 2001.

Her great friend Margaret Mellis also lived in St.Ives and attracted lots of other artists to settle down there. This is a great photo of Wilhelmina in her studio:

Prunella Clough although she lived in London all her life, often depicted fishing and fishermen because she often stayed in Southwold where her parents often went on holiday and then her Mother bought a holiday home there.

Barbara Jones was interested in follies and grottos. She produced The Fairground for the Recording Britain school series.

Our eighth artist featured in the St.Barbe exhibition is Monica Poole a wood engraver interested in plant forms, she later made linocuts and taught both disciplines.

There is so much more to these 8 artists than I have covered here, and I'm not sure I've read my notes correctly. To watch the recording of Dr Gill Clarke's talk please check out the website.

I'm very much looking forward to visiting the exhibition on Saturday when a group of us are going on a Barnes' coach trip to Lymington.

Anne Desmet talks about her Influences and Working Methods

On the 18 December last year, I visited the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester and loved Anne S-Desmet's exhibition, Kaleidoscope in the Print Room. I was fascinated by her work and wanted to know more about her detailed drawings and collages. Anne agreed to give us a talk in August ; we have a recording on the website and I took photos and made notes during the talk.

Anne spent the years between 1982-5 having many operations, so although not in school, there was plenty of opportunity for drawing in pencil and biro. Anne attended Ruskin School of Art in Oxford where she was studying woodcut and wood engraving. Her tutor Jean Lodge suggested she could lavish time on fine detail in printmaking. She was a fan of Escher, liking the escapist element of Ovid fascinated by transformations and metamorphosing images.

In addition to the Pallant House gallery exhibition, Anne also had one in the Ashmolean in 2020 celebrating a centenary of wood engraving; engraving with tools that come to fine points to get the detail required. It's important to use wood with a constant rate of growth for this; box wood is very good for wood engraving. I photographed some of the slides Anne showed which appear below:

Above: 7 small wood engravings & collages of Liverpool landmarks 2014-6

12 drawings on A4 and A5 paper 1982-5 these drawings above give an idea of Anne's work pre art school

M.C.Escher 'Fish and Scales'

In 1989 Anne won a scholarship to the British School of Rome and spent a year doing masses of drawings

Above left Panteon (Tondo) linocut prints collaged on paper 2003 and on the right Pantheon linocut print on paper 2000

The culmination of Anne's year at the British School in Rome was a book containing a year of scholarship drawings which were lost in a bag snatch; Anne returned to Italy many times  experimenting with images and how to present them. She loves the theatricality of Piranesi, Piero del Francesca, particularly his amazing compositions.

Above Anne collaged wood engravings, linocuts and lithographs onto 40 razor shells in 2022

Above 'British Museum-Blue Sky' wood engraving, linocut and stencils 2023

Above 5 views of St.Paul's mostly wood engravings on blocks of 20 year old holly which had been maturing in the wardrobe for years, although the one on the right is a digital print which raised some eyebrows

Above left, St.Paul's at Dawn and on the right, Claude Monet some of his paintings of Rouen Cathedral

Above Wood engravings and linocut prints on paper stuck onto 18 razor shells.

Anne went to college in Manhattan in 2014 where there was a windchill of -15 degrees

and completed quite a few linocuts of Brooklyn Bridge, influenced by Nevinson and Wadsworth whose works 'Looking through Brooklyn Bridge' and 'Dazzle Ship in Drydock' appear on the right.

More Brooklyn Bridge in the afternoon and in snow

Above in 'Manhattan \storm' a wood engraving and linocut, you can see the influence of Utagawa Hiroshige

Above The Tower of Babel by Pieter Brueghel was the inspiration for 'Homage to Brueghel' in 2023, it's a tower in Bologna

Above 'Build your own Babel Tower' linocuts and wood engraving collaged onto museum board, Eric Ravilious also cited as an influence

Above 'Early Flight' on the left and more Italian visits for the three on the right

I'll finish with three beautiful wood engravings, the top 'Oxford Light' and the other two of Bath Circus which work so well. The talk was fantastic as you can imagine from these images and can be seen on our website