Harry Becker - The David Thompson Collection

For all those fans of the artist Harry Becker, it is the book by David Thompson that has a place on all of our book shelves. I was never fortunate enough to meet David but feel that his recent death on 13th April 2019 requires a few words . As an author he is known for 'Raphael, The Life and the Legacy' (1983) and 'Harry Becker' (2002).

A number of the images used in the Becker book were from Davids’s personal collection and we are currently offering these for sale . They can be seen on our Harry Becker website page .

David was also one of the major “loaners of work” for the 1993 Ipswich Museum exhibition of work by Harry Becker and many of the paintings on offer have the exhibition labels verso. We are also fortunate to have the photographic catalogue of Becker’s work produced by David during his life which forms a wonderful documented record of the pieces that David examined over the years.

David Michael Thompson, was born at Ryde, Isle of Wight, Hampshire in 1929, his mother's maiden name was Morgan. David has some 40 years working experience as a writer, broadcaster and film-maker on visual arts subjects, latterly taking up painting. Art critic of 'The Times' for seven years, director of the Institute of Comtemporary Arts, associate editor of 'Studio International' and chairman of the Arts Council's exhibition committee.

He was central to the exhibition Arte Inglese Oggi—English art today—took place at Palazzo Reale, Milan, from February to May 1976. It was co-organized by the British Council and the municipality of Milan, which set up a joint selection committee which included David Thompson who took the lead on Sculpture , and Norbert Reid, who acted as president.

The English representatives on the selection committee highlights the connections between the powerful institutions shaping the contemporary art world of that time. Reid was Director of the Tate Gallery, a member of the Arts Council of Great Britain Art Panel from 1964 to 1974, a member of the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) Advisory Panel from 1965, and Chairman of the Fine Art Advisory Committee of the British Council between 1968 and 1975. David Thompson was a critic and Director of the ICA.

The choice to take 1960 as the beginning of the period covered by Arte Inglese Oggi legitimized the narrative whereby Anthony Caro’s mythologized trip to New York and his first abstract works of 1960 mark the starting point of a “New British Sculpture”, international in its transatlantic connection with “high modernism” and hence fully allied with medium specificity. This narrative was most clearly articulated in Thompson’s sculpture section, where Eduardo Paolozzi and William Turnbull were the only artists who had been active since the immediate postwar years. The selection was otherwise shaped around sculptors who taught and had been trained at Saint Martin’s School of Art between the mid-1950s and early 1960s, with galleries dedicated to Anthony Caro, Phillip King, William Tucker, and Tim Scott; while their work also featured in a separate section on “New Generation” sculpture, alongside that of David Annesley and Michael Bolus. From younger generations, Thompson selected Nigel Hall R.A. , Barry Flanagan, Julian Hawkes, Tim Mapston, and Carl Plackman.

In later life he moved to Suffolk with his actress wife ,Freda Dowie, and without any formal art training, he began painting in 1985. He has exhibited regularly with The Suffolk Group; Southwold Art Circle and the Ipswich Art Society, for which he was chairman for two years. David has his studio at his home “Hollies”, Love Lane, Westleton, Suffolk .

David did a wonderful job bringing Becker to a wider audience and we thank him for his passion.

Mark & Melanie Ponting

Blonde Fine Art

Lucy Kemp-Welch - "In honour of Captain Elidyr Herbert V.C."

Lucy Kemp-Welch is one of our finest equine artists and her work much sought after by both collectors and horse lovers. She was refused permission to travel to the battle fields of WW1 but such was her determination she found other ways to become a self imposed unofficial war artist.

One of her most moving tributes to the brave men that fell in action was to honour the deeds of Captain Elidyr Herbert Victoria Cross who fell in action on 12th November 1917. He was described by one of his men as ‘one of the most popular officers in the brigade’, who was ‘sincerely mourned’. Captain Herbert was buried in Gaza City military cemetery. His headstone bears Latin inscriptions meaning ‘The inn of a pilgrim travelling to Jerusalem’ and ‘Eternal rest grant unto him oh Lord’.

His death was widely mourned in Monmouthshire and in 1923 tenants from the Herbert Estates presented his parents, Lord and Lady Treowen with a painting by Lucy Kemp-Welch showing Captain Herbert with the Turkish machine gun. His family gave over part of the Llanover estate for a ‘garden settlement’, Tre Elidyr, in memory of their son and the 17 other men connected with the estate who lost their lives in the Great War.

So Tre Elidyr was built in 1925 with Llanover Primary School at its heart.

Captain Herbert was the son of Sir Ivor Herbert, who had recently been elevated to the Peerage as Lord Treowen. Until joining the House of Lords he had been Liberal MP for South Monmouthshire and, as Lord Lieutenant of Monmouthshire, had been responsible for recruiting throughout the county at the start of the war. He later became director of recruiting for the whole of Wales.

The Hon. Captain Elidyr Herbert V.C.

Lord Treowen by Lucy Kemp-Welch

Elidyr was born in 1881. He went to King’s College, Cambridge, graduating in 1902. After qualifying as a solicitor he returned to Monmouthshire, living with his parents at Llanarth Court. He served as a Justice of the Peace and became a County Councillor.

In 1913 he joined the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars (RGH), part of the Territorial Force. When war broke out in 1914, as a 2nd Lieutenant, he summoned the Monmouthshire Squadron of the RGH to Llanover for mobilisation.

In April 1915 the RGH were sent to Egypt and subsequently to Gallipoli, landing at Suvla Bay, where he served as machine gun officer. They remained in Gallipoli until the campaign was abandoned in November and suffered heavy losses. After a brief spell in Egypt, where Lieutenant Herbert was promoted to Captain, he was sent with the RGH to the Sinai Desert and thence into Palestine.

As the British forces advanced through Palestine towards Jerusalem, they met fierce resistance from Turkish troops

Third Battle of Gaza which was part of the Sinai and Palestine campaign. Here the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) pursued the Turks and their allies through Southern Palestine and eventually captured Jerusalem a month later.

By November 1917, Elidyr Herbert saw action at about nine miles north-east of Gaza where he would show great bravery but which was to prove fateful for him.

The Charge at Huj (8 November 1917), saw the forces of the EEF made up of British and Australian forces, face the Ottoman Turkish Empire’s Yildirim Army Group.

The charge was carried out by units of the 5th Mounted Brigade, against a German, Austrian and Turkish artillery and infantry. The attack was successful and the British captured the position, seventy prisoners, eleven pieces of artillery and four machine guns. But the British suffered heavy casualties. Of the 170 men taking part, twenty-six were killed and forty wounded. They also had 100 horses killed. One can not help wondering if the fact that it was a mounted brigade and that so many horses we lost would have influenced Lucy Kemp-Welch to take on this commission .

One of the few officers to escape uninjured was Lieutenant Mercer of the Worcestershire Yeomanry. He described the charge:

“Machine guns and rifles opened up on us the moment we topped the rise behind which we had formed up. I remember thinking that the sound of crackling bullets was just like hailstorm on an iron-roofed building, so you may guess what the fusillade was....A whole heap of men and horses went down twenty or thirty yards from the muzzles of the guns. The squadron broke into a few scattered horsemen at the guns and seemed to melt away completely. For a time I, at any rate, had the impression that I was the only man left alive. I was amazed to discover we were the victors”.

The action is claimed to be one of the last British cavalry charges and was pictured in a watercolour painting by the British artist by Elizabeth Southerden Thompson.

After a Turkish counter attack had been repelled Captain Herbert, noticing that the Turks were regrouping and preparing to attack again, rushed forward ahead of his men to grab an abandoned Turkish machine gun and turn it on the enemy. It is this act of bravery that Kemp-Welch captures in her finished oil painting . We currently have the preliminary charcoal drawing for this oil and it if for sale here in Hertfordshire with Blondes Fine Art.

Charcoal drawing for oil painting available for sale . Please ask for details.

In the war diary of the Warwickshire Yeomanry, Elidyr Herbert is mentioned, as “a captain of the Gloucester Hussars [who] had arrived on the scene [where the Warwickshires were pinned down] and used one of the four captured machine-guns to cause havoc amongst the Turkish infantry”.

Harold Mockford - Sussex Artist

Harold Mockford - A great artist 

“ For me painting is about recapturing the wonder. Working from the subject, be it landscape or a flower piece, I have to intensify the shape and colour until a time comes when the painting has a strangeness which feels right. My influences have been many; it is difficult to single out any particular artist. I regard all those artists in the past and contemporary artists trying to give shape to experience as my role models inspiring me to try.” Harold Mockford.

Harold Mockford has lived in East Sussex for most of his life. His work focuses on local land and seascapes. The paintings are bold and earthy and have a spiritual resonance, remind you that there is another realm of human experience beyond the physical.

 Mockford’s career took off after his involvement in the early 1960s in a group show of Eastbourne’s local artists at the former Towner Art Gallery. The newly appointed curator and abstract artist, William Gear spotted Mockford’s potential, and thereafter encouraged and supported his work. In 2012 , when Matthew Rowe - now of Rowe & Williams - was the lead at the Towner gallery he organised an exhibition of work displayed over 5 rooms.

What we love about his work is Mockford’s use of rich tones, particularly deep blues, purples and greens, whether depicting the rolling hills of the South Downs, a local street scene, or interior portrait. Mockford’s paintings, worked from memory and sketched notes, are transformations of the familiar into mystic, and at times, surreal evocations. For example, “thee black hills” (1958), is very much of its time and has a similar palette to a similar aged work of “Eastbourne “ held by the Towner gallery. Such is Mockford’s love of the familiar that he never tires of returning to a particular scene or motif. Yet each painting gives us a new experience of Mockford’s feeling for – as Paul Nash described it – ‘spirit of place’.

With such a feeling in mind Mockford’s deft use of light is a key element of his success. He is able to infuse the banal – a tree or garden gate – with a mystic or ghostly tranquillity, for example the other work currently available here at Blondes Fine Art in Hertfordshire “ Sally in bed “ exhibited in the R.A. in 1974, has a room and the view through the window hauntingly illuminated by moonlight ( see close up detail of image above). Indeed, it is that element of strangeness and ‘quietness’ that Mockford seeks, and achieves so perfectly. He has said:  ‘I’m a Quaker. I like silence’; and of his methodology: ‘I always carry a notebook, making little sketches. Then I paint….until the [image, although] familiar……has an air of strangeness’ (Interview with Emma Chaplin: vivaart.co.uk).  Even a ‘speeding’ train – The Evening Train (1999) – seems unnaturally quiet and suspended in time.

Viewers will no doubt discern a number of influences on Mockford: Sutherland’s organic forms, Paul Nash, the British Surrealists and Alan Reynolds semi abstracted landscapes. What is more baffling, perhaps, is that Mockford is not more widely known and celebrated, this has to change and we are determined to champion his work simply because we genuinely love it.

The Towner Gallery has a good permanent collection, based on its long term commitment to collecting and supporting local artists. Many of Britain’s most prominent landscape artists of the last century are represented at Towner, and it is worth a visit if you have never been.

Check out the work we have available by Harold Mockford

Alan Reynolds and Louis James - Artists And friends

Alan Reynolds is one of our greatest artists who was born in Newmarket, Suffolk in 1926 and about whom there is a great deal of material written. So what has Louis James got to do with Alan Reynolds , I hear you ask? I suspect that many who read this short blog will have never heard of Louis James , so let me fill in a few gaps.

Louis James was born in Adelaide , Australia in 1920 and became a draftsman with the national department for Lands and Survey until war broke out and he was called up. His regiment went to the UK and he then became one of the famed "desert rats" fighting in Tobruk , Patestine and Syria. He caught Malaria and was sent home to Australia where he continued his career as an artist having an exhibition at the John Martin gallery in 1949 before deciding, with his wife to travel to London to further his career. Similarly Reynolds was called up for war service and unsurprisingly, like so many involved the experience, it had a profound impact on both James and Reynolds.

Post war Reynolds studied at the Woolwich Polytechnic School of Art between 1948 - 52 and it was at this point in time that the lives of Louis James and Alan Reynolds appear have collided. It seems unrecorded as to exactly how they came to meet but one assumes that they moved in similar circles as two men studying art and attempting to make a way in life. The common denominator is the fact that they both exhibited in the London Group show in 1951 and were members of the AIA Artists' International association, a political group and mixed group exhibiting society promoting peace and democracy and were anti fascist. These group shows offered the best chance for both Reynolds and James for a foot in the door and so it was that Reynolds in particular was seen as a new bright young thing.

So they clearly found a common bond and passion for landscape drawing as they became good friends and accompanied each other on painting trips to the Kent countryside. At this time James's wife was a nurse and her regular income allowed her husband to take many jobs including a framer and gilder with Robert Savage , whose shop in South Kensington was a haven for visiting artists.

During 1950 Louis James lived in Chelsea, Kensington, Notting Hill gate and the following year moved to Hampstead which was an area he liked with many painters and creatives choosing to reside there. So, at a time that his life was beginning to settle into the London Art scene Reynolds life was about to be blown apart.  In June 1950 war broke out n Korea and in 1952 Alan Reynolds received a letter calling him up for Army training. The memory of front line action was still fresh in his memory and he turned to his close friend and someone who understood the emotions , Louis James. It was James and his wife who helped him write a letter sayings how he was not prepared to go back to war. He appeared before a tribunal at Fulham town hall and expected to be sent to prison. Instead his objection was accepted and he went on to be given a scholarship at the RCA and started there in 1952. 

It is supposition on my part here but at the age of 26 years a single man living in London with the fear of combat in front of him he must have been in a very fragile state of mind and sought comfort and advice from his very closest and trusted friends. Louis James and his wife must have been very close to Alan Reynolds at this point in time and their artistic output supports this view. The work completed by Reynolds during the early 50's is remarkably similar and suggests that they were almost sat next to each other painting the same rural scenes in the same artistic styles.

It was 1952 that Reynolds had his first one man show with Redfern gallery and one each of the following years until 1956 . It was 1956 that Louis James had his first one man show with the same gallery and was presumably referenced by Reynolds, followed with another the following year. It is hardly surprising when you look at the work of both artists and the similarity. Clearly both influenced by the work of Paul Klee their oils from 1952 both have a horizontal divide where roofs rise above a central horizontal line and then cast shadow reflected downwards and back into the foreground. (see images below)

Alan Reynolds - "The Village Fair" 1952

Louis James

In fact both artists work follows a similar path developing from the  landscape in to a more abstract form. When Reynolds began to work with the Edinburgh weavers in the late 1950's we see James work follow in style and abstraction. 

During the time that Louis James had his association with the Redfern he got to know many artists such as Francis Bacon , Ceri Richards, Patrick Heron and  Sidney Nolan  to name but a few, and he became familiar with the work of the Cobra group and de Stael and the influence is seen in his output from the early 1960's when he exhibited with the Stone Gallery in Newcastle. My personal preference is for his work from the 1950's where he painted Farmyards, his back garden and Kent landscapes all of which have a very English feel and are of a quality and style that is among the greats. James also toured the UK with his wife camping as they went and much of his work reflects the post war countryside.

The other body of work produced by James during the same period is from his holidays in France. He would go to the Dordogne Valley near Lascaux to see the cave paintings, these fascinated him and  he found an abstract quality in the over drawings and over scrapings by following generations of painters. While staying in the nearby villages he would often paint and these images of the villages bare a similarity to the early work he completed from 1952 with Reynolds in the English countryside. In 1964 James returned to Australia and this coincided with a change in style of his work. The rich impasto of his London paintings inspired in part by his interest in French art and the Dordogne cave paintings gave way to more evenly painted surfaces and the subject matter changed to the more figurative imagery of urban Australian life.

His move to Australia also removed him from the psychi of the British art press, galleries and buyers and he has become somewhat lost and very much underrated. There is no doubt that his early work from the Redfern period is of a very high quality and very much of its time . Louis James should, in my opinion be placed firmly back on the Modern British Art map and where he belongs as a fine artist.

Robert Colquhoun - Art at Tilty Mill, Essex.

Robert Colquhoun was part of the Bohemian group of artists, many of whom where gay, living in the Fitzrovia area of central  London during and immediately after the war. He and his partner Robert MacBryde, were friends with Minton, Bacon, Vaughan, Sutherland, Adler, Wirth-Miller and many more who frequented the pubs and drinking clubs of Soho at that time. There are many recorded tales about the drinking antics of "The Two Roberts" who Colquhoun and MacBryde became known, so it is all the more amazing that they were employed as surrogate parents for 4 children living in Tilty Mill in Essex during the early 50's.

Colquhoun's friendship group in London included many writers such and Dylan Thomas , George Barker and his lover Elizabeth Smart and it was the later who decided that it would be a good idea to have " The Two Roberts" take care of her children . In 1947 she began living at Tilty Mill which is located near Great Dunmow and her role as features editor on House & Garden magazine was taking her away from home so after employing a number of house keepers came to an agreement with the Roberts that they would become Surrogate parents.

This unlikely role seems to have worked well for all and the children had great fun with the Roberts only being admonished a couple of times for their drunken exploits and all settled into a domestic routine. Both of the Roberts were poor at this point in time and Colquhoun produced few paintings at this time preferring to work on monotypes and offset drawings as both were less demanding in terms of materials , cost and time. The subject matter for this body of work was taken directly from the rural surroundings and many have a farming theme depicting horses and particular pigs as the farm was in close proximity to a pig farm and to a gypsy camp.

In 1953 Colquhoun produced a most impressive painting for the Contemporary Art Society exhibition titled  Figures in their setting. It was to be the biggest and most accomplished work that Robert Colquhoun was to produce and measured 185 x 143 cm  titled Figures in a Farmyard and is set in the courtyard at Tilty Mill.

As can been seen from the image above the painting depicts three subjects , a young girl with a long plait ; a seated man holding a stick and a grotesque pig depicted in a more formalised way. The pig is stialised in an expressive Cubist way which emphasises the aggressive sinister hostility. It is not only the influences of Picasso and Cubism that can be seen here but also those of the German Expressionist Max Beckmann and Francis Bacon.

The collection of Robert Colquhoun's work available here at Blondes Fine Art , in Hertfordshire are all from the same period and two of the monoprints we have most notably provide an insight as to where the origins of the pig, in this large exhibition oil comes from . Two of the work from 1952 shown below are  clearly similar to the final image in the 1954 oil.

In 1954 some 38 works were exhibited at the Redfern gallery which was the only major show of Colquhouns work during the Tilty Mill period. A few works were also included in the 1958 retrospective at the Whitecapel Gallery which suggests that many of the ones in the earlier exhibition did sell. However, in recent times there have been a appearance of a few more works from local Essex farmers and shopkeepers placing them up for sale which seems to indicate that they may well have been produced by Colquhoun as a form of currency to pay for food and alcohol when living in Tilty Mill.

The collection for sale here at Blondes Fine Art , located just 20 miles away from Tilty Mill are from the private collection of Sir Colin Anderson  and are all in unframed excellent condition. Please do enquire for further details .

Walter Hoyle, John Aldridge , Great Bardfield and Cow Parsley.

Walter Hoyle original gouache painting for sale depicting a Great Bardfield, Essex barn. 

Walter Hoyle was a prominent member of the artist community of Great Bardfield , Essex and whilst he is perhaps most well known for his printing and teaching there is no doubt that his original work is of the highest quality, quite rare and much sought after. He studied at the RCA where he first met Edward Bawden and they clearly had a great deal of respect and admiration for each other and their respective work. Bawden invited Walter Hoyle to help him with a mural for the Festival of Britain and in 1951 they went on a painting holiday together in Sicily. The watercolours and gouache's that Hoyle produced on this trip are particularly good and some are held in the Fry Gallery collection in Saffron Walden and another fine example was in the Cambridge County Council art collection until sold in May 2017 at Cheffins auctions, where it realised £2,400 with commissions. So these rare works are not only hard to find but command a reasonable market value.

Clearly Bawden influenced Walter Hoyle but so did John Aldridge, who was the most traditional style painter of the village artists, painting landscapes which had a similarity to those of Stanley Spencer. He was often to be seen with his portable easel around the village and in his garden. Indeed the wonderful landscape that we have here at Blondes Fine Art depicting 'The Moors' at Great Bardfield, was one of his best known and iconic work which featured in a centre spread of the July edition of Modern Artist in 1955. (see below - top left.)

John Aldridge's garden was much admired by many of the residents as he was a keen and knowledgeable horticulturist who was described by his friend , the poet John Betjeman  as 'the gardeners artist'. Aldridge had some wonderful plant specimens which included the Giant Hogweed and it was this bi-annual along with its smaller cousin of the same family - Cow Parsley - that became somewhat emblematic of the Bardfield artists and appear in many images and gardens. 

Walter Hoyle was particularly fond of these plants and at certain times of the year they covered the roadside verges in the Essex villages. He depicts them in many of his work and the image at the top of this page is a great example that has only recently come to light,  it has Cow Parsley in the foreground of this lovely gouache depicting an Essex Barn. Signed lower right it would be a great addition to any collection. Please do contact us for more information should you be interested in acquiring the work.

The three other images of Cow Parsley that spring to mind when talking about Walter Hoyle are the ones shown below and the first depicts a pen and ink called 'The road to Finchingfield' which is held by the Fry Gallery . The second is a photograph of Walter Hoyle and his wife Denise which depicts him sketching a vase of dried flowers with the foremost plant being Cow Parsley.  Finally , there is the distinctive blue cover for the catalogue produced by Hoyle for the 1957/58 national tour of the Great Bardfield Artists exhibition and yes, you guessed it, the image is a reproduction of the pen and ink ' The road to Finchingfield'. 

So this little plant, often considered a weed, held a special place in the hearts of the Bardfield artists , especially Walter Hoyle, and it can be spotted in many other works. It has a wonderful texture, creamy colour and an architectural structure that lends itself to the design work and muralists of the Modern British period. So this Spring, when you are out in the countryside, stop for a moment and consider its beauty and if it suddenly appears in your garden give it a chance and let it flourish like John Aldridge and Walter Hoyle did back in the 1950's.

Please do contact us if you are thinking of buying or indeed selling work by the Great Bardfield Artists , particularly Walter Hoyle , John Aldridge and Sheila Robinson.

Enjoy Spring 2018 - it is just round the corner!

Harry Becker - Hertfordshire, Horses & Hardship

It was the period that Harry Becker spent at the Bushey School of Art in Hertfordshire, under the guidance of painter Hubert von Herkomer, that seems to have reinforced Becker's interest in social realism, the downtrodden farmer labouring underclasses and his ability as an equine artist.

Harry Becker trained at some of the best establishments in Paris and Antwerp where he was first exposed to painting scenes of manual farm labour on Dutch farms and to the techniques of 'belle peinture'  and 'plein air' by Carolus-Duran. But it was back in Hertfordshire that these skills were further developed ready to be honed out in the fields. Hertfordshire introduced Becker to two significant women painters , the first was Lucy Kemp-Welch who is one of our favourites here at Blondes Fine Art and is considered to be one of our finest equine artists. The other was Georgina Waddington who was also a talented artist and fell in love with Harry Becker, marrying in 1902 at the age of 35 years. So clearly Hertfordshire had a significant role in the life of Becker.

His love of animals became a growing part of his artistic portfolio as he painted the working dray horses and bus horses in West London near his home. He lived close by  the stables for the bus horses and produced a series of paintings in body colour on paper of a particular pair of horses, a grey and bay being groomed and cared for in the stable. These are illustrated on pages 62 -65 of the book 'Becker' by David Thompson and we are particularly proud to have the one shown below in our personal collection of work by Harry Becker together with the huge (40 x 48") lithograph depicting 'The Binder Team'. Also shown below.

Becker is without question a fine artist whose ability to depict working horses is in line with those skills of Luck Kemp-Welch,  but where his experiences differ are in his personal knowledge of hardship. Becker turned his back on London and the capitals art scene in favour of his native East Anglia. During the first world war times were hard , particularly for those working the land in Suffolk. Women , while the men were away, took to the land from about 1915 and Becker was there working in the fields with them depicting their contribution. Becker was commissioned to produce posters shown on the London underground that encouraged travel to the countryside and to work on the land. It is also slightly ironic that his suspicious sketching at the edge of fields resulted in him being arrested on more than one occasion only to be released when they realised that he was not a German spy.

Becker lived in poverty together with the farm workers and was very much accepted as one of their own. His depiction of rural Suffolk in the period from 1912 - 1928 is a unique record of the landscape, animals and farming folk who endured great hardship to just scrape a livelihood and his status as an outstanding artist continues to grow. We are great fans of his work and currently have a number of outstanding oils and watercolours available for sale so do please contact us to arrange to view or just to chat Becker!

Mark Ponting - Blondes Fine Art

Arthur Legge - Finchingfield's Hidden Treasure

We are delighted to have been featured in this months - January 2018 - edition of Essex Life , who have focused on our collection of work by Arthur Legge.

We currently have a large collection of his work for sale and Essex Life have featured his links to his home town of Finchingfield in Essex.

Pick up a copy today or just click HERE to visit the Arthur Legge collection 

Theodoros Stamos work for sale

Theodoros Stamos - the early years.

Theodoros Stamos was always interested in the effects achieved directly with colour, texture and abstract composition. He first experimented with Surrealism and the biomorphic forms that so interested Gottlieb, Baziotes and Rothko; then with just as much exuberance he went on in the fifties to immerse himself in Abstract Expressionism - and all of this was done at an age when most artists are still just leaving collage.

Theodoros Stamos was New Yorker , born and bred. He was born of Greek parents on East Eighteen Street in 1922 and lived in the city for most of his life. His parents had no artistic background and it was a photograph of a work by Jacob Epstein - one of his monsters- Stamos recalls copying onto a portable child's blackboard that is his first recollection of any artistic tendency at the age of about 8 years. Six years later at the age of 14 years he won a scholarship to attend the American Artists School where he was encouraged by Joe Soloman, who was part of a group known as "The Ten" which included Rothko, Gottlieb and Louis Schanker. Soloman also introduced him to the work of Arthur Dove and there is little doubt that his work from the 1930's influenced Stamos's work of the early 1940's. In addition he saw, and was influenced by the work of Paul Klee and Milton Avery.

c.1947

1947

1949

c.1951

Incredibly, Stamos held his first one man show when he was jut 20 years of age. In 1943 at the Wakefield Gallery run at the time by Betty Parsons, and when she moved on to become director of the Mortimer Brandt Gallery contemporary section she put on another show for Stamos in 1945. So, she was clearly a fan of his work and it is of little surprise that when she set up her own gallery in 1947 Theodoros Stamos was one of the first exhibitions. It is perhaps interesting to note that Barnett Newman was also one of the string of artists attached to the new gallery as was Hedda Sterne, Hofmann, Still and many others. Many of the artists employed similar styles and imagery which originated from nature and particularly the sea and it was a leading critic of the time , Lawrence Alloway, who gave these painters a collective name of Biomorphic Painters.

It was for the first show of Stamos that Barnett Newman wrote the following by way of introducing his work to the New York art world.

"The work of Theodoros Stamos, subtle and sensuous as it is, reveals an attitude toward nature that is closer to true communion. His ideographs capture the moment of totemic affinity with the rock and the mushroom, the crayfish and the seaweed.......one might say that instead of going to the rock he comes out of it...........
Stamos is able therefore, to catch not only the glow of an object in all its splendour but its inner life and all its dramatic implications of terror and mystery . In doing so he makes clear the important difference between the sense of nature and the act of worship."

After his 1947 exhibition he travelled to Europe and visited France , Italy and Greece. We, here at Blondes Fine Art in Hertfordshire , England, have two pieces by Stamos from this period that are currently offered for sale. Both are in excellent condition and come from a private European collection  originally purchased from Turske Fine Art in Zurich. Both work are clearly signed and one tiled and dated. The two other pieces available are a little later, one from 1949 a Y Band series work , where he utilises abstract Y-like bands to create a powerful composition using transparent and iridescent metallic paints. This painting is almost calligraphic in quality and similar to a number of works produced by Stamos during this period of the late 1940's. Finally,  we have a lovely work on board which is influenced by his interest in the oriental although undated it is from the early 1950's and similar stylistically to a number of his Teahouse series of works.

Please do contact us for more information about the available works.

 

Artist Eduardo Paolozzi and his Essex roots!

Eduardo Paolozzi is quite rightly considered to be one of Scotland's greatest artists as he was born and bred there, to Italian parents who ran an ice cream shop. However , after studies at Edinburgh Collage of Art he moved to the Slade school of art where he met two key people who changed the course of the art world for ever. It was his friendship with William Turnbull and particularly Nigel Henderson that led to the formation of the Independent Group who shared a modernist vision and embraced mass culture.
Paolozzi studied around the globe but when he came to settle down where did he choose? Yes, Essex of course.
In 1954 he moved there with his wife Freda and travelled to London to teach and work. They lived in a row of cottages at Landermere Quay which is a tiny smugglers haven on the coast of Essex near the village of Thorpe-le-Soken in the Essex marshes. The Hendersons bought the smugglers pub the Kings Head and the cottages called Gull cottages and the rest is history as between them Henderson and Paolozzi formed Hammer Prints and ran the venture from the pub . Sounds like a great plan to me......... See image of the building today.
So there we have it another bit of easily overlooked art history which makes Eduardo Paolozzi one of Essex's greatest artists!
Another interesting art fact is that living in the same cottages at the same time was Basil Spence later to be knighted as he was the architect who built Coventry Cathedral and the etched windows were designed and made by John Hutton another great artist who lived- Yes, you guessed it- in the same line of cottages. Small world isn't it!
 

It always seems strange to me that the most modern art of the popular culture was actually rooted in the remote Essex countryside but that was just out of necessity as the property prices made the area affordable and is the reason why such greats as John Armstrong, Bawden, The Two Roberts and countless other great artists settled in Essex particularly in the post war period.
So forget your preconceived ideas of Essex and embrace its wonderful Art heritage as it gave us Eduardo Paolozzi ! 

We here at Blondes Fine Art, located on the borders of Essex and Hertfordshire, currently have a number of works by Eduardo Paolozzi for sale and have just acquired a lovely collection of plaster maquette's from the studio of the Artist. Keep an eye on the website as they will be added soon.

Mark & Mel
 

Arthur J Legge RBA British Watercolours for sale

Arthur Legge was a local Essex based artist about whom I knew nothing until quite recently. We recently acquired the most original portfolio of his work which had been kept in darkened conditions to the extent that when we viewed the work it looked like they could have been painted last week. It was at this point that the old "detective" in me decided that Arthur Legge and his watercolours were just to good to go forgotten to the rest of the world and I decided to do some research . Where do you start ? Google , of course. 

I was however surprised that there was little information other than a few auction records that showed that his work had been sold in the London rooms for £600-£700 for smaller works and a larger piece at £1800. So clearly he was a fine artist and a member of the RBA who appears to have exhibited regularly in the early part of the 1900's. So how has he been forgotten ? I guess that fact that British watercolours have gone out of favour and are only know starting to see an increase in interest does account for some of the reason but actually I really cannot explain it other than to say he appears to have been a reserved chap, a family man with a wife and  daughters who had financial means and enjoyed travelling the world in his later life. 

In his working life he lived in South Essex and East London , teaching art in the Art School and exhibiting his work on a regular basis in London. No dramas, no high life , no scandal and then a retirement to Finchingfield in North Essex with his wife and daughters in 1918 having purchased a house there some ten years previous. It was whilst researching him on the internet that I found an entry about a collection of his watercolours that had been found in a trunk when the Guildhall was renovated some ten years ago and decided to contact the community to find out more. 

Finchingfield is close to Great Bardfield , which as most will know is famous for its artist community so I was even more surprised that I had not heard of this local artist before, particularly as he painted the Windmill in Bardfield and local rural farming scenes in a similar fashion and time to Harry Becker - another of our favourites here at Blondes.

Arthur Legge's Grave

Arthur Legge's house Cabbaches

After a few emails I made arrangements to see Dez Fahy at the Guildhall who agreed to show me the work they had in the Guildhall collection. None was framed and many rolled so I was concerned about there condition but I need not have been as they were in superb condition and the fact that they had not been displayed meant the colours were strong . The subjects varied from local scenes, portraits of his daughter and rural farm labouring activity but all were accomplished and completed by an artist who should be much better known. So having seen these watercolours and showed mine to Des and the others there to assist, I was then given more information than I had expected as they had done research on the Legge family and told me the following information.

Arthur Legge was born in 1859 and died 1942 he lived with his family in a large house at the rear of the churchyard called Cabbaches , a fine medieval house. He was buried in the graveyard in Finchingfield church but before he died designed the war memorial in the village. It appears from talking to those that knew one of his  daughters that he also carved some stunning work which is still in his house together with panelling that he purchased from another local house when being converted into a butchers shop. Indeed the records of the house purchase , for the sum of £200,  still exist as do the family tree that shows his wife was originally from Steeple Bumpstead and that one of is daughters married a local farmer and his relatives still farm land between Great Bardfield and Finchingfield. 

So I am most grateful to the Finchingfield community for sharing this information and feel that it is necessary to find out a little more about this very good artist. What I still do not know is anything about his travels. How and why did he travel abroad in the 1920/30s and can anone out there help fill in some gaps? In a effort to find out more I went home via "Between the lines" the book shop in Great Bardfield to have a coffee with the village sage and author, Janet Dyson who also knew little about the artist. So there it will stay for the moment and should anything else come to light I will be sure to post another blog .

Please, please do spend a moment looking at the 30 plus watercolours that we have posted as an on line exhibition . They are all for sale and are of locations around the world that we would think nothing of travelling to on holiday today but in the 1920's this must have been an unusual and expensive event - No Ryan Air back then!

They are great value for money so treat yourself for Christmas and bring back those summer holiday memories by purchasing a watercolour by Arthur Legge. 

LInk to on line Exhibition of work by Arthur Legge

John Thompson - Northern Artist - For Sale

I really have neglected the blog and this lazy Sunday with an extra hour gained by the clock change seems like the best day to start to make amends. We can always find reasons and excuses such as working in Germany and Portugal recently in my case, but actually I have missed the time to "chat art". So after much deliberation I have decided to go back to my childhood roots for the first of what I hope can be more regular blogs in the run up to Christmas. To start us off this one is about the Northern artist John Thompson.

John Thompson was born in Oldham and is essentially self-taught save for a few years studies of life drawing classes , John Thompson painted groups of figures, cloth capped and anonymous, that loom, loiter and cannot stop reminding you of Lowry. He is quite rightly compared to other, better known northern artists such as Theodore Major, Harold Riley and the man himself, L. S. Lowry. This recognition took time to develop, but in the last 7 years of his life John enjoyed enormous success.
 

I am myself a Lancashire lad having been born in Morecambe  before slowly migrating south with my fathers job, so it is not a real surprise that I have an affinity with Northern art and John Thompson is one of the best. It was a few years ago in the mid 1990's and on a wet afternoon that we were wandering around a mill in Uppermill which had lots of small areas filled with crafts, antiques and artists and came across John Thompson in a room filled with his paintings.  John Thompson was beginning to find some  recognition at this time for his very individual work particularly of his “groups of working men”. We left  about 3 hours later having talked about  painting, the art world and John’s life. We nearly purchased one of his group series and this is still a regret that we did not. I do remember that he even said that he would be happy split the cost into multiple payments on  postdated cheques as he said he still liked the idea of receiving a wage from his job. Wish I had agreed!

 John Thompson's  work is now widely collected both at home and abroad. He has had successful one man shows in Manchester and Dublin and in 2002 three of his paintings were purchased by the House of Lords in London and are now hanging in the Committee Rooms.

A book on his life and work – “Do you like ’em then” was published in March 2006 and he has been the subject of features on Channel 4 and Granada TV.

This recognition, particularly for his group portraits of working men, has taken time to develop, but is thoroughly deserved. The image available now at Blondes Fine Art is in great condition and a sure fire investment for the future, so do contact us for further details .

Harold Septimus Power painting for sale

Harold Septimus Power was not an artist familiar to me until 2015 when I visited the Bushey Museum to view the magnificent work of Lucy Kemp-Welch. At the end of a line of paintings I was taken by a painting of two plough horses which I assumed to be by Miss Kemp-Welch, but when I examined the label it read as follows " The Artist is Harold Septimus Power "Ploughing" This is a print from an old painting by the Australian artist who spent some time in Bushey from 1907."  It was from this point that I became interested in this artist and began to find out just how highly regarded he had been.

Harold Septimus Power (1877-1951), artist, was born on 31 December 1877 at Dunedin, New Zealand, son of Peter Power, English-born hatter, and his Scottish wife Jane, née Amers. At the age of 14, Power ran away from home to pursue a career as an artist. He developed a passion for drawing animals, especially horses, and found jobs that involved contact with animals. While working for a carriage painter, he painted studies of animal heads on butcher's delivery vans, and later on he worked as a veterinarian's assistant.

After some art training in Melbourne he exhibited in 1899 with the Melbourne Art Club, winning both animal and landscape sections. Soon after, he moved to Adelaide where he worked as an illustrator for the Observer, the Register, the Critic and other papers he also painted in the Adelaide hills with Hans Heysen.  In 1904 he was the first Australian artist to be commissioned by the trustees of the National  Art Gallery of South Australia to paint an animal picture ('After the day's toil') for 100 guineas. On 17 September he married Isabel Laura Butterworth (d.1935).

In 1905-07 Power studied at the Académie Julian, Paris, then in 1907 settled in London, becoming a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Oils and the Society of Animal Painters, and exhibiting at the Royal Academy of Arts. His first one-man exhibition at the Guild Hall, Melbourne, in June 1913 displayed oils and watercolours of rural landscapes, used as backdrops for scenes of equine splendour and hunting which were to remain popular with both the local and international public and critics for the next thirty years. It was here that he exhibited Stag Hunt Exmoor which had been hung in the Royal Academy's exhibition in 1911 and it was purchased by the National gallery of Victoria. Power had another successful exhibition in Adelaide the following year and then returned to England in 1914.

The oil painting on canvas that we have for sale here at Blondes Fine Art in Hertfordshire was purchased direct from the artist by a Hertfordshire collector and it has remained in the family by decent and has never left Hertfordshire , remaining here for the past century . It is signed lower left and in its original artists frame . Although undated it is believed to have been purchased between 1910 and 1915, which is the period when the artist was really making a name from himself in London.

The outbreak of the First World War found Power in England. At the age of thirty-seven he was an established artist who specialised in, but was not limited to, animal subjects, principally horses. He was a competent draughtsman; and though best known for his oil paintings, he could work successfully in watercolour. Executed in the academic tradition with frequent romantic overtones, his work eschewed any modern influences and intellectual qualities. Technically proficient, he could be relied upon to make a picture both pleasing and effecting a “satisfactory realism” (J S MacDonald 1958), well-qualified to enter upon arguably the most significant phase of his career.  

From London, Power followed the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) from the disastrous Gallipoli campaign of 1915 to the battlefields of the Western Front during 1916-17. In the early years of the war he completed Anzacs (1915, National Gallery of Victoria) and The enemy in sight (1916, Art Gallery of New South Wales). On 3 September 1917, he was appointed an official war artist by the Australian High Commissioner and attached to the AIF with the honorary rank of lieutenant. He crossed to France, making a second trip in August 1918, in the company of another appointee, Fred Leist, and C.E.W. Bean, Australia’s official war correspondent, and spent his first evening in Hazebrouck huddled with them in the cellar of a house as the Germans bombed the town. The terms of Power’s appointment obliged him to make at least twenty-five sketches for the Commonwealth; he delivered roughly seven more, a gift to the “Australian Nation”, as he explained to the Australian High Commission (letter, 20 November 1918). These sketches are mostly drawings and watercolours and contain only a few small oil pictures. According to Jean Campbell (1983, pg 113), Power’s “vigour and strength” are seen at their best in his war watercolours, for example, Going into action (1917). His skills as an animal painter were also apparent in such paintings as 'The First Divisional Artillery goes into action before Ypres July 31st 1917' which was acclaimed at the Royal Academy in 1919.

Commencing in July 1918, Power was commissioned first by the Commonwealth and later by the Australian War Memorial to paint a number of battle pictures and military scenes depicting significant events in which the AIF and the Australian Light Horse had been involved. This work occupied him throughout the 1920s and late into the 1930s and includes First Australian Division Artillery going into the 3rd Battle of Ypres (1919) and Saving the guns at Robecq (1920), both action paintings focusing on horses and artillery. The battle pictures and scenes are imaginative reconstructions which Power meticulously researched with guidance from Bean to ensure, so far as possible, their historical accuracy.

Power’s several visits to Australia during the 1920s were long enough for him to carry out other official commissions. In 1922, he was commissioned to make a large mural for the Melbourne Public Library, depicting the Eastern and Western Fronts and the finished work, War, comprising three panels with an overall length of 15.2 metres, was installed in 1924. In 1927, the Commonwealth commissioned him to paint a picture of the outside ceremony for the opening of Parliament House, Opening of Federal Parliament at Canberra, 9 May 1927 (1928). Power was also active in art circles, becoming a member of the Australian Watercolour Institute (1926-28) and exhibiting in its first exhibition at Horden’s Gallery in 1924. He was associated with the establishment of the new Melbourne Art Club in 1933; and was a foundation member of the deeply conservative Australian Academy of Art (1937-46).

Throughout the 1930s Power painted steadily and exhibited regularly, sticking closely to his chosen idiom, and this continued during the 1940s. He enjoyed enormous popularity and his work commanded consistently high prices, even during the Depression. Equine and other animal subjects dominate the canvases of these decades with occasional portraits and numerous flower pieces. He held his final exhibition in Melbourne in 1949. 

A peculiar form of deafness had afflicted Power from an early age, creating an impediment in his social life. To C.E.W. Bean, the artist presented as shy and intensely nervous, and his heart went out to “this lovable man”. In spite of his disability, Middleton claims that Power was a cheerful man who enjoyed entertaining friends at home, and revelled in telling stories about the experiences in his life.

Power died of cancer in Melbourne on 3 January 1951, aged seventy-three, and was buried in Brighton Cemetery. He was survived by his second wife and two sons, one from each marriage. On his death, Louis McCubbin, a long-time director of the Art Gallery of South Australia, himself an official war artist of the First World War, perhaps accurately summed up Power’s achievement: “His abilities particularly fitted him to be a painter of war subjects such as charging horses… He was outstanding as an animal painter – the most important Australia has produced in this field” (Argus, 4 January 1951). A small retrospective exhibition was held in 1985 at Trevor Bussell Fine Art Gallery, a Sydney suburban gallery. The Australian War Memorial holds by far the largest collection of Power’s works (roughly fifty-four); otherwise he is thinly if widely represented in Australia’s public collections.

Art Wanted ! - Are you selling an Inherited or your own Art collection?

Here at Blondes Fine Art we have recently helped some friends and clients' families to achieve the best value for art work they wanted to sell. Shown above are just 3 examples of work that we have purchased from private clients in the past 4 weeks. So why did they trust us to give them the highest price possible?

People sell collections for many reasons , a change of circumstances,  to fund a new life adventure or perhaps you have the difficult role of distributing the wealth of a loved ones estate.

So are you thinking of selling up and sailing around the world ? What if you've suddenly become a collector not quite by choice? Maybe one day you get a call: a loved one has died and left you with their beloved painting, or a whole house full of art. What next? 

If it is the latter then one of the first steps, of course, is to decide whether or not you want to keep it. Do you like the paintings or sculptures? Do you dislike the work, but love the family history tied to it? Do you like the work, but have a feeling it could be really valuable and, honestly, would rather have the money to buy something else. Do you not really have an opinion on the work, but think it may have value for a museum, art school, or historian? If you've thought it over and settled on any of the options that lead to disposing of the work, read on.

Of course, a solicitor will be involved and they usually have a close working relationship with auction houses and will advise that the best course of action, for you to get fair value for the items, is to consign to auction. But is it ? The decision is for the individual but before you take this advice perhaps you should know the facts.

It might help to begin with, to create a catalogue of the works. This can be done by you personally , the solicitor or may have already been done by your relative. Hopefully, there will be a lot of information that was already prepared but some things you'll want to know are the artist's name, titles of the work, dates when the work was created, whether or not the work has been exhibited and where, and the provenance (or history of ownership) of the piece. Take a photograph of each piece and organise everything so that someone looking into the collection can have all of the information they'd need about each work easily available in one place.

If you don't have much information and don't know much about art to determine these things yourself, or if it simply sounds too tedious, you can always hire someone else to do this for you. You may also want to ask a gallery that has knowledge of the artists concerned as they may do this for you free of charge and make sure the works are stored properly since their condition is an important factor of their value. 

Once you have a better idea on the collection, do some research on the artists and works you've inherited. Most professional galleries should be able to give you advice or just get on to the web and google the artist. You will be amazed what you can find out.

Deciding Where the Collection Should Go

If it's determined that the collection has a decent value (either financially or intellectually), there are three main options to choose from: putting it up for auction, selling it to an art dealer, or gifting it to a museum or other academic collection. 

Auction Versus Gallery:

Auction

• Typically, works sell for much less at an auction than with a gallery - usually 1/3rd of the true value and to add insult to injury the auction house will charge you about 30 - 40% of the hammer price for the privilege of selling it for you . So you end up with a fraction of the value of the item. The truth is that their are many low level art dealers who are termed "runners" who attend all of the auction houses and buy work up at these low values only to sell it to a gallery a few days later for a significant profit. The art business is a strangely secret world where items are bought for a few hundred pounds at auction and can sell the next month in a Mayfair gallery for hundreds of thousands and the people who loose out are those who inherited the goods and consign to auction expecting to get fair value.
• So why do solicitors advise clients to sell at auction ? The simple answer is they are just taking the easy route and are no more an expert on art than you are. It is the easy way for them to work, but they are potentially losing you a significant amount of money.

Gallery/Dealer

• If you're now leaning towards a gallery, go on-line and find dealers that specialise in the artist, region, or period your collection represents. Look for a gallery that sells similar work to what you have and is successful at doing so. Also pick up the phone and talk to them to get a good idea of how friendly they seem. Go to visit them - any professional dealer or gallerist will be happy to spend time helping you and you should expect to see some genuine interest in the work you are selling. Discuss with them your own research and tell them the price you think they are worth and why you think so. Expect them to be able to justify any valuation they give you. 
• Consignment Versus Selling it Outright: If you're working with a dealer, you'll likely have the option of either selling the work directly to them or giving it to them on consignment, which means you'll be loaning the work to them without getting any money upfront and then getting a portion of the proceeds if/when the piece sells. If it's consigned  the dealer won't have as much pressure to sell it if they didn't pay any money for it already, and it's possible it'll be pushed aside and never sold, so selling it outright typically gets you the better deal.

Donating

• If your works have high intellectual value, either because of their importance in art history or their place in local social history, you may want to contact museums, schools, or historians to see if they'd be interested in accepting the collection as a gift. Not only will you get the satisfaction of contributing to cultural and historical preservation, but it's also considered a tax deductible charitable donation. No matter what path you choose there are going to be tax issues to take into consideration, so it's always a good idea to involve a solicitor that specialises in managing estates, but if you decide to donate your collection these concerns get even more convoluted. You'll definitely want to hire a solicitor to help you through the process and if you engage with a gallery or dealer they may also be able to broker a payment to you for the collection as the museums can apply for lottery art fund and heritage grants.

So , is this straight forward? Is getting fair value easy? .........Clearly not, but do not just consign to auction without attempting to make contact with a specialist dealer . They will have much greater knowledge on the artwork than the auction house and you will be surprised at the good value they will give for the collection. 

Trust your judgement not to the luck of the day of the auction.

If this article has raised any issues or thoughts then please do contact us here at Blondes Fine Art. We are a small family run gallery and art dealership based in Hertfordshire , England but with clients across the world.

We care about people, our reputation and our professionalism so if your circumstances have changed and you are looking to realise the cash from your much loved collection or you have the unenviable task of managing the estate of a loved one please do contact either Melanie or Mark for a chat. We pride ourselves in being approachable, but above all discreet and value our clients privacy. This and the fact that we pay the very highest prices possible and give free, honest advice is why people come to us.

Check out our 'about' pages to find out a little more about us. We look forward to hearing from you.

Harry Becker - Wanted

Harry Becker is an artist who is of particular interest to us here at Blondes Fine Art.

Did your father or grandfather know Harry Becker ?
Are you related to the brothers that played in Beckers home and allowed by Georgina to choose paintings after his death?
Did you move to remote Scotland and now looking to sell your collection?

If you have inherited work by Harry Becker, other Bushey School of Art artists,  or have been told that an unsigned work is by this artist and are a little unsure, then please do contact us and we will help where ever possible.

He was a fine artist and we are genuinely enthusiastic about acquiring new work for the gallery. We will pay the best price we possibly can and have a very up to date feel of the current market in his original work. We - Melanie and I - work from our private "stable yard gallery" in Hertfordshire close to the Henry Moore House & Garden , where Melanie also works. We offer a friendly , professional and  honest service that you can trust. 

Harry Becker originals are Wanted right now so contact us and we will help you realise the best price.

Mark Ponting
Blondes Fine Art

Info@blondesfineart.com

mobile number 07519639386

Merlyn Evans - 1960's abstract paintings

Merlyn Evans wrote in the introduction to his exhibition at the Marlborough Gallery in March 1968 .....

' By temperament and preference, I have been from the early age of seventeen an abstract painter'

He was precociously gifted as a student at the Glasgow School of Art and then Royal College of Art in London and exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy on 1930 and 31. He was influenced by Surrealism in the 1930's and also Mondrian . Evans temperament combined passion and philosophical speculation and argument, and he was well read in psychology, philosophy, politics and the history and techniques of art. He was also profoundly affected by Modernist literature and poetry, a lover of music and player of jazz piano and trumpet. He married the concert pianist Marjorie Few in 1950 I think it is interesting that his abstract work seems to have started in the late 1950's with a series of work entitled The Orchestra. These derived from studies made from the box at the Festival Hall and were an attempt to depict the ensemble of the orchestra as a crowd.

The theme of crowd and its complex form and process continued to fascinate Merlyn Evans and drove him to produce the vast Waterloo Station Series in 1963.

For Sale 1963 Abstract series

Waterloo Station

His final work consisted of four tall sections of nine feet by four but what we have here at Blondes Fine Art in Hertfordshire are two of the studies that he painted at the station over a period of years. These recorded, what he termed 'direct from nature'. The final work was too big to be hung in the gallery rooms of Tunnard and Roberts  where Evans exhibited in October 1963, and was displayed instead in the studio, a disused church in Fleet Road, Hampstead, which was also large enough to house his huge presses. ( see image below of Evans in front of the huge panels )

Merlyn Evans had after returning from the war, learnt etching and aquatint and became a master intaglio printmaker and he is still considered to be one of the Modern British 'greats' in this particular field.

The sequence of panels in the Waterloo Series is also interesting as it suggests a musical process of complication to simplicity, with overlapping transitions from the figurative to the geometric. Panels one and three where described by Evans as 'figurative with a controlled degree of representation. Everything is on the move. ' In panel one the crowd is clearly seen as a collection of individuals, massing at rush hour into spaces between the booths and advertising hoardings. In panel three there is more of a merging into one mass. Panel two gives a cinematic  shot of the stations static properties with the crowd in the foreground while the transition to abstraction is complete in the final panel which shows the station reduced to purely geometric forms. It seems that Evans wanted to articulate the disconcerting vision of the modern city of London with its human masses in contrast to the stark modern architecture.

 The pair of works available here are for panels three and four and come from the personal collection of the great British composer Malcolm Arnold. His work is hard to find and rarely available other than in a few St James, London galleries so please do contact us to arrange a viewing or for more information about these works.

Walter Hoyle - Great Bardfield Artist - Etchings for sale

Walter Hoyle was greatly influenced by his friend Edward Bawden and , together with Sheila Robinson , they are my favourite Bardfield printmakers. Indeed both worked very closely with Bawden on a number of projects both in the UK and abroad. Walter Hoyle worked together with Bawden and Robinson on the mural for the RCA's Lion and Unicorn Pavilion at the 1951 Festival of Britain on the South Bank in London and upon its completion he holidayed with Bawden in Sicily where they both painted daily.

It was shortly after their return from this trip that Walter Hoyle moved to Great Bardfield. In the early 1960s he really concentrated on printmaking. He was teaching at Cambridge School of Art , set up a print studio and launched 'Cambridge Print Edition' to produce limited editions of artists' prints. It was at this point that he produced a series of prints depicting Cambridge Colleges that was published by Editions Alecto. The Cambridge Colleges were 10 Linocuts made in 1965-6 and were sold in a portfolio box set. These were shown in an exhibition 'Zodiac Paintings and Cambridge Prints ' at Savage Gallery , London 1966. 

A short time later Hoyle made a series of prints based on his paintings on the zodiac and were produced by Editions Alectro as the  ' Planet Series' . These seem to have disappeared over the decades and rarely now come to the market for some reason. They were complicated works and he experimented with paper, techniques and inks producing for cutting edge material.

' Bright Star ' 1969

There is no doubt that the years spent in Great Bardfield were an important part of Walter Hoyles life . Moving to Essex and Cambridgeshire allowed him to raise a family and to develop as an artist while mixing with other like minded individuals. Unlike some of the other artists in Bardfield his work developed greatly over the years, creating new images that challenged his previous work. As a result I think his work is more varied than others but perhaps less distinctive and recognisable than other Bardfield artists. Having said this it also makes his work more interesting and individual, as he adapted his practise in response to where ever he was at the time . We here at Blondes Fine Art currently have two lovely Etchings available for purchase.

He married Denise Hoyle who was of French birth and spent the later part of his life living between Hastings and Dieppe until he died in 2000.

John Bratby - Sunflower oil painting - Wanted

John Bratby is one of our most well known artists who was one of the group of famous  'Kitchen sink' artists.

He is particularly known for his large vibrant images of yellow sunflowers from the 1960's /70s and we are currently looking to buy a work in good condition with good provenance. the cash is waiting for the right work so please do contact us if you are looking to sell. 

Bratby’s fame was, in his time, the equivalent of Damien Hirst or Tracey Emin. Everyone knew who John Bratby was. A supercharged realist-cum-expressionist, Bratby piled up the paint in mounds of impasto that threatened to topple off his pictures. Bratby epitomised the mid-Fifties British rebellion against pretension and the class system.

In the Sixties he produced intense, psychedelic portraits of international stars such as Paul McCartney and David Frost, wrote existentialist novels and painted a notorious mural of the crucifixion with his own flabby torso on the cross.In the Seventies he turned to the Right, politically, was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts and then tried, unsuccessfully, to paint the portrait of Idi Amin. He also completed perhaps the worst-ever group painting of the Royal Family purely for publicity .

There had been no one like John Bratby, but after his death only Charles Saatchi remained a champion of his. 

All this said we here at Blondes Fine Art are looking to purchase . Contact us now on 07519639386

URSULA McCANNELL painting for sale -The Spanish influence.

 "It's fairly easy to discover how writers like George Orwell or WH Auden or Laurie Lee reacted to the Spanish crisis, and I have to say that 'As I walked out one Midsummer Morning' by Laurie Lee has to be one of my favourite reads. But what Britain's painters and sculptors did is less well known."

The people of London were troubled by the growing tension in Europe in the run up to World War II  in the late 1930s, British artists reacted to the Spanish Civil War and the great crisis in European politics in the period before World War Two.The artists mostly supported the Republican side, which had been ejected from power by General Franco. Most of the artists are now dead  and indeed the youngest - Ursula McCannell - recently passed away but before she did she was interviewed about what she could recall of the Spain she encountered as a teenager in 1936

Ursula McCannell's paintings were inspired by the suffering she saw when her family visited Spain in the 1930s. McCannell was 13 at the time. Her father was Otway McCannell, a painter and teacher. As with many intellectual British families in the 1930s there was much discussion at home of the growing crisis in Madrid. She remembers her father worrying about the pressure the Republican government was under from the Nationalists under General Franco. Later in the war he would plot the two sides' changing fortunes on a big map of Spain, despairing as the Republicans lost control. Ursula recalled ,"Every Thursday we had Left Book Club meetings at our house and there would be people talking about Spain and politics. In truth, when we went to Torremolinos in 1936, it was partly to stay with a school friend. But I remember the suffering of the local people clearly. The sense of unease was obvious, even to a young person like me."

One of McCannell's paintings from this period is Family of Beggars. "I didn't paint or sketch in Torremolinos, which in those days was just a sleepy little village and totally unlike how it is now. I started the paintings when we got back to England. There were quite a lot of them but I sold some. In fact the beggars were outside the cathedral at Malaga. They were a pathetic sight but my parents thought I ought to see everything.When we got back I was interviewed by newspapers including the Daily Mail. They were fascinated that a 13-year-old had painted pictures of the Spanish poor. I wasn't painting the conflict as such, but they said I'd portrayed the suffering of refugees well. You couldn't help being moved." McCannell was among the last artistic witnesses to the crisis of Spanish politics in the 1930s. 

The visit to  Spain just before the Spanish Civil War and the experience had a profound and continuing effect on her work.Themes that she developed at this time, the atmosphere of unease and the depiction of people at the edge of society remained with her for ever. The influence of Spain continued during the 1960's and 70's when her family took their holidays in Cadaques , in Northern Spain. Cadaques was a beautiful village on the Catalan coast where Picasso spent a summer in 1910 and it was where Dali, Duchamp and Man Ray all had homes. McCannell painted the older inhabitants of the village , who had survived life in body but not spirit, the textures of the old plastered walls and the peeling whitewash paint textures that are mirrored in the haunted faces and twisted hands of the village dwellers.

McCannell continued to paint in Spain when in 1963 together with her husband she purchased a house in Cadaques. The influence of this country on her work was always there in her work and gives it a unique feel. It was while painting in Spain at this time that she started to explore new ways of applying paint and I was lucky to recently view one of these works where sand had been mixed with the oil to give a unique texture.Unfortunately, it  is now often found to have been subject to a degree of paint loss. All this said the work I examined was 18 x 12 inch and depicted the Farm House near their home in Cadaques, a lovely image that made a very healthy sum even at a small provincial auction, confirming that her work is still very popular and indeed the hardest thing is finding one available to purchase.In 2016 a retrospective exhibition of works by Ursula McCannell took place at the Fosse Gallery in Stow-on-the-Wold  where there were around 30 works, mostly oil on canvas apart from a small selection of drawings, dating from the 1980s and 1990s with some available to purchase, prices range from £950 for the drawings and up to £15,000 for the oils.

We are very pleased to be able to offer the fabulous work that we currently have from the RA Summer exhibition of 1977.