Joan Gillchrest

Church and Churchyard - Landscape Painting, Mid-20th Century, Oil Paint, Modern

Ken Symonds. English ( b.1927 - d.2010 ). The Harbor, St Michaels Mount, Cornwall, 1982. Oil on Artist’s Board. Signed. Image size 15.4 inches x 19.5 inches ( 39cm x 49.5cm ). Frame...

Donald McIntyre. English ( b.1923 - d.2009 ). Girl and Chapel, North Wales. Oil on card. Signed with monogram twice lower left. Image size 12 inches x 15.6 inches ( 30.5cm x 39.5cm ...

Anthony Morris. English ( b.1938 ). Llangynidr Bridge over the River Usk in Winter. Oil on Board. Signed. Image size 6.7 inches x 8.7 inches ( 17cm x 22cm ). Frame size 10.4 inches ...

Arthur Spooner. English ( b.1873 - d.1962 ). Rural Derbyshire. Oil on Card. Signed. Image size 6.7 inches x 9.1 inches ( 17cm x 23cm ). Frame size 10.2 inches x 12.6 inches ( 26cm x...

Joan Gillchrest. English ( b.1918 - d.2008 ). Cornish Fishing Boats at First Light. Oil on Paper Mounted on Board. Signed with Monogram. Image size 26.2 inches x 22 inches ( 66.5cm x 56cm ). Frame size 35.8 inches x 31.3 inches ( 91cm x 79.5cm ). Available for sale; this original oil painting is by the Cornish artist Joan Gillchrest and dates from around the late 1980s. The oil painting is presented and supplied in a sympathetic new replacement frame (which is shown in these photographs) that suits the artwork’s color palette and behind non-reflective Tru Vue UltraVue® UV70 glass. This painting is in excellent condition and presents superbly. It wants for nothing and is ready to hang and display. The painting is signed with a monogram lower right. Joan Gillchrest is one of Mousehole’s and Cornwall’s most recognised and celebrated artists. Her vibrant art sits firmly alongside other great artists of the St. Ives School from the 1960s. She was born Joan Scott in London in 1918 into a wealthy and illustrious family. She was the third of four children. Her father was a pioneer of radiology – and a skilful caricaturist - and her Australian mother was an accomplished pianist. Sir George Gilbert Scott was her great grandfather, who designed the imposing Midland Grand Hotel at St. Pancras as well as countless parish churches. Grandfather, George Gilbert Scott Jnr, is remembered for three Cambridge colleges, Christ’s, Pembroke and Peterhouse. Her uncle Giles, (Giles Gilbert Scott) to whom Joan was close, is best known for his magnificent Anglican Liverpool Cathedral, Battersea Power Station and the iconic and ubiquitous red telephone box. Coming from such a long line of eminent architects it is not surprising that Joan always loved architecture and the churches and chapels of the Penwith peninsula feature prominently in her work. She said that buildings were “in her blood”. Her early childhood was spent at the family home in Buckinghamshire, but she was a difficult child – the family hired one nanny for her and one for the other three children- and at one point she was sent to Upper Chine School in the Isle of Wright to give her family some peace! She was however the apple of her father’s eye and he encouraged her obvious artistic talent. In 1934, aged only 15 but encouraged by her parents, she went to Paris to study art and learn the language. There she met Gwen John and studied in various studios, sometimes working as a model. In 1936 she enrolled at the Grosvenor School of Art and subsequently studied there under Iain McNab, whom she described as a marvelous teacher. Her early artistic career was very promising; she first exhibited at the Royal Academy when she was just 18 and showed works at the New England Art Club in 1937 and the London Group in 1938. When the Second World War broke out Joan was 21. She took a crash course in nursing and first aid and volunteered as an ambulance driver for Westminster Hospital. She later drove a mobile rescue unit. She was not able to paint much during the war but kept in touch with McNab; when the area around St Paul’s was blitzed, leaving the cathedral relatively unscathed, McNab got Joan and a few others to paint the scene. Her work, created with a thick paint and a palette knife, hung in the art school for many years. Joan’s painting career stalled in the 1940s. In 1942 she married a barrister and Coldstream Guards officer Samuel Gillchrest, and they soon had a son, then a daughter. With a young family, she had little time to paint, and had to hide the work she did produce as her husband thought that work as an artist was beneath them. Sadly, the marriage broke down and in 1953 they divorced. In leaving a difficult marriage at this time, she forfeited money, security and her previous place in society. Despite the huge changes in her life, her overwhelming desire to paint remained constant. She ignored the disapproval of her friends and family and started to explore new ways of expressing herself on canvas. She moved to a studio in Chelsea, an area much favored by the artistic community. To support herself, her children and her painting she also found regular work as an artist’s model. She was tall, strikingly good looking and combined elegance with bohemianism. She also carried an air of mystery from her rich and privileged past, and so she became sought after as a fashion model. In the flat below hers lived an artist who had enjoyed some professional acclaim, Adrian Ryan...

Peter Ross. English (b.1941) The Young Richard Burton and his father. Welsh Coal Mining Community. Oil on Board. Signed. Image size 24 inches x 24 inches ( 61cm x 61cm ). Frame size 25.2inches x 25.2inches (64cm x 64cm ). Available for sale; this original painting is by Peter Ross and dates from 2013. The painting is presented and supplied in a contrasting contemporary floating frame (which is shown in these photographs). This painting is in superb condition. It wants for nothing and is supplied ready to hang and display. The painting is signed lower left. Peter Ross is a Welsh artist living in England and currently producing paintings about his childhood in South Wales in the 1950’s and 60’s. Peter was born in Llanfrechfa, South Wales in 1941. He grew up in Newport and studied at Newport Art College from 1958-62 and then at Bristol Art College from 1962-63. For most of his working life he worked as an art teacher in secondary schools and before retiring in 2007, as an art technician. He now teaches life drawing to adults and exhibits his work in galleries in England and Wales. Since his time as an art student Peter has continued to paint for himself. He has always chosen themes which appealed to him at specific times such as conflict, journeys, faces and cultural/literary figures. Each phase of interest and painting usually lasting one to two years and resulting in an exhibition before starting on the next subject of interest. Peter’s work has been mostly narrative-based or representational, with one abstract phase immediately after leaving art college. In recent years his interest has returned to his childhood and his memories of Newport, South Wales. These paintings are based on family and archive photographs, memories, research and other influences like Dylan Thomas. Peter has had numerous one person and joint shows. His has also taken part in the Royal Academy Summer Show, The Arts Council of Wales, South Wales Group and Welsh Artist of the Year Show 2008. He has recently exhibited at the Riverfront Gallery in Newport, the Ardent Gallery, Brecon and the Nick Holly...

Duncan Gleason lived in New York and other places for work or studies but it was really Southern California where he felt most at home, and looking at his body of work, that love of ...

On verso: H GASSER

Alfred Henry Maurer has been called the First American Modern because of his role in bringing modern methods of working to the United States

Laimdots Murnieks had a significant influence on the development of Latvian painting at the end of the 20th century. His work 'Holiday' conveys the feeling lightness and joy, which i...

Wind gestures. 1991. Oil on cardboard. 91,5x85 cm This depiction of trees shows artist Laimdots Murnieks as a master of nature representation. Ev...

Laimdots Murnieks had a significant influence on the development of Latvian painting at the end of the 20th century. His work 'Holiday' conveys the fee...