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Mary Potter Art

British, 1900-1981

Mary Potter, OBE was an English painter whose best-known work uses a restrained palette of subtle colors. After studying at the Slade School of Fine Art, Potter began her career, exhibiting in London by the early 1920s. From the 1950s, her work became increasingly abstract and she gained wider notice. Born Mary Attenborough in Beckenham, she upset her parents by choosing painting from her many talents. While at Slade, she was awarded first prize for portrait painting and a place in the New English Art Club exhibition. She then decided that she was working to a formula and ceremonially burned all her portraits. Mary, later, married writer Stephen Potter and with two children, continued to paint as she wished. It was while living by the Thames in Chiswick from 1927 that she began to dabble with the watery vision which she would explore for the rest of her life. An early member of The London Group, Mary Potter also showed allegiance to the Seven and Five Society. In 1951, the Potter family moved to Aldeburgh, and it was this Suffolk fishing town that was to provide the inspiration for her finest art. After her divorce in 1955, her great friendship with the founders of the Aldeburgh Festival, Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, led to them swapping houses for six years. This was so that she could paint overlooking the sea from Crag House. During her isolation, she painted to ever greater acclaim by paring down her vision, thinning her paint, blurring outlines and abolishing the horizon line.

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Red House Garden, Aldeburgh - Mary Potter Watercolour Landscape Painting, Green
By Mary Potter
Located in Kingsclere, GB
Mary Potter 1900-1981 Red House Garden, Aldeburgh, 1955, circa watercolour over pencil 19 x 18 cm 7 1/2 x 7 1/8 in inscribed verso Mary Potter was a painter of still lifes and lands...
Category

Mid-20th Century Mary Potter Art

Materials

Paper, Watercolor, Pencil

Golfers in the Rain I (The Fourteenth Hole), Oil on Canvas Painting, 1956 circa
By Mary Potter
Located in Kingsclere, GB
Golfers in the Rain I (The Fourteenth Hole), Oil on Canvas Painting, 1956 circa Additional information: Medium: Oil on canvas 50.8 x 63.5 cm 20 x 25 in A similar composition, Trees...
Category

20th Century Mary Potter Art

Materials

Canvas

A Rough Sea, Aldeburgh, Oil on Canvas Painting by Mary Potter, 1958 circa
By Mary Potter
Located in Kingsclere, GB
A Rough Sea, Aldeburgh, Oil on Canvas Painting by Mary Potter, 1958 circa Additional information: Medium: Oil on canvas 61 x 50.8 cm 24 x 20 in Signed verso This view is of the shi...
Category

20th Century Mary Potter Art

Materials

Canvas

Pale Grey and Pink (White Sun), Oil on Canvas Painting by Mary Potter
By Mary Potter
Located in Kingsclere, GB
Pale Grey and Pink (White Sun), Oil on Canvas Painting by Mary Potter Additional information: Medium: Oil on canvas 40 x 29 7/8 in 101.5 x 76 cm Titled on stretcher Mary Potter was...
Category

20th Century Mary Potter Art

Materials

Canvas

Alms Houses, Oil on Canvas Painting by Mary Potter, 1966
By Mary Potter
Located in Kingsclere, GB
Alms Houses, Oil on Canvas Painting by Mary Potter, 1966 Additional information: Medium: Oil on canvas 33 x 66 cm 13 x 26 in Mary Potter was a painter of still lifes and landscapes...
Category

20th Century Mary Potter Art

Materials

Canvas

Composition in Taupe, Oil on Board Painting by Mary Potter, 1979
By Mary Potter
Located in Kingsclere, GB
Composition in Taupe, Oil on Board Painting by Mary Potter, 1979 Additional information: Medium: Oil on board 122 x 152.5 cm 48 x 60 in Signed, titled and dated Mary Potter was a p...
Category

20th Century Mary Potter Art

Materials

Board

House Through Trees, Oil on Canvas Painting by Mary Potter, 1950s circa
By Mary Potter
Located in Kingsclere, GB
House Through Trees, Oil on Canvas Painting by Mary Potter, 1950s circa Additional information: Medium: Oil on canvas 30 x 41 cm 11 3/4 x 16 1/8 in Signed and titled on the canvas o...
Category

20th Century Mary Potter Art

Materials

Canvas

Reflections II (Light Through Leaves), Oil on Canvas Painting, 1965-69 circa
By Mary Potter
Located in Kingsclere, GB
Reflections II (Light Through Leaves), Oil on Canvas Painting, 1965-69 circa Additional information: Medium: Oil on canvas 16 1/8 x 20 in 41 x 51 cm Living in the grounds of the Re...
Category

20th Century Mary Potter Art

Materials

Canvas

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Mary Potter art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Mary Potter art available for sale on 1stDibs. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Christopher R. W. Nevinson, John French, and Graham Dean.

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