Biography
Enquire about this picture
To be included in a
forthcoming exhibition
Presentation: Unmounted
Silkscreen,
Signed and "Landscape"in blue crayon
19 3/4 x 23 5/8 in. (50 x 60 cms).
Provenance: the Artist's family
Literature: A Poet's Eye, The Paintings of Kathlenen Guthrie, Jonathan Eastaway,Cartmel Press, 1999
Produced in an edition of 12
Flowers were a subject which pre-occupied Guthrie from the mid 1930's to the late 1960's. During the 1960's she produced a series of "Flowerscapes" in a Neo Romantic vien.
In the 1970's Guthrie embarked on a series of bold abstract paintings and silk screen prints which she referred to as her "Camelot" series. Although the prints were usually preceeded by oils or collage with gouache the Camelot series evolved mostly around the possibilities offered by silkscreen printing where layers of pure colour could be laid over one and another without bleeding or distortion. Guthrie was introduced to the technique of silk screen printing as early as 1954, by Linnet Guthrie, the daughter of her first husband Robin - by the early 1970's she had mastered the art and become one of the most accomplished practioners of any generation. Her early prints, like her paintings of the period, where semi abstract stylized decorative conversation pieces, such as The Pram (1954) or Two under one hat (1954). At the beginning of the 1960's, after her husband Cecil Stephenson suffered a stroke and was no longer able to paint, Guthrie launched into pure abstract painting. From the textured, soft edged and muted palette of the 1960's she progressed towards a hard geometric style which was increasingly inspired by her husband's work.
Biography
Enquire about this pictureTo be included in a
forthcoming exhibition
Presentation: Unmounted
Watercolour, gouache and collage
7 1/4 x 8 3/4 in. (18.5 x 22 cm.)
Provenance: the artist’s estate.
Flowers were a subject which pre-occupied Guthrie from the mid 1930's to the late 1960's. During the 1960's she produced a series of "Flowerscapes" in a Neo Romantic vien.
Framed in a hand coloured glazed mount.
Trained at the Slade School of Art under Myles Tonks, and married to fellow painter Robin Guthrie, Kathleen Guthrie’s pre-war work is firmly figurative. Her abstract painting dates to the post-war period, after she had divorced Guthrie and married the painter Cecil Stephenson in 1941. Although clearly influenced by Stephenson, she retained a distinctive luminous, soft palette, and her brushwork remained very consistent, avoiding the hard edges and sometimes vigorous impasto of his work. A solo exhibition of her work was held at the Drian Gallery in London in 1966, in which these works are likely to have been included.We are grateful to Marjorie Guthrie for her assistance.
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