Gwenda Morgan Beautiful Woodcuts
Happy Christmas Eve to one and all from the UK. Strangely I’m still not feeling so Christmassy this year but I’m sure come tomorrow I will be enjoying some great food, company and feeling good about the year ahead. I wonder what kind of celebrations you, my readers will be having wherever you are reading this? Do let me know, and wherever you might be I hope this finds you well, healthy and in a peaceful time.
Thank you for following Fishink Blog this year and please keep the comments rolling in, it does make a difference and helps make me feel that all the hard work that goes into these posts isn’t falling on silent ears lol.
I wish you all a wonderful festive break and look forward to catching up again in a few weeks time in 2019. All the very best, Craig
Gwenda Morgan (1908 – 1991) was born in Petworth, her father having moved there to work at the ironmongers Austens, of which he later became the proprietor. Following school in Petworth and at Brighton and Hove High School. From 1926, Gwenda studied at Goldsmiths’ College of Art in London.
From 1930 she attended the Grosvenor School of Modern Art in Pimlico where she was taught and very strongly influenced by the principal, Iain Macnab. The Grosvenor School was a progressive art school, and the championing of wood engraving and linocuts fitted with its democratic approach to the arts.
The main body of her work drew upon the landscape and buildings around Petworth and the neighbouring South Downs. Her work was inspired by that of Iain Macnab, Percy Douglas Bliss and the Sussex-bred Eric Ravilious.
Throughout the Second World War she worked in the Women’s Land Army just outside Petworth. Her record of those years was published by the Whittington Press in 2002 as The Diary of a Land Girl, 1939-1945. It is a poignant record of the determination to carry on whatever the weather or wartime deprivations.
Here’s an excerpt from Christmas Eve.
She was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers & Engravers, an Honorary Member of the Society of Wood Engravers, and a Member of the National Society of Painters, Sculptors and Engravers, and she showed work at their annual exhibitions. She also exhibited at the Royal Academy and at the Redfern Gallery.
Her prints are held in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum in London, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, among others.
Some of her work has a wonderful sense of movement… even the still life woodcuts!
I feel that Gwenda’s work is somehow timeless, like this image above called ‘Winter Arrangement’, it feels like it could have been created last week and not over 60 years ago, as it was originally engraved in 1954!
Here’s a great shot of Gwenda with her family.
Lovely depictions of rural lifestyles at that time.
Happy Christmas.
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Happy Christmas Craig and thanks so much for all your posts.Very cheering seeing this morning’s really lovely.Xxx
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
Thank you Susan, great to hear.
Oh what a lovely set of images Craig, thank you for introducing me to Gwenda’s work. Wishing you a very Happy Christmas, don’t eat too many mince pies and have an inspired New Year xxxx
Thank you Barbara, I’ll try my best but no promises lol.
Thank you. Amazing work from an artist I knew nothing about.
Me too until quite recently. Thanks Maria
One of my favourites, have a happy Christmas.
Thanks Judith, any other favourites I’ve not mentioned before ?
Merry Christmas Craig, I have learned about so many artists from following your blog that I would not have heard of otherwise. Your posts are always a bright spot in my week and email in bin. Here is a textile/mixed media artist to check out. If you want a few more artists that are textile/mixed media artists, let us know. I am sure we all have some we would like to see you profile. I have a couple more. Here is the first one: http://casholmes.blogspot.com/.
Thank you Nancy for your lovely comments. I always welcome suggestions and although I won’t always use them all, I will add it to my list to look a thing for next year, so thanks for that. Have a lovely Christmas break.
Lovely outdoor scenes, such intricate work.