Elisabeth Vellacott
If you've read all of the lists on the sidebar you'll notice that Elisabeth Vellacott is amongst my "loves". I really like the shapes in all of her pictures. This is one of my favourites precisely due to that. The arch is reflected in the sloping shoulders of the dwarf, his stout figure in the bright shabby coat a contrast with the stark, cold black-suited woman.
I also like Vellacott because she really seemed to mix about her dry and wet media, combining pastel with inks, which is something I like to do as well. Additionally she just sounds like one cool old lady.
The painting on the left is called "The Dwarf", by Elisabeth Vellacott, 1953, oil on canvas.
Here is a short biography of hers.
More works.
Info on The Dwarf.
Other favourites are "The madwoman banging her dustbin-lids" (movement is captured so cinematically); "Evening walk no. 2" (emotion); and "The Queue" (you feel their boredom).
Categories:
theme: clothing as art
4 comments:
It is a very interesting piece.
Oh, love the shapes and how they echo. If all of her pieces are that, um, shapely, I'll definitely have to check it the others.
I can't believe it was done in the 50s though. I can't put my finger on it but there's something that strikes me as being very modern.
Thanks for sharing!
50s art IS very modern though - ?
I'm delighted, not to mention mildly amazed, that you know of and appreciate Elisabeth's work. My parents collected her paintings and drawings (I have three of them leaning against the wall here in Brooklyn) and they knew her well in her later years. She would be so very happy to know that you are looking at her work.
You might try, if you have not already, to visit her friend Lucy Boston's altogether incredible house at Hemingford Grey (the oldest inhabited house in England, so they say) and, if it's possible, to see Elisabeth's home and studio up the
river. It's worth the trip. Best wishes.
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