After Laura Knight, Evelyn Gibbs was probably Nottinghamshire second most important woman artist. She was a member of the left-wing Artists' International Association, the Women's International Art Club, founded the Midland Group in Nottingham and was a well known war artist. Her long-hidden murals at St Martin of Tours in Bilborough are due to be renovated and made public again.Pauline Lucas has been the main person keeping Gibbs' work alive, through her Five Leaves' biography, talks and occasional exhibitions.
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I saw Evelyn Gibbs' "Nottingham Window" for the first time recently (it's currently on display at Nottingham Castle) & wondered which part of the city centre it actually features? It looks a little bit like The Bell Inn on the edge of the Market Square, but I suspect that it's probably somewhere more obscure, or long demolished? Do you have any idea where it might actually be?
Also, do you know if the city council own any more of Evelyn's work, the handful of paintings I've seen are all terrific & I'd like to see more?
Hope you can help (& thanks!).
Hi - I have just noticed your September comment. I'll try to find out and get back on this.
This from Pauline Lucas, author of our book on Evelyin Gibbs, which does I think, include this: I can tell him/her that I established exactly where that picture was painted. She had a studio at the bottom of Houndsgate from which she could look out across the road to a Shipstones pub, now replaced by a branch of Halifax, I think. Her studio in the late 1940s was on the top floor with large windows and skylights. Some years ago it was up for Let and I went up and checked view and window shapes. That proved my supposition.
That painting and several others by Gibbs were acquired through me after the death of her husband Sir Hugh Willatt. There are other paintings and drawings of Nottingham from the '40s to the late '50s elsewhere.
There is to be an exhibition of Drawings and Prints by Evelyn Gibbs at Aberystwyth University ( School of Art) from February 17th to March 24th 2012.
Thanks for the info Ross, I've since purchased the Five Leaves book... a really fine biography.
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