Gretta Bowen (1880-1981) Quiet Sunday near the Sea Oil on board, 50 x 60cm (19.75 x 23.75'') Signed and inscribed with title verso Gretta Bowen (1880-1981) The mother of George Campbell, Gretta...

Gretta Bowen (1880-1981) Quiet Sunday near the Sea Oil on board, 50 x 60cm (19.75 x 23.75'') Signed and inscribed with title verso Gretta Bowen (1880-1981) The mother of George Campbell, Gretta took up painting shortly before her seventieth birthday, using materials belonging to her second artist son, Arthur. In 1955 the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts - the forerunner of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland - organised her first solo exhibition. In the same year, on December 29th., The Times of London carried a very favourable review : 'Rhythm and movement are the characteristics of her work. There is nothing static in it. She will paint children at play, a fun fair, nuns in procession, children on their way to confirmation, a Twelfth of July Orange procession, a military band or a dockside scene - and whatever she paints conveys a feeling of happiness, of brightness, of delight in life.' Other solo exhibitions followed at the David Hendriks Gallery, Dublin in 1961, Bell Gallery, Belfast in 1965, Tom Caldwell Gallery, Belfast in 1970, '76 and '80, Tom Caldwell Gallery, Dublin in 1977 and '80. As for group shows, she exhibited, in the company of her sons George and Arthur, at the Oireachtas and the R.H.A. In all she exhibited eight works at the Academy from 1969-1972. Always a strong supporter of her work, CEMA/Arts Council of Northern Ireland, included her images in a series of posters distributed to schools throughout the province. A primitive of the Grandma Moses school, she was represented at the International Na?ves Exhibition at the Hamiltons Gallery, London in 1979. As with the Tory Island artists, she ignored conventional linear perspective in favour of horizontal arrangements reminiscent of mediaeval manuscripts and tapestries. She tended not to mix her colours, taking them straight from the tube and drawing directly with the brush. Her subject was everyday life, enhanced by childhood memory. There is always movement and happy activity in her work. No time for introspection here; her subjects are living life rather than contemplating it. Sile Connaughton-Deeny September 2005

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