EDITOR'S TOOLKIT [Paperback] Chris Wadsworth

Chris Wadsworth

T&F/INDIA

<p>Joan David was a retired scientist living in Cumbria. She saw a painting by Percy Kelly in a friend's house December 1982. She wrote to Kelly where he was living in exile in rural norfolk asking to buy a painting. She didn't get a painting but a wonderful painted letter in a beautifully illustrated envelope. He signed his 3rd letter Roberta and a few weeks later wrote in anguish because his wife had left him. This was the beginning of 10 years of beautiful letters some 30 pages long telling of his difficulties, loneliness. problems and retentiveness about his work. He writes about his past life; his childhood, time in the army, the breakdown of his first marriage, his running away with a surgeons wife,his unhappy 7 years in Wales and his final move to rural Norfolk and his change of name to Roberta Penelope. Joan supported and sustained him for 10 years until his death in 1993. During that time she only met him 5 times but she received thousands of letters - each of them a painting with words superimposed. These are selected and illustrated in this lovely book.</p>

The Painted Letters of Percy Kelly: Sent to Joan David 1983-1993

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

Historical Publications Ltd.

<p>The sketch books of artist Percy kelly were found after his death in 1993 by writer and gallery owner Chris wadsworth. They began in the war in 1940 and trace his progress through his time as a postal worker scribblind down sketches as he went about his business, through his time as sub postmaster neglecting hid duties to go out and draw, through his college days as a mature student and his running away to Wales with a surgeon's wife. This man could draw. His eye was unerring and his grasp of perspective perfect. He got it right first time, every time. In this book his sketches are shown often juxtapositioned against the painting or drawing that developed from it. It is an insight into the method of working and the genius of Percy Kelly</p>

Whitewash and Brown Paint: The Sketchbooks of Percy Kelly

Castlegate House

This paperback book is in very good condition.

Life Class: The Memoir of an Accidental Gallerist

Prospero Press

Hercules and the Farmer's Wife

Aurum Press Ltd

When Chris Wadsworth, and husband Michael, upped sticks in the South and moved north to the Lake District she had no inkling she was about to begin a new life as the owner of an art gallery. The small town of Cockermouth was hardly at the cutting edge of contemporary art - as the well-meaning locals were at pains to point out. 'You've got to have views,' they told her. 'That's what people here want!' Chris had other ideas. And they didn't include views. Instead she set out to find artists - famous, infamous, lost and unknown - whose work would eventually make her gallery in little-known Cockermouth not just a local but an international success. But artists are a funny bunch, and art springs from the most unexpected sources. Like Karen, the farmer's wife, whose Turneresque canvasses were painted with whatever came to hand - hessian, skirting boards - but 'mainly in Dulux'. Or the reclusive, transvestite Percy Kelly, whose refusal to exploit his art for personal gain, and troubled relationship with his estranged family, might have seen his work lost for ever if not for some surprising twists of fate. In Hercules & the Farmer's Wife Chris tells their stories, and recounts the many other unlikely incidents -from the exploding treacle pudding and the mystery of the Purple House, to knitting vicars flogging Mick Jagger carpets - that make up life in a Cumbrian art gallery. By turns funny, and others bittersweet, Chris Wadsworth offers a private view of the wonderful world she discovered when she made art her business. Chris Wadsworth is the gallerist of Castlegate House Gallery in Cockermouth. Her exhibitions have included artists such as L.S. Lowry, Sheila Fell, Bill Peascod, Percy Kelly, Winifred Nicholson and Mary Fedden.

Hercules and the Farmer's Wife: And Other Stories from a Cumbrian Art Gallery

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Books by Chris Wadsworth