Biography
Sold Presentation: Passe-partout
Gouache
9 x 11 13/16 in. (23 x 30 cm).
Provenance: the Artist's family
Literature:
A Poet's Eye, The Paintings of Kathlenen Guthrie, Jonathan Eastaway,Cartmel Press, 1999,
illustated p. 44
In the 1970's Guthrie embarked on a series of bold abstract
paintings and silk screen prints which she referred to as her "Camelot"
series. This is the original design for Camelot 2, a print which she
produced in an edition of 18. Although the prints were usually
preceeded by oils or collage
with gouache the Camelot series evolved mostly around the possibilities
offered by silkscreen printing where layers of pure colour could be
laid over one and another without bleeding or distortion. Guthrie was
introduced to the technique of silk screen printing as early as 1954,
by Linnet Guthrie, the daughter of her first husband Robin - by the
early 1970's she had mastered the art and become one of the most
accomplished practioners of any generation. Her early prints, like her
paintings of the period, where semi abstract stylized decorative
conversation pieces, such as The Pram (1954) or Two under one hat
(1954). At the beginning of the 1960's, after her husband Cecil
Stephenson suffered a stroke and was no longer able to paint, Guthrie
launched into pure abstract painting. From the textured, soft edged
and muted palette of the 1960's she progressed towards a hard geometric
style which was increasingly inspired by her husband's work. She used
the medium of silk screen printing both to reproduce some of the iconic
abstracts of Stephenson from the 1930's (
From a painting in Egg Tempera by Cecil Stephenson, 1936)
through to abstract reproducing compositions with daring colour
combinations of her own design, such as seen in the Camelot series.
Provenance: The Artist's Family