Kathleen Walne (3 October 1915 – 30 June 2011) was a British artist notable for her colourful style of watercolour painting.
Biography
Walne was born in
Ipswich
Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...
, the fourth of seven children to Ruby and Herbert Walne. After a childhood marred by illness and long absences from school, Walne entered the
Ipswich Art School on a £1 a week scholarship in 1930. Originally assigned to the design school she soon joined the painting class where she met her future husband, Frank Ward.
In 1933 Ward moved to London to study at the
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...
. He also promoted Walne's works by taking examples to show
West End galleries and dealers. After numerous refusals and rejections,
Lucy Wertheim, the owner of the Wertheim Gallery, agreed to act on Walne's behalf. This was the start of a lifelong friendship between the two.
Wertheim gave Walne a solo show in 1935 and for a time she worked at the gallery as a general help.
[
Also in 1935, works by Walne were included in a show of contemporary watercolours at the Salford Art Gallery.][ After the war, the couple lived in Chelsea but in 1968 moved to ]Brighton
Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...
to nurse Lucy Wertheim, who had been diagnosed with cancer. Walne and Ward had a joint exhibition at the Compendium 2 Gallery in 1972 and another together in Brighton in 1975.Towner Art Gallery
Towner Eastbourne (formerly Towner Art Gallery) is an art gallery located in Eastbourne, East Sussex, on the south coast of England. The gallery hosts one of the most significant public art collections in the Southern England, South of England ...
in Eastbourne
Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. It is also a non-metropolitan district, local government district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, bor ...
and the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki in New Zealand hold examples of her work.
References
Further reading
* ''Mixed Palette'', a monograph on Walne and Ward by David Buckman, published in 1997.
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walne, Kathleen
1915 births
2011 deaths
20th-century English painters
21st-century English painters
Artists from Ipswich
20th-century English women painters
21st-century English women painters