Spencelayhs of Cambridgeshire

Description

ARTIST: CURTIS, VERA FLORENCE
[British 1907-1997]

MEDIUM: WATERCOLOUR
SUBJECT: AMARANTHINE SPRAY
SIGNED: Y
DATED: 1968
FRAMED: Y
GLAZED: Y
SIZE: 65cm x 49cm

About the Artist: CURTIS, Vera Florence

[Acknowledgement to [suffolkartists.co.uk]

Born at Battersea, London on 5 December 1907, youngest child of William John Williams, licensed victualler, and his wife Esther Mary née Sansbury, who married at St Pancras on 12 December 1895.

In 1911, a 4-year-old, living at 45 Dashwood Road, Battersea with her parents, 42-year-old William and 37-year-old Esther and siblings, William Edward 13, Dora May 11, Esther Blanche 8 and Louise Grace 6, all born in London. Vera trained at the Chelsea School of Art and married at Battersea in 1933, George Edward Curtis. In 1939, an assistant schoolmistress, living at Maghey Road, Chichester, Sussex with her husband and they came to Suffolk in 1948. In Suffolk, Vera returned to painting in oil and watercolour with a special interest in landscapes. A member of the Ipswich Art Club since 1961, exhibiting in 1974 an oil 'Colour and Shadow' and from East View Cottage, Friston, Saxmundham, Suffolk in 1977, four works 'Poppies', 'The Marshes, Snape', 'Just Gathered' and 'Roman Ruins, Italy', in 1978 'Heliopsis' and 'Study in Pink', in 1980 'The Wild Garden', 'Outlook Unsettled at Walberswick' and 'Night Fishing at Aldeburgh' and was a regular annual exhibitor until her death. She also exhibited in London during the 1960s, including at the Royal Institute of Watercolour Painters The Royal Institute of Oil Painters and at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition from Belstead House. She and her husband retired from Belstead House, Ipswich in 1972 and moved to East View Cottage, Friston, near Saxmundham, Suffolk. Two of her portraits, of Edmund Blunden and Professor Francis Warner, are hung at St Catherine's College Cambridge but are listed incorrectly as by Vera 'Y' Curtis. Vera Florence Curtis continued to paint and exhibit until her death in the Ipswich district on 6 June 1997.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from Belstead House, Ipswich