Biography

Born 1950 in North London. The family moved in her teens to Northamptonshire, whence to Leicester Polytechnic in the late sixties - a lively time - to do a Dip A D Fine Art.  After a year out, painting landscapes and portraits, she went back to London to the Royal Academy Schools for three years postgraduate, drawing and painting from the figure, and practicing etching and lithography in the print workshop. Memorable tutors from her time at Leicester were Gavin Bryars (1) and Gordon Wootten, and at the RA Schools received advice and encouragement from Edward Bawden (2), Alistair Grant (3) and Roderic Barrett (q.v.).

She moved to Harwich in 1982 living with Melvyn King (q.v.) in a house and a ‘Wildlife Garden of Curiosities’ overlooking the Stour estuary on one side and the North Sea on the other. She paints landscapes, flowers, portraits in oil, watercolours, makes pots and continues printmaking. Harwich is where you catch the boat for Holland. The children grew up and flew the nest but when they were young, they used to say there really were ferries at the bottom of the garden.

Daphne has exhibited widely in open shows and in many commercial galleries throughout Britain. Open exhibitions include The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition; Whitechapel Open; Graphic Artists, Pictures for Schools; Spirit of London; R.W.S. Summer Open; Royal Overseas League; Essex Open; On The Borders; Beecroft Open; Harwich Festival Colchester Art Society. Commercial galleries include the Cartoon Gallery, London; Courtyard Gallery, Cheltenham; Printworks, Colchester; Rye Art Gallery; Haste Gallery, Ipswich; Hayletts, Maldon; Bodgeners, Harwich; The Naze Tower, Walton. Her work is held in public and archive collections. Daphne took part in Tendring Open Studios between 1998 and 2019 and subsequently Dovercourt Open Studios from 2021 onwards. A long-standing member of Colchester Art Society, Daphne has served on the general committee in several roles including chair of selectors. She was a founder member of Bodgeners Gallery, Harwich and worked for many years in Adult Community Learning, Essex.

Statement

“Autumn 2006 I started teaching a morning portrait class in the art room at the top of Greyfriars in Adult Community Learning. Next to the blackboard at the far end of the room were a few steps leading down to a curious door. Beyond, at the top of the adjacent building was a large low-ceilinged room, now an additional art room/models dressing room and storage, formerly a kitchen with an obsolete blue enamel 30’s style stove and ovens, large butlers sinks and a glass fronted dresser. Behind the sinks, was a little square window looking out through a narrow gap in the buildings over the rooftops of Roman road, over Castle Park and the railway line and up to Highwoods. During the next six months, on each Friday afternoon, I made many oil sketches and drawings of that magical view. When I painted the sketch for this painting I was puzzled, why was the corn ripe and golden so early in the summer?

A trip to Highwoods the following spring and the field had been sown again with wildflower meadow seed, poppies, cornflower and marigolds, and, as the impressionists discovered, from a distance that pointillist colour combination reads as ripe corn.”

(1) Gavin Bryars (born 1943) is an important English post-minimalist composer and double bassist.

(2) Edward Bawden (1903-1989) R.A., C.B.E., English artist renownd for his watercolours, prints and illustrations and his work as a War Artist.

(3) Alistair Grant (1925-1997) printmaker, illustrator and painter, member of the London Group and the Royal Society of British Artists.