Gateholm, Low Water

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Whitehall

This painting depicts an abstract vision of the coastline at Gateholm, a small tidal island off the south west coast of Pembrokeshire. Howard-Jones has delineated aspects of the coastline – sand, water and rock formations – through brushstrokes. The work is at once an image of Gateholm and layers of paint on board. While based in West London since 1949, Howard-Jones made a pilgrimage each summer to the Pembrokeshire Coast, around St Martin’s Haven and Skomer Island. This picture was completed on one of these trips. Her work draws on the ever-changing landscape of these islands. 

After working as a War Artist during World War Two, Howard-Jones’s style became more abstract in the 1960s. She produced many semi-abstract works, like 'Gateholm, Low Water', that depict imagery drawn from the Pembrokeshire Coast.

Ray Howard-Jones was born in Lambourn, Berkshire. She studied at the Slade School of Fine Art where she was taught by Philip Wilson Steer and Henry Tonks. She changed her public name from ‘Rosemary’ to ‘Ray’ in 1935, which coincided with her first professional solo exhibition at London’s Bloomsbury Gallery. Howard-Jones was one of the few women to become an accredited War Artist, documenting the coastal defences of South Wales and the D-day preparations around Cardiff Docks.

Places

Wales, Pembrokeshire, Gateholm Island, Atlantic Ocean

Subjects

topography, seascape/coastal scene, island, stone/rock, cliff, wave

Materials & Techniques

board, oil, oil painting

Artist

Ray Howard-Jones (1903 - 1996)

Title

Gateholm, Low Water

Date

1971

Medium

Oil on board

Dimensions

height: 76.00 cm, width: 101.00 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Leicester Galleries, October 1961

Inscription

bl: R.H.

Provenance

Consigned by the artist to Leicester Galleries, London; from whom purchased by the Ministry of Works in November 1961

GAC number

5636