Description

A beautiful and warm family portrait of Mary, Joseph and infant Jesus. The artist has used simplistic form and earthy colours to add an element of humility and groundedness to the sanctified family.

The painting is on canvas, cut from its stretchers and is unsigned. The painting is handsomely presented in a contemporary white box frame and there is a hand written label at the reverse with the artist's name and address, likely cut from the original frame. The address matches that on record of where the artist lived previously.

Condition

The canvas has been cut from its original stretchers but is in fine condition. The frame is also in fine condition.

Biography

Islwyn Watkins was born in Tonypandy in 1938. He studied at Cardiff College of Art from 1954 until 1959 and was initially attracted to, and influenced by the work of the St Ives’ artists. In 1959 several of his paintings were selected by the Welsh Committee of the Arts Council of Great Britain for it’s ‘Young Welsh Artists’ exhibition. From 1959 until 1964 Watkins taught art at Ravenscroft School, Barnet and then studied lithography at Hornsey College of Art. At Hornsey he became a lifelong friend and collaborator with the anarchic and multi-talented Jeff Nuttall. Following a brief period teaching in Leeds, Watkins then left for the US, taking a master’s degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

On his return to the U.K. Watkins became a lecturer at Birmingham’s School of Art Education and in 1976 exhibited at ‘Midland Art Now’ at the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham.

In 1978, disillusioned with educational developments, he moved to Shropshire and involved himself in the local art world. He was appointed chair of the Association of Artists and Designers in Wales and the Welsh Group. He continued to show his artwork and from 1994 worked as curator of the Brecknock Museum and Art Gallery in Brecon.
Having made constructions and reliefs throughout his career a group of these striking, Kurt Schwitters-inspired ‘assemblages’ was selected for Watkins’ final exhibition at the Old College, Aberystwyth in 2018. He died the following year.