Kathleen Guthrie (1905-1981) studied at the Slade School under Henry Tonks, (1922-24) and at the Royal College of Art (1925). At the Slade she met Robin Guthrie (1902-1971) whom she married in 1927. In 1930 Robin Guthrie and Rodney Burn (1899-1984), a fellow student from the Slade, were invited, on the recommendation of Tonks, to go to America and become co-directors of the Boston School of Fine Art. This two year appointment allowed Kathleen to see the New England countryside, especially around Wilmington, Vermont, where they spent the summer vacations. In 1932 she had a solo show of figure paintings and landscapes at Boston’s Stace Home Gallery.

From the 1930’s onwards Kathleen exhibited widely, especially at The New English Art Club and The Royal Academy. Her work from this period, which consisted mostly of still-lifes, landscapes and genre scenes, was painted in a whimsical figurative style.

In 1941, following the breakdown of her marriage to Robin Guthrie, Kathleen married Cecil Stephenson, a member of the group of constructivist artists led by Ben Nicholson. From this point on her work moved increasingly towards abstraction. In the 1960’s she embarked on her Camelot Series, bold, hard-edged compositions of contrasting forms arranged as pure fields of colour. These formed the main body of work exhibited in 1963 at the New End Gallery and her retrospective at the Drian Galleries in 1966.

In the mid 1960's Kathleen was introduced to silk screen printing and become one the most accomplished practitioners of her generation. The main body of these works were inspired by paintings from her Camelot series and Stephenson’s iconic images including Egg Tempera 1936 and Egg Tempera 1937.

With thanks to artbiogs.co.uk

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