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102. Pamela Mathews (b. 1931)
George Campbell and Gerard Dillon in my Studio
Oil on board, 44.5 x 32cm
Signed
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Born in Dublin, Pamela Norah Mathews was educated at Rathdown School in Glenageary, where she
was taught art classes by Lillian Davidson, who commented on the young artist “She wouldn’t be bad
if she didn’t talk so much”! After leaving School, Pamela attended the National College of Art, but
found it too academic and restrictive. One day out walking with her mother she spotted paintings by
George Campbell in the window of the Victor Waddington Galleries in South Anne Street. Pamela’s
mother arranged for George Campbell to tutor Pamela in a makeshift studio at the back of their
family home at “Bartra” 56 Eglington Road, Donnybrook.
Pamela held a joint show with James MacIntyre in 1952 and 1953 in Belfast at The Gallery, Donegall
Place, Belfast, and in 1954 at the Dublin Painters Gallery. Mathews exhibited regularly at the Irish Exhi-
bition of Living Art from 1951 to 1966 and exhibited several images from her trip to Roundstone in
the Dublin Painters in 1955 and 1956. Encouraged to travel to Spain by the Campbell’s, Pamela stayed
with George and Madge Campbell in Torremolinos. Mathews continued to travel to Italy to Milan to
study at Brera, where her style of painting changed to abstract.Travelling south, and on to Rome, she
continued her studies at the Academia di Belle Arte. In 1956, she exhibited at the Irish Club, Eaton
Square with Gretta Bowen, George Campbell and Gerard Dillon.
In 1962 the artist travelled to NewYork and spent most of the year travelling and exhibiting her paint-
ings including the RuthWhite Gallery on 42 East 57th Street. In 1964 she held her first solo show with
Leo Smith at the Dawson Gallery. Opened by novelist Mary Lavin, the exhibition received positive
media comments.....“This show lifts her without effort into the front rank of IrishWomen Painters…”
Becoming a wife to a surgeon and mother of two children in 1965 restricted her life as an artist, but
she continues to take an interest in the development of art in Ireland and in Europe today.
Fig. 42. Pamela Matthews
