54
Fig. 19. Gretta Bowen
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The mother of George Campbell, Bowen took up painting shortly before her seventieth
birthday, using materials belonging to her son, Arthur. In 1955 the Council for the Encourage-
ment of Music and the Arts - the forerunner of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland - or-
ganised her first solo exhibition.“Rhythm and movement are the characteristics of her work...
and whatever she paints conveys a feeling of happiness, of brightness, of delight in life” - The
Times 29th December 1955. Other solo exhibitions followed in Belfast and Dublin between
the1960s and 1980s.
‘She ignored conventional linear perspective in favour of horizontal arrangements reminis-
cent of medieval manuscripts and tapestries. She tended not to mix her colours, taking them
straight from the tube and drawing directly with the brush. Her subject was everyday life,
enhanced by childhood memory. No time for introspection here; her subjects are living life
rather than contemplating it.’
