Isobel Atterbury Heath (29 December 1908 – 1989) was a British artist and poet active in the St Ives area of

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

Biography

Heath was born in

Kingston Upon Hull Kingston upon Hull, usually abbreviated to Hull, is a port city and unitary authority in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Estuary, inland from the North Sea and south-ea ...

. Little is known of her childhood but later in life she indicated that her father had been a chemist and that she had been educated by nuns. Heath studied at the Académie Colarossi in Paris before, in the late 1930s, taking classes at the school of painting run by Leonard Fuller in St Ives. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Heath worked as an illustrator for the Ministry of Information, painting and drawing workers in ordinance factories and at a camouflage factory in St Ives. During the war, she also made pencil drawings of British and American troops stationed in Cornwall. She was given permission to record naval subjects and also spent time at the

Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Grif ...

station at

RAF Perranporth Royal Air Force Perranporth or more simply RAF Perranporth is a former Royal Air Force satellite station situated near Perranporth, Cornwall, in the United Kingdom. History The 330 acre (134 hectares) airfield was built as an RAFFighter Comma ...

. During the conflict she met her future husband, Dr. Marc Prati, a political correspondent for '' La Stampa'', who as an Italian national had been interned in Cornwall. Heath was a member of the St Ives Society of Artists and in 1949 was a founder member of the breakaway

Penwith Society of Arts The Penwith Society of Arts is an art group formed in St Ives, Cornwall, England, UK, in early 1949 by abstract artists who broke away from the more conservative St Ives School. It was originally led by Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, a ...

but resigned in 1950 and rejoined the St Ives Society in 1957. She continued to exhibit with the St Ives Society for the rest of her life. The Cornish landscape was the principal subject of Heath's paintings and she would regularly camp out on the moors in Cornwall for several days at a time painting landscapes. In 1962, for the

Royal Watercolour Society The Royal Watercolour Society is a British institution of painters working in watercolours. The Society is a centre of excellence for water-based media on paper, which allows for a diverse and interesting range of approaches to the medium of wa ...

she organized an exhibition of unknown Cornish artists, entitled ''The Cornish Experiment''. Heath exhibited with the

Royal Institute of Oil Painters The Royal Institute of Oil Painters, also known as ROI, is an association of painters in London, England, and is the only major art society which features work done only in oil. It is a member society of the Federation of British Artists. Histor ...

, Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours and the Royal Scottish Academy. She was included in the centenary exhibition of the

Society of Women Artists The Society of Women Artists (SWA) is a British art body dedicated to celebrating and promoting fine art created by women. It was founded as the Society of Female Artists (SFA) in about 1855, offering women artists the opportunity to exhibit and ...

held in London during 1955. Heath also published three volumes of poetry.

Published works

* ''Passing Thoughts'', 1971 * ''Love'', 1973 * ''Reflections'', 1978

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Heath, Isobel 1908 births 1989 deaths 20th-century English painters 20th-century English women artists Académie Colarossi alumni Artists from Kingston upon Hull British war artists English women painters English women poets Painters from Cornwall World War II artists