Myfanwy Kitchin (1917–2002) was a British artist known for her paintings and, later in her career, ceramic sculptures.

Biography

Kitchin was born in Newbury, Berkshire into a Welsh family. She studied at the

Hornsey School of Art Hornsey College of Art (a.k.a. Hornsey School of Art) was a college in Crouch End in the London Borough of Haringey, England. The HCA was "an iconic British art institution, renowned for its experimental and progressive approach to art and design ...

in London from 1935 to 1939. During World War II, Kitchin combined studying part-time at the

Slade School of Fine Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

with training to be a nurse at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford and won a Slade Composition prize in 1944. After the War, she read Fine Art at the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

before taking a lecturing post at the Paignton College of Art until 1951. Kitchin combined her art career with a number of other roles. She worked as the Midlands art critic of

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

from 1960 to 1978 and illustrated books for both Phoenix House and, throughout the 1960s and 1970S, for Duckworth Publishers. Her paintings often depicted industrial workers in the Midlands and, later, farmers and farm animals in the Welsh countryside near her home at

Barmouth Barmouth ( cy, Abermaw (formal); ''Y Bermo'' (colloquial)) is a seaside town and community in the county of Gwynedd, northwestern Wales, lying on the estuary of the Afon Mawddach and Cardigan Bay. Located in the historic county of Merioneths ...

. The same subjects appeared in the ceramic works which, based on her on-site sketches, she created using the slab-pottery technique. In the 1980s, Kitchin studied part-time at the Walsall College of Art. Kitchin was a member of the

Royal Cambrian Academy The Royal Cambrian Academy of Art (RCA) is a centre of excellence for art in Wales. Its main gallery is located in Conwy and it has over a hundred members. 240px, Plas Mawr, Conwy Early history During the 19th century there were numerous attempts ...

and regularly exhibited with the

Royal Birmingham Society of Artists The Royal Birmingham Society of Artists or RBSA is an art society, based in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham, England, where it owns and operates an art gallery, the RBSA Gallery, on Brook Street, just off St Paul's Square. It is both a ...

and had a number of solo exhibitions at galleries in Birmingham, Lichfield, Walsell and north Wales. Examples of both her paintings and ceramics are held by the

New Art Gallery Walsall The New Art Gallery Walsall is a modern and contemporary art gallery sited in the centre of the West Midlands town of Walsall, England. It was built with £21 million of public funding, including £15.75 million from the UK National Lottery and ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kitchin, Myfanwy 1917 births 2002 deaths 20th-century English women artists Alumni of Middlesex University Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art Alumni of the University of Reading Artists from Berkshire British women ceramicists English women painters Artists from Reading, Berkshire The Guardian people People from Newbury, Berkshire