Waiting for a spare part... somewhere in Wales.

Margaret, the protagonist of our previous post, painted almost every day, until cancer made it impossible for her to continue doing so. Our second story is dedicated to those elderly people who, like she did in life, strive every day to paint what they like best, and still dream of becoming better artists, and with enthusiasm, exhibit their artworks for others to enjoy.

This time, the picture is a pastoral scene of lush green farmland in Britain, and whose dimensions are 380 x 250 mm. I acquired this painting just a month after the one in the previous post. A label attached to the back of the panel provided information about the painting: "Artist: Monica Taylor. 'Churchside'. Church Road. Otley, Ipswich. IP6 9NP. Title: Waiting for a spare part. Medium: Oil (watersoluble). Not for sale”. 

 

Monica Taylor (née Wright, 1922-2019) was a London artist born in Hampton, Kingston-upon-Thames, and trained in Harrow, Middlesex, and subsequently based in Suffolk. She spent a few years of her youth living with her parents at 27 Park Road, Twickenham, very close to Sandycombe Lodge, the house that the artist Turner had inhabited as a resting place. After her marriage, in 1948, she settled in Kenton, Middlesex, on the eastern side of Harrow, where she spent the first 30 years of her married life. In 1977 the Post Office Research Station where her husband Stanley Arnold Taylor worked was moved from Dollis Hill, in London Borough of Brent, to Martlesham Heath, a town six miles east of Ipswich in Suffolk, and Monica and her husband set up home in Otley, in a new house with garden near the local church. It was a large house, and Monica was able to have her own studio at home. In Suffolk Monica surely found inspiration in the great English artists who worked there, Gainsborough, Constable, Wilson Steer, Munnings, among many others, and whose paintings she might have the chance to admire in the Ipswich Borough Council Museums & Galleries. There she joined the Ipswich Art Club, with which she regularly exhibited at Churchside, Otley, her home village near Ipswich.

 

Shortly after she settled there, Monica was involved in one of the exhibitions, writing a text in which she explained her beginnings as an artist: “I have always enjoyed drawing and atended art clases for many years. After winning second prize in a newspaper sketching competition I went to Harrow School of Art to study etching, screen-printing, drawing and painting, part-time under the guidance of Bill Ward. I also joined an evening course in drawing and painting with tutors Sam Marshall, Ken Ward and Charles Bartlett. Michael Carlo introduced me to screen printing. I was very fortunate to have been an evening student at Harrow during the 1960s and 1970s. Encouraged by the other students I had several pictures accepted for the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers’ exhibitions in London, as well as for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions. Now here in East Anglia I am a member of the Ipswich Art Society and work from home where I have facilities for etching, lino and silk-screen printing. I also run a few simple printmaking sessions for children at Christchurch Mansions during school holiday times” (The Grundisburgh and District News, 253, Autumn 2019, p.4).

 

The artwork “Waiting for a spare part” was painted with dissolved oil on paper, and laid on panel. In a vast rural landscape we can guess three human figures of a peasant family resting on the grass while placidly waiting for the arrival of some spare parts for their farm tractor, which we can see a little further down. Further away, halfway between them and the horizon line, we can spot the roofs of a farmhouse, and as we reach the horizon we see a small town. We can also see the hills and valleys in a wide and spectacular view.

 

The artist allows us to visualize the scene from an elevated privileged position, while representing the authentic subject of the artwork, the green and beautiful landscape of the countryside. It's almost an aerial view of the farmland and fields in the Welsh countryside. The title of the painting, as well as the three human figures and the farming tractor, are just a pretext to depict that rural idyll that has captured for centuries the interest of countless British artists. This is the "green and pleasant" Britain.

 

There is no doubt that it is a gorgeous and enjoyable landscape, painted with a fine technique. We know that Taylor exhibited it at the "Churchside" gallery. The label attached to the back of the panel suggests that it was the first picture in the exhibition, and that it was not for sale, which implies that the artist wished to keep her artwork. Actually, the date the painting was brought to the Portobello Road market is about 10 months after the artist's death, the 22nd April 2019. This painting was significant to Monica Taylor, who had preserved it for many years. She was probably very satisfied with the result achieved, and it also recalled the holiday she spent in Wales with her husband, Stan. He always enjoyed building model airplanes as a hobby, which he would then fly in Wales while Monica would paint the hills and valleys.

On Christmas Eve 2018 Monica suffered a fall at home, and was admitted first to Ipswich Hospital, and later to Witnesham Nursing Home, where she spent her last months. Her family said that she continued to do some drawing there. Whoever cleared out Taylor's house probably didn't pay attention to the painting, or didn't appreciate it enough, and the artwork arrived in Portobello Road along with two more recent watercolours by Taylor.

 

In the other two artworks there are labels with the title of the paintings, and with the selling price of some past exhibition. There is also a small label with her address: "Monica Taylor. 4 Rose Hill Bungalows. Grundisburgh. Woodbridge. IP13 6TQ". In one of the watercolours, "Still Life with Flowers", there is a sticker from Clarke and Simpson Auctions (no. 293, 2/3/20), suggesting that the pictures were attempted to be sold at auction, and then discarded. The other watercolour is entitled "Spring time", and is a landscape. I found the artworks piled up in a box in one of the Golborne stalls on March 6, 2020, that is, only four days after the auction date. "Waiting for a spare part", the finest one, was dumped on the floor and wet from the drizzle. Two years after her husband's sudden death in 2003 Monica moved into a bungalow in Grundisburgh.  There she remodeled one of the garages into an art studio, joining the local art club and the local history society, , and continued doing what she loved best, painting in watercolour and oil. She did it for another 14 years. That is the story of Monica Taylor, a promising artist who devoted her life to art, but it is also the story of many little-known artists, trained in English art schools, who probably dreamed of one day being recognised by critics.  May this recognition serve them well.