Illium, 2011, by Gillian Ayres RA, (b. 1930), 4ft by 6ft, Private Collection
Alexandra Pringle says: Gillian Ayres has been my friend since the early 1980s. We have travelled together in India, Egypt and Yemen and my times spent with her in her homes in Wales, then Devon and in far-flung places are some of the most precious of my life. Her work lights me up. There is something about the combination of gorgeous colour and shape, of abstraction that echoes natural forms that I find intoxicating, that gives me a rush of joy every time I look at her work. Like Matisse, as she gets older, Gillian’s work becomes bolder, more vigorous, more exciting and youthful. This, Illium, from a recent exhibition, is a perfect representation of all that I love about the work of Gillian Ayres.
Alexandra Pringle is editor in chief at Bloomsbury
John McEwen comments on Illium: Gilliam Ayres titles her paintings merely to differentiate them—‘my paintings are never really of their titles’—and avoids explanations. ‘The colour I use doesn’t come from nature in any direct sort of way. It comes from pots of paint,’ she has said.
Her studio home is a 15th-century cottage down a rough track in Cornwall, the last of the country hideaways— first in north Wales, then Devon—that she has lived in since the 1980s, when she finally gave up teaching, finishing as head of painting at Winchester College of Art. But her happy and prosperous childhood was in Barnes, from where her father worked dutifully in the Ayres’s Soho factory, founded on the demand for motorists’ peaked caps.
At six, she entered a progressive Frobel day school: ‘They let you race ahead with what you were interested in, a method that is sadly out of fashion today because we all have to conform.’ It influenced her teaching, Yoko Ono and Gilbert George among her students. At St Paul’s Girls’ School, she discovered Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne and Monet and, as an art student, was bowled over by the illustrated 1949 Life magazine article on Jackson Pollock. She took flight for Cornwall from Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts rather than face her finals: ‘I wanted abstraction, I wanted pure painting.’ So it has remained.
‘Gillian Ayres’ at the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff (April 8– September 3) is a retrospective with special attention paid to her 1980s Welsh paintings. It coincides with a new monograph by David Cleaton-Roberts, Martin Gayford and Andrew Marr, published by Art/Books, and an exhibition of new work, ‘Paintings and Woodcuts’, at Alan Cristea Gallery, London SW1 (March 16–April 22).
My Favourite Painting: Lulu
Lulu chooses her favourite painting for Country Life.
My favourite painting: Amy Meyers
'Stubbs’s portrayal is one of the subtlest and most poignant commentaries on the troubling displacements that were accruing from the
-
Dawn Chorus: A Blue Plaque for Marc Bolan, holidaying in the Caribbean with Francis Ford Coppola and a history of the National Gallery in 25 picturesPlus the best of the property pages, and how the railways will save the countryside.
-
Game, set, match: 12 of the world’s most beautiful tennis courtsFrom Italy to Indonesia, when it comes to hotel amenities, a picturesque tennis court will always trump a 24-hour gym. So, before you book your next holiday, take a look at our pick of the 12 best.
-
'As a child I wanted to snuggle up with the dogs and be part of it': Alexia Robinson chooses her favourite paintingAlexia Robinson, founder of Love British Food, chooses an Edwin Landseer classic.
-
The Pre-Raphaelite painter who swapped 'willowy, nubile women' for stained glass — and created some of the best examples in BritainThe painter Edward Burne-Jones turned from paint to glass for much of his career. James Hughes, director of the Victorian Society, chooses a glass masterpiece by Burne-Jones as his favourite 'painting'.
-
'I can’t look away. I’m captivated': The painter who takes years over each portrait, with the only guarantee being that it won't look like the subjectFor Country Life's My Favourite Painting slot, the writer Emily Howes chooses a work by a daring and challenging artist: Frank Auerbach.
-
My Favourite Painting: Rob HouchenThe actor Rob Houchen chooses a bold and challenging Egon Schiele work.
-
My Favourite Painting: Jeremy Clarkson'That's why this is my favourite painting. Because it invites you to imagine'
-
The chair of the National Gallery names his favourite from among the 2,300 masterpieces — and it will come as a bit of a shockAs the National Gallery turns 200, the chair of its board of trustees, John Booth, chooses his favourite painting.
-
'A wonderful reminder of what the countryside could and should be': The 200-year-old watercolour of a world fast disappearingChristopher Price of the Rare Breed Survival Trust on the bucolic beauty of The Magic Apple Tree by Samuel Palmer, which he nominates as his favourite painting.
-
My favourite painting: Andrew Graham-Dixon'Lesson Number One: it’s the pictures that baffle and tantalise you that stay in the mind forever .'
