This is a stunning gouache & watercolour by the Scottish artist, Irene Halliday RSW. It is a much larger size than usual and it is also so beautifully painted.
The work is painted in thicker opaque gouache paint on paper - and it is blended together with a dry brush and this makes the picture look like a pastel. The work is apparently unsigned - but probably has the artist's signature on the reverse of it - the backboard of the frame is inscribed at the top: Irene Halliday.
It is, without doubt, an exceptional work by her. The muted tones and pale colours built up using watercolour washes and more opaque gouache paints are quite typical of her work. The abstract shapes are reminiscent of her later works which concentrate on pretty multi-coloured fishing floats on boats in Scottish harbours.
Irene liked to travel to Continental Europe - and made many fine studies on her extensive trips to France, Greece, and Italy. Her favourite locations included Positano (near Naples) and Venice.
This work shows all the domes of the magnificent Basilica in St Mark's Square - the interior section of each dome is painted with muted pastel colours. Little figures in the foreground have been added to give a sense of the grand scale of the Basilica. A large Republic of Venice flag - with its distinctive red and yellow colouring - is shown gently fluttering on the flagpole to the right-hand side of the composition.
Halliday's work is currently being given more recognition and due importance in the history of Scottish art, especially with the current growing interest in the role of Scottish women artists. She has exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts and elsewhere in England, Scotland and the United States, and her work is held in several gallery collections. Her paintings regularly go through prestigious Scottish auction houses such as Lyon and Turnbull and Bonhams.
This work will be sent in the UK with Parcelforce24 - postage will be capped at about £14 and applied to your order at checkout.
BIOGRAPHY: Irene Halliday was born in 1931 in Kingsmuir, Scotland. She attended Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee between 1948 and 1953, studying under Alberto Morrocco. Halliday was elected to the Royal Society of Watercolourists in 1955.
From 1956-1979 she worked at Didsbury College of Education becoming Head of Art and Design. She spent an academic year as a visiting professor at State University College, Buffalo, New York State from 1972 to 1973. Irene left full-time teaching at Manchester Polytechnic in 1979 but continued to teach summer schools in Alston, Hull, Lancashire and Harrogate.
In 2002, Halliday returned to live in Arbroath where she was inspired by the sea, the coast and the land around her home.
Image size: 44 x 24 cm. Frame size: 67 x 46 cm.
This painting is beautifully presented with a fresh cream-coloured window mount and a silver gun-metal-coloured wooden frame with a speckled gold inner frame slip. It is ready to hang on your wall. It was very tricky to photograph all the subtle colours - and my photographs certainly don't do it justice.