Valerie Thornton (no relation!) was born in London, but evacuated to Canada with her two brothers during the war. She returned to London in 1944 and went on to study at the Byam Shaw School of Drawing and Painting in 1949.
She continued her studies at the Regent Street Polytechnic School of Art. In 1954 she went to Paris where she studied printmaking under Stanley William Hayter, and it was at this time that she acquired her first etching press.
In 1955, she succeeded Howard Hodgkin as an assistant art teacher at Charterhouse School and in 1965 she became a founding member of the Print Makers Council. She then became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painters-Etchers and Engravers in 1970.
Thornton regularly exhibited in London and America. Her work is in many public collections - including the Tate Gallery, the V&A, London, and the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge - outside of the UK her work is represented in the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.
This is a LARGE fine-coloured etching and aquatint by Thornton and shows the interior of the church at Barking in Suffolk. It is signed and dated 1981 below. It comes from an edition of 150 prints - and this one has been edition numbered 124 by the artist. This print would have been a view of her local church, and she lived in her later years in Suffolk, dying there in 1991.
It comes from a series of stylized church interiors that she was producing in the 1980s.
It is being sold UNFRAMED and is printed on a good quality sheet of Arches paper. The image size is 66.5 x 42.5 cm - so a large print! It is in good condition with no issues.
A fair price for a work by his sought-after artist.
UK POSTING ONLY. It will be sent with Royal Mal Parcelforce Recorded Post - this will cost £10 and applied to your order at checkout.