Archer, Early Morning Provence, 1980, Impressionist Watercolor

Muriel Archer was born on June 25th 1911 - she died just before her 100th birthday, fond of drawing and painting from an early age, she did her first drawing when she was four years old. She later studied at Hornsey School of Art and it was while she was there, as Janet Axten, who co-curated the exhibition with Bob Devereux, informs us in the catalogue, she was offered the chance to occupy a studio in St Ives for a couple of weeks. "It was the beginning of a lifelong relationship with the town." In the mid-1930s she married Ernest Friskney Archer, always known as "Frisk", and lived with him at first in Chelsea where she had her own studio, before moving to Enfield, to The Laurels, which became the subject matter of several of her paintings. She became a member of the Enfield Art Circle and eventually its president, and also began to teach life drawing. She was to bring some of her students to St Ives where they enjoyed the facilities offered by the St Ives School of Painting and where she got to know Leonard Fuller, the school's founder, and his wife Marjorie Mostyn. After her husband died in 1972, "the pull of St Ives became too much and she decided to live there permanently". This piece was created using water colour on paper and is in a handmade swept composite frame under glass. Keywords: Late 20th Century, 1980s, 80s, art, impressionist, impressionism, woods, trees, woodland, forest, house, countryside, farm, farmhouse, country, rock, stone, wall, stonewall, brick, window, fields, post.