FOAM FLOWER, c.1948
Watercolour and ink. 11¾ x 17¼in. (30.3 x 42.2cm.)
Inscribed on the reverse on the frame with the artist’s name, the title, c.1948 and with the Paul label over the Bolton Studio one.
Provenance
National Trust bequest.
Exhibited
London, Mayor Gallery, 1947, (drawings) No. 20.
Dublin, National College of Art, 1948, No. 103.
The foam flower is a perennial, also known as coolwort. Although the artist may have been thinking of the botanical plant, this work is better read as the foam that forms on breaking waves. In style the work has much in common with the Santa Warna series, all of which have a nautical inspiration. The loose stains of colour have been given more definite form by being outlined with a free-floating thinly inked line.