Conversation Piece

Gretta Bowen was the mother of the Belfast painters George and Arthur Campbell. Entirely untrained as an artist, she began to paint in 1949, using paint that George and Arthur had left around. Her sons found one of her sketches lying on a table and, surprised by the quality of the work, showed it to John Hewitt who was at that time Keeper of Art at the Belfast Museum. She was soon exhibiting, under her maiden name, at the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and was showing regularly at the R.H.A. in the 1960s. The Arts Council of Northern Ireland turned her paintings into posters which were taken to schools in Northern Ireland. Aged 100, she participated in the first International Exhibition of Naive Art in London. The present lot was illustrated in The Irish Times, Tuesday 16 November 1976, accompanying an article on the artist and her exhibition at Tom Caldwell Gallery, Belfast, where the present lot was purchased.