News
News Update November 2022
A private reception was held to celebrate the re-opening of Gainsborough’s House in Sudbury, and its new wing, on the evening of Monday 14th November 2022. It was hosted by Director Mark Bills, with about 200 invited guests including Rebecca Salter, the President of the Royal Academy.
We are thrilled that Mollie’s painting now hangs alongside works by Cedric Morris, in one of the rooms of the original house, next to a room of works by Thomas Gainsborough and underneath a room containing work by John Constable: illustrious company indeed!
The new gallery at present features dozens of spectacular post-impressionist and symbolist paintings and sculptures from Europe, but, of all the artists represented, Mollie is the nearest to contemporary (i.e. the most recent). As far as I could see, she is also the sole woman in the entire show!
The wooden frame was made by Garnet who is “very pleased to say it holds its own among the huge and lavish, ornamented gilded ones that typically surround the other works”.
With thanks to Bill Hooper and Andrew King for their help in bringing this about. We’re all delighted and amazed.
News Update October 2022
We now have a merchandise section where you can purchase Mollie’s artwork to enjoy. Currently we have created wall calendars in two sizes, a set of 12 postcards, a set of 10 greeting cards & four canvases.
We are happy to commission your own ideas so do get in touch if you would like something created for you individually
News Update: September 2022
New work discovered after being hidden for 80 years!
Recently rediscovered after more than eighty years, this small painting was concealed among a bundle of old papers. It is in oil on a re-used canvas that looks as if it was originally cut from a jute sack. It may once have been mounted on board, but, if so, the board is long gone, and it has never had a sretcher.
Fine canvas was unavailable throughout the war, and the handling of the paint betrays a certain youthful innocence (who knows; perhaps it was her first attempt with oils), which would suggest a date of circa 1939.
Garnet Frost, Mollie’s son, has cleaned and remounted the canvas and made a frame for it, and, in this presentable condition, it has been sold to a private collector.
Despite its impasto texture, the picture has strong illustrational elements and is packed with narrative detail.
The lady in the bottom right is evidently blind. Why has she just bought a bunch of flowers? Because she likes the scent of them, of course.
The man on the far left is an old fashioned Costermonger with a pencil tucked behind his ear. He is meeting the hard stare of the boy in the middle, who is on roller skates. Perhaps the boy suspects him of some crime.
The ticket on Micks stall says ‘6’, which probably means 6d per lb, i.e about 5p per kilo.
There is a discarded newspaper lying in the road in the foreground along with some odd cabbage leaves.
The more you look, the more there is to see and think about.
The railway arch implies a location close to London Bridge, which is quite possible. She probably sat there and made drawings and then worked them up at home.
News Update: November 2021
Benton End Gates is given to Gainsborough’s House
Gainsborough’s House
Gainsborough’s House is a museum and art gallery in Sudbury, Suffolk, formed around the childhood home of the artist Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788). The house was sold by the Gainsborough family in 1792 and passed through many different hands until it was purchased by Gainsborough’s House Society in 1958. The museum opened to the public in 1961 and both the collections and the museum’s site have steadily grown ever since. Gainsborough’s House now looks after one of the largest collections of art by Thomas Gainsborough in the world and in spring 2022 will re-open to the public after a major redevelopment project as a national centre for Gainsborough.
Cedric Morris at Gainsborough’s House
The collections at Gainsborough’s House also includes art by Gainsborough’s contemporaries and other Suffolk artists, notably John Constable and Sir Cedric Morris. The artist-plantsman Cedric Morris was born in Wales but moved to Suffolk in the 1930s with his partner Arthur Lett-Haines where he established the bohemian East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing. In 2017 a significant collection of 52 paintings and 62 drawings by Cedric Morris was given to Gainsborough’s House by trustees of the artist’s estate, Maggi Hambling and Robert Davey. Since then, a variety of artworks, archival material and artefacts relating to Cedric Morris and the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing have been donated to and acquired by Gainsborough’s House. This collection will be on display in a new gallery dedicated to Cedric Morris when the museum re-opens in spring 2022.
More information on the redevelopment project and an online catalogue of artwork by Cedric Morris at Gainsborough’s House can be found at: gainsborough.org
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News Update: November 2021
I have just found a lovely image of Mollie Garnet & I when we were campaigning to save The Studio in Beckenham.
The photo was taken by a newspaper reporter who covered the story but sadly things didn’t turn out as planned. Mollie always dressed up for an occasion!
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News Update: March 2019
A bit of local history & more about Mollie’s son Garnet Frost & portrait artist David Goatley…
Professional portrait artist David Goatley posted on Facebook “I’m excited that my painting, “The Regular”, has been accepted into Oil Painters of America’s 28th Annual National Juried Exhibition of Traditional Oils. Garnet goes to Utah! “
David wrote to me [Susie], when I asked if I could add this painting to the website, saying “I’m glad Garnet liked the portrait, it was done with a great deal of affection- he is an old friend who means a lot to me. It is set in the Bricklayers Arms, though I changed the colour of the walls from white to red. I painted it last year, based on a photograph I took when we met in 2016. You are very welcome to share it on the web site.”
“Mollie and my father must have been at Beckenham School of Art at the same time, or close to it. It seems Mollie left in 1940 to escape the blitz, while my dad only escaped the bombing by joining the navy in 1944, just in time to be at D Day. Garnet and I did life drawing together at the old art school in the late 60’s, early 70’s.”
“My mother lived in Westbury Road up until 2016. [She died in 2017.] She remembered Julie Andrews being on Cromwell Road. I well remember David Bowie and the concert in the Rec. and seeing him at the Three Tuns and occasionally in the Prompt corner café, where he was always approachable.”
News Update: January 2019
We are thrilled that the London Borough of Bromley has recognised the importance of Mollie’s work & her name now appears on a plaque outside Beckenham library between David Bowie & Julie Andrews!
