chriswoodartist

Above a splendid book  !

below : A watercolour scribble of mine, very loosely inspired by Ivon Hitchens

I recently borrowed the above book about the painter Ivon Hitchens and this has lead to an interesting string of further research and coincidences.

I don’t know whether it’s just me but I seem to be drawn to artists whose work or “style” is quite different from my own. I am a figurative painter , whereas Hitchens, is better known for his bold abstracts. A similarity exists in our choice of subject matter : Still Life’s, Nudes, Flowers and Landscapes.

I am no art critic but in my opinion, Hitchens has been overlooked  – (certainly by me). He was born in Kensington, London in 1893 and was the only son of the successful portrait painter Alfred Hitchens.

Ivon was sent to the progressive boarding school, Bedales, in Petersfield, Hampshire. Sadly ill health (acute appendicitis) struck in 1909-10, which lead to recuperation with relatives, across the other side of the world . Hitchens travelled by sea, first to Ceylon and then Australia, before his final destination, a farm in New Zealand and these colourful experiences stayed with him throughout his long life.

In 1911 he returned to Hampstead, England, where he lived with his parents and attended St John’s Wood Art School. At the age of 18, he was living independently in Hampstead, with one domestic servant.  In 1912-14 he entered the R.A. and was taught by Sir William Orpen, (1878-1931). Hitchens wasn’t called up for National Service as he was deemed unfit but he spent the next two years in the hospital service, returning to the R.A. Schools 1918-19.

Hitchens conscientiously followed his academy training and was introduced to Clive Bell, who opened the young painters mind to the modern French masters and this had a lasting effect upon him.

Previously his interest lay in Italian painting. Whilst he was fascinated by artists such as Piero della Francesca and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, he didn’t try to emulate them. It was their pictorial composition which inspired him and in turn its Hitchens composition that inspires me.

“Hitchens, in turn produced highly resolved works such as Spring Mood, creating harmonious, flowing compositions formed by establishing a sense of a single rhythmic scheme across the shallow picture plane effortlessly incorporating any spatial distortion.

Anne Goodchild, Ivon Hitchens: Space through Colour, 2019, Pallant House Gallery.

 

After inheriting £1000, in 1919, he opened a studio in  Adelaide Rd London NW3 and he began painting  frescos and exhibiting with the 7 and 5 Society, the Mayor Gallery and the London Artists Association

In 1934-35 he rented a cottage in Sizewell, Suffolk as a getaway from London. Later, he went on to honeymoon there with his wife, Mary Cranford Coates. He became friends with John Piper and Hitchens palette of colours is very similar to the brooding tones used by Piper.

He married in 1935 and in 1940 John Hitchens (also a painter) was born. Following his apartment in London being bombed, he moved his young family to the West Sussex countryside, at first living in a caravan, which he bought in 1939.

His early paintings were largely Still Life’s, with the occasional nude and it was only later that he turned to the landscape as a source of inspiration. He built his first house “Greenleaves” on the plot of his caravan and set about building a fairly modest single storey home, that later turned into a large complex of studios and workspaces. They were surrounded by Rodedendrums and from all accounts it was the perfect hideaway.

I’m not sure how much of a gardener IH was but he certainly liked indoor plants and these are featured in all of the photos of him in his various studios  !

In the course of putting these notes together I came across https://suffolkartists.co.uk/index.cgi?choice=painter&pid=330 , which is a very informative website that I’ve used before. Although Hitchens only rented the cottage in Sizewell for just over a year, he was listed as a Suffolk artist ! I also came across another artist who wasn’t born in Suffolk but made it to the list, namely, Madeline Patricia Gaywood who was born in Romford, Essex in 1928, daughter of Charles Zachariah Eric Gaywood (29 February 1904-11 September 1986). Madeline or Paddy Gaywood as I knew her, painted a portrait of my honorary uncle Billy, AKA Billy Newson, coastguard, fisherman and my father’s best man at my parents wedding. Paddy’s Portrait hung in uncle Billy’s hut in Felixstowe Ferry until he died and it’s now in Felixstowe museum. As a precocious child I used to sit in the hut and draw pictures of square rigged sailing ships, and fishing boats and sell them to passing fishermen or yachtsmen in exchange for pocket money that was spent across the road in the cafe – usually on Lyons Apple pies ! Returning to the portrait, it was one of the first portraits that I saw and may well have influenced my chosen career !

Other coincidences, courtesy of the Suffolk Artists website, include Zwemmers Gallery in London, where not only Ivon Hitchens exhibited but my old tutor and mentor, the social realist painter, writer and educator, Colin Moss. It was Colin that sparked my early interest in life drawing and painting and after teaching life drawing myself for over thirty years, I owe him a debt of gratitude. CM was my tutor at Ipswich Art School, where I did my Foundation course in art and design from 68/69.

 

References

Ivon Hitchens ed Alan Bowness. Lund Humphries 1973

https://suffolkartists.co.uk/index.cgi?choice=painter&pid=330

 

NB : time permitting I will add to these notes !
copyright Chris N Wood all rights reserved 17.58 12.11.25