A wonderful watercolour with pen and ink and collage elements by listed artist Joan Steel (b. circa 1935) This one is bound to make you smile!!
It depicts a large group of helmeted soldiers carrying spears and large shields making their way down a hillside. The sun shining above them.
It is titled and on the artist's original label verso 'Another Pointless Venture (The Duke of York)' 1996. (Note it might be 'Painless' rather than Pointless but I am certain the second letter is an O and therefore think the 't' was missed out in error).
This must refer to the old nursery rhyme about the Duke of York who had 10,000 men in his army whom he 'marched to the top of the hill and then marched them down again.. and when they were up they were up and when they were down they were down' - so definitely a bit of a pointless venture!
Each of the large shields is a round paper collage, painted with watercolour and edged with gold, the soldiers are all so paper collages with pen and ink drawing of the facial features and painted with watercolours. They have small downy feathers on their spears and most have large blue feather head-dresses. Each of their shields is edged in black wool chainstitch and the centres are painted with a copper coloured metallic paint. All set on a white background.
It does not seem to be signed but, as mentioned earlier, the artist's handwritten label remains verso alongside another printed label with her name and Surrey address of the time.
In excellent condition. Presented with a blue card mount within a gilt wood frame. The mount is in excellent condition, the frame has small signs of age but remains presentable in my view.
Glazed and ready to hang. Please excuse any flash/reflection in the photographs which have been taken through the glass.
Measures 45 x 56cm including the frame, the image only is approximately 32 x 40cm.
Postage £8 to mainland UK, £26 to mainland Europe and £52 to the USA. All other destinations via the ebay global shipping service.
There is not a great deal of biographical information about Joan Steel but this is what I have found. She is an artist and illustrator whose interesting work often has a quirky humorous element to it. She studied illustration at the the Medsay College of Art and then moved to London where she worked as an illustrator for various studios and agencies. She then studied for a City and Guilds in Embroidered Textiles and began to combine these techniques with her painting. She belonged to three art societies with which she exhibited regularly and also had work exhibited with the Chelsea Art Society. In 2020 Christie's sold a Joan Steel painting 'Limited Quota' for £1500 and another was sold on behalf of Marie Curie for around £5K. Joan continues to paint and exhibits with the Molesey Art Group.
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