George Chapman(Click on Picture for a larger image)
1903 - 1993
Chapman was born in East
Ham,
London and trained at
Gravesend School of Art and the Royal College of Art. His pre-Royal College
days and after were punctuated by working in the advertising industry, and in
1945 he formed his own successful advertising agency. In 1950 he moved to North
West Essex, and to Great Bardfield in 1951, selling his agency in the following
year. Those familiar with his work are sometimes surprised to find that he was
not Welsh, but it was not until 1953, at the age of 45, that a chance visit to
the industrial Rhondda "transformed my purpose" both visually and
personally as he was attracted by the spirit of the community. Although he made
some of the most evocative paintings and prints of a mining community between
then and 1969, it was not until 1964 that he finally settled fully in the
Principality. Five years later he became disillusioned and gave up exhibiting
for much of the 1970s, returning to depict the "new"
Rhondda
in the 1980s, but with only one major exhibition, in 1989 at the Aberystwyth
Art Centre.
A Steep Road
Oil
1958
Chapman's fascination with industrial South Wales is reflected in this painting.
Click on Picture for a larger image
Pontyprydd
Oil
This conveys the industrial darkness of South Wales, and the rain.
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The Threshing Machine
Oil
Chapman trained at the Royal College of Art, and spent his early career in advertising, including his own company, which he gave up on moving to Great Bardfield in 1948. Influenced by the Euston Road School the subjects of this oil and the Water Bowser below convey the new mechanisation that was changing age-old harvesting methods.
