Olive Bagshaw 1931-2017

https://olivebagshaw.blogspot.com/2020/12/

A Brief Biography

Olive Bagshaw was born on 27th November 1931 in Salford, Lancashire.

Olive studied Textile Design at Salford School of Art from 1946-1949. Working as a designer, at the age of 21, she enrolled at the Regional College of Art in Manchester for part time studies in Portrait Painting in 1953 and each successive year until 1961. *

Olive knew Harry Rutherford, an eminent artist of the Northern School. Harry Rutherford was very probably Olive's tutor at the Regional College of Art where he taught. See Note 1

Olive Bagshaw Self Portrait

Olive was a passenger in a car involved in a road accident in the mid 1960s which left her unable to walk. Olive married Greg Driver, who had known Olive since he was 16 years old, in the autumn of 1965.

Olive wanted her artistic merit to stand alone, quite separate from her personal circumstances and her physical disability. Always a very private individual, she lived happily with her husband for the rest of her life at Riverside Cottage, Birchin Lane near Chorley in Lancashire. In the last part of her artistic development, in her later years, she focussed on abstract works, many in acrylic and mixed media, constantly developing her unique vision.

Chronology of Exhibitions 

In her early career, Olive Bagshaw specialised in portraiture, still life subjects and some landscapes. To begin with, her still life subjects were quite varied and eclectic, but as time passed, Olive concentrated more on paintings of flowers in her still life works. 

She maintained the focus on portraits until 1972.  Her portraits were exhibited in the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in London. She exhibited also at The Royal Academy, The Royal Institute of Oil Painters and the Federation of British Artists (The Mall Galleries).

1966  A very early private exhibition was held at The Limes, 816 Wilmslow Road, Didsbury in 1966.

1970  Her first exclusive exhibition was at the Monks Hall Museum and Gallery in Eccles in May 1970, when she exhibited 36 paintings. (See Appendix 1 below and Appendix 2, a contemporary review). 

1971  There followed an exhibition at Salford Art Gallery in 1971 (16th December - to end of January 1972). A catalogue for this exhibition has not been found. A newspaper feature has been included at Appendix 3.

1972 She exhibited again at the Monks Hall Museum and Gallery in Eccles from January to May 1972. 

Olive stopped painting portrait commissions after this exhibition. In March, 1972, she wrote, "I've recently had a chance at outdoor landscape painting and it's been  a revelation to me after all these years of painting faces."Note 2.  From that point on, she embarked on a long period when she worked on landscapes. From the beginning, she appreciated the work of the Impressionists, particularly Claude Monet. Olive found constant inspiration in Nature. 

1973 In  June 1973, she exhibited 32 paintings in the BDP Vernon Gallery in Preston. Appendix 4.

As well as many more landscapes, Olive extended her subject matter to larger figure studies and nudes. 

1977 In 1977, her paintings across three genres were featured at a major exhibition at the City of Salford Art Gallery and Museum (19th August - 28th September). At that time, she was concentrating mainly on landscapes. 47 paintings were included. See Appendix 5.

1985 Some paintings were exhibited at The Mall Galleries "Flowers and Gardens" exhibition in 1985. See below painting number 154. 

Paintings are held in the collection of the Salford Art Gallery and Museum.

Abstract Works

Subsequently, from the 1980s Olive Bagshaw began another phase in her painting, creating abstract works. An exhibition of her abstract works has never taken place. It is possible that some may have appeared at local exhibitions.She continued to paint abstracts mainly in acrylic paint but also with other materials until shortly before her death in 2017.

Final years

Olive's home suffered a flood early in 2015 and all the stored works had to be moved. Olive said that she had found it fascinating to see works which had been in storage for decades and which she had virtually forgotten about. She wrote that there were four distinct phases in her work. Towards the end of her life, I had discussions with Olive about the possibility of a retrospective exhibition. The failing health of her husband and of Olive herself made this an unachievable objective. Olive was in a care home with Greg at Fulwood near Preston and the paintings were in storage. 

The majority of Olive's portraits were commissions. Many still life, landscape and figure paintings including from the exhibitions were sold throughout her life.

Sale of Studio Works 2019

After the death of her husband, Greg, the executor's sale took place at Silverwoods Auction in Clitheroe, Lancs in early 2019. It is believed that all the works were sold to a single buyer. These were then split up and a number of these were sold at David Duggleby's Winter Art sale in 2019 and Spring Art sale in 2020. These were termed the "Artist's Studio Sale".  

Collection of Works 

In this account a collection of images of oil and acrylic paintings (including those from the Duggleby's  "artist's studio" sale) has been gathered from private and public collections, but it is just a sample.

It is hoped and intended that this blog, which I aim to be a basis for a catalogue, can be improved and expanded. Better quality images may be included in the future and more information about their history and details of their subject matter, etc, as a result of information received from those who knew Olive and Greg and who sat for portraits. I shall be grateful for any information. Please see my contact details at the end of this blog.  

No systematic documentation of Olive's paintings was found to exist after her death, so for a chronology one has to rely on those paintings which were dated, information from owners, portrait subjects of the paintings and the changes in Olive's painting style in order to attribute approximate periods of time. 

The complete blog is included as the last of the posts, so that a comprehensive record of each of the posts can be consulted. I have put each main section into a separate post for ease of reference. The main sections are not necessarily in chronological order. To find that it will be best to look at the last complete section. The paintings are numbered in accordance with the last complete blog section. As far as the abstract works are concerned, I have tried to group them into similar bands, but it is all guesswork, although one sequence is clearly derived from a physical location, Whin's Bridge. Note 3 All note and other appendix references can be found at the end of the last section.

A glance at the first exhibition catalogue in 1970 (see Appendix 1) shows that from the beginning, Olive was painting in several genres. 

Copyright 

Images

I have sought to record image copyright where I have been able to find it. Please let me know if you own copyright on images which is not credited. I shall be happy to record it or remove the image if you wish.

Artist's Copyright

Please note: To date, I have not been able to establish who holds Artist's Copyright for Olive Bagshaw's works reproduced in this blog. Currently, the provisions of Non Commercial Use are intended to apply. This blog is not monetized and its purpose is informational. Please let me know if you have any information about the artist's copyright. Contact details are to be found at the end of this blogpost.