Isobel Heath

Isobel Atterbury Heath (29 December 1908-1989) was a British artist and poet active in the St Ives area of Cornwall.

Isobel Atterbury Heath
Born29 December 1908
Kingston Upon Hull, England
Died1989 (aged 80–81)
NationalityBritish
EducationAcadémie Colarossi
Known forPainting, Poetry
Spouse(s)Marc Prati

Biography

Heath was born in Kingston Upon Hull. Little is known of her childhood but later in life she indicated that her father had been a chemist and that she had been educated by nuns.[1] Heath studied at the Académie Colarossi in Paris before, in the late 1930s, taking classes at the school of painting run by Leonard Fuller in St Ives.[2][3] During World War II Heath worked as an illustrator for the Ministry of Information, painting and drawing workers in ordinance factories and at a camouflage factory in St Ives.[4] During the war, she also made pencil drawings of British and American troops stationed in Cornwall.[2] She was given permission to record naval subjects and also spent time at the Spitfire station at RAF Perranporth.[5] During the conflict she met her future husband, Dr. Marc Prati, a political correspondent for La Stampa, who as an Italian national had been interned in Cornwall.[5]

Heath was a member of the St Ives Society of Artists and in 1949 was a founder member of the breakaway Penwith Society of Arts but resigned in 1950 and rejoined the St Ives Society in 1957.[6][7] She continued to exhibit with the St Ives Society for the rest of her life.[1] The Cornish landscape was the principal subject of Heath's paintings and she would regularly camp out on the moors in Cornwall for several days at a time painting landscapes.[6][7] In 1962, for the Royal Watercolour Society she organized an exhibition of unknown Cornish artists, entitled The Cornish Experiment.[3] Heath exhibited with the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours and the Royal Scottish Academy.[6] She was included in the centenary exhibition of the Society of Women Artists held in London during 1955.[7] Heath also published three volumes of poetry.[2][1]

Published works
  • Passing Thoughts, 1971
  • Love, 1973
  • Reflections, 1978

References
  1. David Tovey (2003). Creating a Splash - The St Ives Society of Artists, the first 25 years (1927-1952). ISBN 0953836339.
  2. "Isobel Heath". Cornwall Artists Index. Retrieved 9 December 2017.
  3. Grant M. Waters. Dictionary of British Artists Working 1900-1950 Volume II. Eastbourne Fine Art.
  4. Sacha Llewellyn & Paul Liss (2016). WWII War Pictures by British Artists. Liss Llewellyn Fine Art. ISBN 978-0-9930884-2-1.
  5. "Holding the Line 2015, The Art of the War Years 1939-1945". Sim Fine Arts. 2015. Retrieved 10 December 2017.
  6. David Buckman (1989). Artists in Britain Since 1945. Art Dictionaries Ltd. ISBN 0953260909.
  7. Marion Whybrow (1994). St Ives 1883-1993 Portrait of an Art Colony. Antique Collectors' Club. ISBN 1851491708.
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