Elly Davies, who is shortly set to celebrate her 100th birthday, will exhibit a lifetime of paintings at Winns Gallery from Saturday 31st October to Sunday 8th November, writes Marco Marcelline
Local artist Elly Davies is set to exhibit 100 paintings at Winns Gallery in Lloyd Park, Walthamstow, to celebrate her 100th birthday.
Titled, 100 paintings for 100 years, the exhibition will run from Saturday 31st October until Sunday 8th November.
Elly Davies, who celebrates her 100th birthday on 4th November, has been one of Waltham Forest’s most active painters since she moved to her Lloyd Road Warner flat in 1963.
Her wanderings to well-loved spots in the borough are reflected in her landscape sketches and watercolours, including the Wetlands, Church Hill, Epping Forest and Whipps Cross.
Born in the then German city of Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland) in 1926 and a war refugee still in her teens, Elly married a British serviceman after the Second World War and she eventually set up home in Walthamstow, after she was widowed with her son.
Over the years, Elly has contributed to countless local group exhibitions with a.o. The Essex Art Club, The Wanstead Art Group,
and solo exhibitions at The Barbican, Bankside Gallery, The South Bank, and two exhibitions at The William Morris Gallery.
Elly has opened her flat every year during the Walthamstow Art Trail, with visitors always taken aback by her home gallery – paintings covering all the walls.
Her repertoire includes beautifully detailed large paintings of colourful flowers, nostalgic dark winter landscapes, vibrant townscapes with some of London’s well-known sites, kitsch hats and teddy bears, front doors and back yards from the Warner flats where she still lives-and lately, collages with stones, wood, broken pieces of pottery, and other found materials from the banks of the River Lea and Thames.
Davies has also mixed local views with the cityscapes of Dublin, Berlin, Venice, Copenhagen – and, of course, her birthplace, Gdansk.
The exhibition at Winns Gallery builds on this collection of work across various artistic formats and styles.
Davies said: “I’ve been so lucky to be able to devote my life to doing what gives my life meaning – my paintings. Whether I’m pruning my bushes and flowers in my tiny garden or painting flowers in vases, flowers are life-giving.
“I love exploring places, and I’m still down on my knees at low tide along the Thames picking up materials for my work.”
Keep up to date with Winns Gallery exhibitions on Instagram here
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