STUBBS, Constance

1927 - 2015

Constance Stubbs was born at Cheltenham, Gloucestershire on 6 August 1927, fifth daughter of Walter Stubbs and his wife Ada Maria née Irwin, who married at Edmonton in 1898. Constance studied at Cheltenham School of Art and in 1946 gained a scholarship to the Royal College of Art 1949-1951, under Professor Robin Darwin (1910-1974) and her tutors included Ruskin Spear (1911-1990), John Minton (1917-1957), Carel Weight (1908-1997) and Rodrigo Moynihan (1910-1990). After graduation she worked for a year in the Greek studio of Christos Kapralos (1909-1993) and in 1950 held her first solo exhibition ‘A Year in Greece’ at the Anglo-Hellenic Club in Athens. On her return to England, she taught at a girls' school in Shropshire then worked in advertising in London. She married in Surrey in 1957, artist Harold Wilfred Yates and, as well as bringing a young family, Constance became senior lecturer at the Coloma Teacher Training College in Kent and exhibited at the Royal Academy. In 1964 she successfully competed against leading contemporary artists for the commission to paint a reredos of the ‘Fall and the Ascent of Man’ in the new chapel at St Mary’s Teacher Training College, Strawberry Hill, London. Following her 1981 move to The Willows, Bell Corner, Pakenham, Suffolk, Constance became an established artist which afforded her the opportunity to develop and further her diverse talents resulting in one woman shows around East Anglia and in London. In 1982 she joined the Gainsborough's House Gallery in Sudbury and out of 200 artists was selected for the 1982 Hayward Annual Exhibition of British Drawing, her work was singled out by the 'Guardian' art critic as outstanding. Her innovative collage technique, using acrylic or watercolour with gouache, chalk, and pastel, builds up delicate layers of radiant and exotically coloured textures on canvas or board. In 1987 'The Arts Review' critic wrote of her pictures then showing at the Oxford Gallery, '[They] have about them a kind of modern monumentality that bears witness to the pains and pleasures of human existence.' She is a member of the Contemporary Portrait Society; the Pastel Society and Artworks East, Bury St Edmund's and has exhibited amongst others at the Anglo-Hellenic League, Athens; in London at Blenheim Gallery; Brampton Gallery; Hammond Lloyd Gallery and Brunswick Gallery; Fairfield Halls, Croydon; Coach House Gallery, Guernsey; Classic Gallery, Newton Abbot with later exhibitions at Chappel Galleries, Essex and at the John Russell Gallery, Ipswich. From The Willows, Pakenham, Bury St Edmund's she donated to the Westhall Secret Postcard Auction in 2013 a charcoal 'Dara's Girls'. Constance Yates died on 25 May 2015.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from Birdlip, Church Road, Kenley, Surrey
1963 776 Farm, Vale of Evesham - watercolour
1965 1292 Boy - pencil and wash
1966 971 Boy - pencil and wash
1967 1007 Martin - conté and wash

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Works by This Artist