PHOENIX ART GALLERY
The Phoenix Gallery was opened at 97 High Street, Lavenham, Suffolk in 1952 by Ronald McCausland-White (1908-1980) and held many substantial and important exhibitions. In 1977 the gallery was purchased by Noel Oddy (1927-2011) who also owned Highgate Fine Art in London. Oddy's passion for art turned the Phoenix Gallery into a highly acclaimed gallery that occupied the forefront of the East Anglian art world for the next 15 years. Several of the artists he promoted, such as Charles Ernest Cundall, John Randall Bratby (1928-1992), Lawrence Burnett Gowing (1918-1991), Edward Middleditch, Roger de Grey (1918-1995) and Frederick John Pym Gore (1913-2009), were eminent Royal Academicians of their day. Others nonetheless worthy artists included Hugh Cronyn, Flavia Hatt Irwin (1916-2009), Bridget McCrum (1934-), Claude Harrison (1922-2009), Robin Mackertich (1922-1994), Karen Ray (1931-1998) and Stuart Alexander Ray (1916-1985). In 1988 he opened in Highgate, north London what was soon to become a hidden gem with Oddy renaming it Highgate Fine Art. Oddy retired in 2008. There are over 35 Suffolk artists who exhibited with the Phoenix Gallery at Lavenham.
The artists exhibiting in the 1954 exhibition included
Audrey Blake
Dorothy Bradford
Charles Wilfred Hobbis (25 February 1880-4 December 1977) Norfolk
Michael Horne
Mrs Katie Matkin (12 February 1885-20 February 1960) Cambridgeshire
Cavendish Morton
Beryl Mary Pickering (2 December 1918-2003) Cambridgeshire
Louis Stanley Maurice Prince
Albert Ribbans
Humphrey Spender (1910-2005) Maldon, Essex
Rowland Suddaby
Petrina Edmond Hughina Tennyson-Green (1894-1970) Cambridge
Bertram le Quorice Hattersley Winterton (1910-1985) Cambridge