CYNTHIA HOWELL
Colour and Spirit

CYNTHIA HOWELL

I love Cynthia Howell’s painting, it captures her free sprit and inspires my own.

We met in 1974, both working for The Friends of the Tate Gallery. Cynthia’s energy matched that of the surrounding paintings by John Hoyland and Sam Francis while adding even more colour. She was a fantastic colleague, and became a great friend. She has four children, and with characteristic energy and passion made time to paint, a discovery which added another compelling dimension to her character which has intrigued me ever since.

Cynthia was taught by Walter Nestler and Cecil Colllins, and stylistically influenced by her wide ranging passion for art, in particular Nicholas de Stael, Keith Vaughan and William Scott have played a part together with Cynthia’s all time heroes Rembrandt and Matisse. Whilst drawing inspiration from these artists, Cynthia unquestionably has her own aesthetic confidence. She has a unique and distinctive vision, which is expressed through the subjects of her painting, distilling their essence, mixing it with energy and returning it to the canvas. Her paintings are vigorous, powerful and decisive, and yet simultaneously seductive, sensitive and tender too.

Suffolk has been her enduring muse, since she first had a weekend cottage there in 1968. Now her home, it is the subject of many of these recent paintings, together with a selection of landscapes, interiors and still lives, from Britain, Europe and America. Since the 60s, change has been the constant in Cynthia’s style, which has consistently evolved. Whilst space precludes showing her drawings or the breadth of her earlier work, including cityscapes, portraits and an exciting period when she painted footballers with spray paint, we are not cheated. We are afforded the sumptuous immediacy of her brush, cloth, finger and pallet knife techniques. Along with some of Cynthia’s characteristic devices, paths and churches, it is interesting to see how vases and flowers have appeared more frequently in these recent paintings. I particularly love the vitality of the emerging circular leitmotif in many of the works. The exhibition is united by a simplicity, which belies the complexity of thought feeling and process. The works have an exciting edge, they are most certainly more than the sum of their parts, they bare a hidden soul.

The Chappel Galleries have spoilt us again, bringing together this noteworthy selection of Cynthia’s most recent paintings. I hope they will also inspire you, and that you will relish this very special treat.

Stephen Dunn is Exhibition Registrar at Tate Modern.