Mary Newcomb

by Christopher Andreae

Mary Newcomb, born in England in 1922, gives unconventional meaning to the description 'country artist'. Fed by a highly individual and often humorous view of the rural world around her, her paintings and drawings, like visual poems, blend observation, memory and metaphor. This fully illustrated monograph, the first to be published on the artist, introduces Mary Newcomb's universe through over 160 full-colour reproductions. Her paintings and drawings are set alongside extracts from her Diary and an illuminating text by Christopher Andreae. Christopher Andreae's text is based on conversations and correspondence with the artist as well as close study of her Diary, paintings and drawings. It considers the relation of Newcomb's work to so-called 'naive' painting and to naturalist artists and writers, and analyses the unique self-taught 'language' of her art.