Joan Gillchrest English, 1918-2008

Joan Linda Gilbert Scott was born in 1918 at Bentinck Street, London, to Dr Sebastian and Alice Gilbert Scott. She was educated at Rosemead School, Upper Chine School on the Isle of Wight, and Wadhurst Boarding School. In 1934, she travelled to Paris to learn French and deepen her interest in art, where she met Gwen John in her studio.

Between 1935 and 1939, she studied at the Grosvenor School of Art and exhibited her work at the Royal Academy, the New English Art Club, and the London Group. At the start of the Second World War, she volunteered as an ambulance driver for Westminster Hospital.

In 1942, Joan married Samuel Gillchrest, and the following year their daughter, Marguerite, was born; their son Paul followed in 1947. The couple divorced in 1953, after which Joan turned to modelling for prominent London fashion houses to support herself and continue her painting.

After relocating to Tite Street in Chelsea in 1955, she met the artist Adrian Ryan. They moved to Cornwall in 1958, and Joan purchased a cottage in Mousehole. The pair separated in 1965, with Adrian returning to London, leaving Joan to focus on her painting. She soon began exhibiting locally in Mousehole, Penzance, and St Ives, which led to her first solo exhibition at Plymouth Art Gallery in 1969.

Over the following decade, Joan’s career continued to grow, and she participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions, including at the New Ashgate Gallery in Farnham, Windsor and Eton Fine Art Company Ltd, Leon Suddaby Fine Art, Newlyn Orion, and the New Craftsman in St Ives. In 1990, she held her first exhibition at the Wren Gallery in Burford, where she went on to present annual solo shows from 1991 until her death in 2008.