A YORKSHIRE Dales artist is appealing for help to find her ‘lost works’ as she prepares to launch an exhibition at the university where she studied more than 60 years ago.
Janet Rawlins will stage her Life in the Dales exhibition at Leeds Art University’s Vernon Street Gallery. She studied at Leeds College of Art, which later became Leeds Arts University, from 1947 to 1952.
She went on to become a successful artist and illustrator, drawing inspiration from the Yorkshire Dales where she lives and works, and is known for her Dales landscapes in fabric collage and watercolour.
A prolific artist, her illustrative work includes her fabric collages for Waddingtons Jigsaw puzzles made during the 1960s and 1970s, as well as several illustrated children’s books. Publications include A Dales Countryside Cookbook, and A Grass Rope to Catch a Unicorn, and Wensleydale Wild Flowers and Other Illustrations. She has also produced numerous drawings and cover paintings for the Dalesman magazine
From 1971 to 1982 she created 39 double sided collages for the Leeds Permanent Building Society, now part of Lloyds Banking group, with a local theme for each branch. All but the Malvern and Ripon Leeds Permanent Building Society collages are believed lost.
Now the artist and the university are appealing for any information about the missing work. To help, contact Rachael Hickson Pearce at alumni@leeds-art.ac.uk or 0113 202 8142.
The exhibition Life in the Dales is a celebration of Janet Rawlins’ career and it will also showcase the work of recent graduates Sonia Moran and Rosa Hackett.
Rachael said they were delighted to welcome Janet back to Vernon Street.
She said: “It is an honour for Leeds Arts University to celebrate such a prolific artist and showcase her work in the place she studied over 60 years ago. It would be wonderful if the publicity could help reunite Janet with her collages from the Leeds Permanent Building Society, and we invite anyone who has any information to get in touch.”
The exhibition is open from September 13 to November 1.
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