Gertrude Hermes

English artist Gertrude Hermes worked mainly on woodcuts that where inspired by plants, animals and nature in general. She worked on sculptures as well as architecture and has had her work in many main art galleries around England.

Hermes first studied art at Beckenham School of Art but her interest in woodcuts and carving started during her time at Leon Underwood's School of Painting and Sculpture during the mid 20s.

Between 1924 to the 1930s she focused mainly on woodcuts and founded the English Wood Engraving Society in 1925 with various other artists.

Her work was used to illustrate many books over her career, such as ‘The Complete Angler’ by Izaak Walton, ‘The Natural History of Seldom’ by Gilbert White that was unpublished, T.S. Eliot's ‘Animula’ and the ‘Penguin Illustrated Classics’ series.

Notable architectural works are her mural for the British Pavilion at the World Fair in Paris that she worked on with her husband Blair Hughes-Stanton and a fountain carved from stone as well as a mosaic floor for the foyer of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre.

Her love of nature as inspiration also followed through to her sculptures, her chosen materials ranging from bronze to wood and stone. Some of her smaller animal works also had practical functions as weather vanes, doorknockers, letterboxes and car mascots. Besides animals she also produced various sculptured portraits of musicians, writers and politicians. Two examples are the painter Prunella Clough and the poet Kathleen Raine. In all she created over fifty works.

You can read more about Gertrude Hermes at http://www.artfortune.com/gertrude-hermes/artistbiographies-129443/