Mary Newcomb was a British painter born in Harrow-on-the-hill in 1922. She lived in the countryside for her whole career and her work is famously centred in the rural way of life and the nature that is integral to it. Newcomb took a degree in Natural Sciences at Reading University in 1943 and went on to teach science and mathematics at the high school in Bath.
In 1950, Mary married Godfrey Newcomb and moved to Norfolk. It was here that she began to paint. Her lyrical work offers unexpected views of everyday, rural moments and often infused with humour, further developed in the titles she gave her work.
Newcomb’s first solo show was held at Crane Kalman in 1970 and the gallery has continued exhibit her work reguarly since. It was in association with the gallery that Christopher Andreae wrote a monograph on her work in 1996 to coincide with her retrospective that travelled to Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal, Cumbria; Schoolhouse Gallery, Bath; King’s Lynn Art Centre, Norfolk; and Crane Kalman Gallery, London.
Mary Newcomb exhibited internationally at Galerie de Beerenburght, Eck on Wiel, Holland and Galerie Kusten, Gothenburg, Sweden in 1976; in Amsterdam at Galerie de Beerenburght, 1977, and Galerie Nanky de Vreeze, 1984; Galerie XX, Hamburg and Graham Modern Gallery, New York, both in 1985.
Her works remain part of many public gallery collections, including, since 1997, the Tate gallery, when her work “People Walking Amongst Small Sandhills” was acquired for its collection; The Ingram Collection of Modern British and Contemporary Art, London; Norfolk Museums, Norwich; Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich; Lakeside Arts, University of Nottingham, Nottingham; Northampton Museums and Art Gallery, Northampton; Ipswich Art Gallery, Colchester and Ipswich Museums, Suffolk; Pembroke College Oxford, and Pier Arts Centre, Stromness, Scotland.
In 2009 Mary Newcomb’s Odd Universe, A Memorial Exhibition, was held at Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery, and Crane Kalman Gallery. Most recently, in 2021, the gallery presented an exhibition of her works in Mary Newcomb, Nature’s Canvas, alongside Compton Verney Art Gallery in Warwickshire where a large retrospective of Newcomb’s work was held.