MARY NEWCOMB: A LIFE RECORDED

Mary Newcomb (1922-2008) was a self-taught artist who settled in rural East Anglia. Her life and art were rooted in everyday observation and the natural world. Her unique visual language and poetic vision closely aligned with her writing. This exhibition includes her paintings, working drawings, and writing.

Mary studied at Reading University for a degree in Natural Sciences and went on to teach science and mathematics before moving East to volunteer and lodge at Flatford Mill. She met Godfrey Newcomb in Walberswick, together they moved to a small farm in the Waveney valley where they set up Needham Pottery, mainly producing commercial functional wares. For several years in the 1960s they rented a room for a week at The Assembly House to sell ceramics. Mary became a member of the Norwich 20 Group and the Norfolk and Norwich Art Circle.

Newcomb’s first solo show was held at Crane Kalman Gallery in London in 1970 and the gallery has regularly held exhibitions of her work since. In 2009 Mary Newcomb’s Odd Universe, A Memorial Exhibition, was held at Norwich Castle, and in 2021 Compton Verney in Warwickshire held Nature’s Canvas, a large retrospective.