Hugh CRONYN, GM., (1905-1996)

Born in Vancouver,Canada 1905,Hugh began painting in 1928 in the Toronto studio of Franz (Frank) Johnston, a founder member of the Canadian Group of Seven School of Landscape painters.
In 1929 he spent a year at the Art Students League,New York and in 1930 went to the American School of Fine Art,Fontainebleau. Then, to Paris, which Hugh regarded as his university - studying Life & Composition with Jean Despujols and then,Painting for two years,1931-3,with the Cubist painter Andre L'Hote, from whom he received the following words of wisdom :
"Vous êtes priés de ne pas respecter votre professeur mais de l'écouter lorsqu'il vous prie de ne pas peindre cette semaine le modèle de la semaine precédente....
Soyez abstraits, c'est-a-dire, stylisateurs. Mais soyez concrets aussi, c'est-a-dire, caricaturistes dans le sens noble du mot."
This superb advice was to have a profound influence upon Hugh's painting style for the rest of his life - he was never afraid to innovate or express himself and even in his late eighties he was virtually every day brimful of energy,always producing the most amazing new collections. Travels through France,Italy,Germany and Spain occupied the whole of 1934. He came to London in 1935, working as a freelance painter with a circle of talented friends along the Thames at Hammersmith. In 1939 he enlisted in the Thames River Emergency Service,then the Royal Navy,being commissioned in 1940 as Lieutenant Commander RNVR.
Shortly after he was awarded the George Medal for bravery in bomb-disposal. In 1942 he married Jean Harris,and from 1946 to 1949 he was Art Director
at the Architectural Association School,London. Following his 1949 appointment as Tutor of Painting at Colchester School of Art, he moved to Suffolk with his wife and two daughters. He stayed in the post until 1969,enabling him to travel frequently to Canada,painting in Quebec, Northern Ontario, The Rockies and Vancouver.
By 1960, France was again beckoning, so he and his wife purchased an old farmhouse in Quercy, South West France where Hugh was able to indulge his passion for landscape painting. In 1975 they moved from Suffolk back to Hammersmith Reach on the Thames, where, in between his many visits to France, he painted until his death in 1996.
A lyrical,passionate painter,who absolutely adored the Thames pageant with its hourly changing scenery, Hugh was a total joy to work with, and he also had the most marvellous sense of humour. Noël Oddy July 2004
Selected exhibitions:
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 1950 on
Royal West of England Academy
The Minories,Colchester 1972
Canada House London 1972
Nancy Poole's Studio,Toronto "My three countries"
Gainsborough's House, Sudbury
Digby Gallery,Colchester
Yehudi Menuhin School
Hotel de Ville, Montcuq
Sandford Gallery,Covent Garden
Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery
Phoenix Gallery Kingston 1987
Phoenix Gallery Lavenham 1985,1987,1990
Phoenix Gallery London 1991
Air Gallery,Dover Street,London 1998
Patisserie Valerie Knightsbridge 1999
Highgate Fine Art,Highgate Village 2001

Hugh's paintings are in numerous Public and private collections in Canada,France,Sweden,the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
Noel Oddy Fine Art 2007
Copyright www.oddyart.com 2007

Paintings