Skip navigation
Tate Logo
Shop
Become a Member

Main menu

  • Art and artists
    • Our collection
      Artists
      Artworks
      Art by theme
      Explore
      Videos
      Podcasts
      Short articles
      In depth
      Art Terms
      Tate Research
      Student resources
      Make art
      Create like an artist
      Kids art activities
      Tate Draw game
  • What's on
  • Plan your visit

Main menu additional

  • Shop
  • Become a Member
Expand
  • Art and Artists
  • Artworks
  • Blue Anemone

Margaret Mellis

Blue Anemone

1957

© The estate of Margaret Mellis

License this image

Not on display

Artist
Margaret Mellis 1914–2009
Medium
Oil paint on board
Dimensions
Support: 333 × 352 mm
frame: 355 × 375 × 54 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Purchased 1971
Reference
T01267

Catalogue entry

Margaret Mellis 1914-2009

T01267 Blue Anemone 1957

Inscribed on reverse of board ‘Dec or Nov 1957/Blue Anemone/Margaret Mellis’.
Oil on paper laid on board, 13¿ x 13¿ (33.5 x 35.5).
Purchased from the artist (Gytha Trust) 1971.
Coll: Bought by the artist’s father, O. B. M. Mellis, from exhibition at the Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 1959; the artist.
Exh: A.I.A., April 1958 (28); Scottish Gallery, Castle Street, Edinburgh, November 1959 (22).

The artist wrote (letter of 16 May 1971): ‘Blue anemone 1957 November. This was painted from the idea of the shape of dying anemones in an almost empty jam jar. I used irregular square shaped patches of paint and bent lines of colour to join them together. Colour usually unmixed direct from the tube. No modulations allowed except by the density of the paint on each patch. To get the right density the paint was put on with a palette knife in places and brushed on in others. Parts were left un painted.’

‘This period lasted from about 1956 to 1959. It was halfway between my first abstract period (1940–8) and the present (abstract period) which came about gradually between 1959 and 1963, and is to do with colour.’

Published in The Tate Gallery Report 1970–1972, London 1972.

Read more

St Ives School

Explore

  • abstraction(8,615)
    • from recognisable sources(3,634)
      • organic(827)
  • objects(23,571)
    • vessels and containers(2,157)
      • vase(287)

You might like

Left Right
  • Peter Lanyon Porthleven

    1951
    On display at Tate St Ives part of Modern Art and St Ives
  • Philip Sutton Autumn Flowers

    1955
  • Roy De Maistre Vegetable Still Life

    1956
  • Bryan Wynter Seedtime

    1958–9
  • John Wells Painting

    1962
  • Ben Nicholson OM August 1956 (Val d’Orcia)

    1956
  • Dame Barbara Hepworth Family Group - Earth Red and Yellow

    1953
  • John Wells Sea Bird Forms

    1951
  • Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Composition February I

    1954
  • Patrick Hayman Mother and Child near a Town

    1952
  • Peter Lanyon Zennor Storm

    1958
  • Denton Welch Harvest

    c.1940
  • Patrick Caulfield Black and White Flower Piece

    1963
  • Bernard Leach Vase

    c.1950
  • Bernard Leach Vase

    c.1955

In the shop

Browse the shop
Close

Join in

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
Sign up to emails

Sign up to emails

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Tate’s privacy policy

About

  • About us
  • Our collection
  • Terms and copyright
  • Governance
  • Picture library
  • ARTIST ROOMS
  • Tate Kids

Support

  • Tate Collective
  • Members
  • Patrons
  • Donate
  • Corporate
  • My account
  • Press
  • Jobs
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Cookies
  • Contact