Crouch Farmhouse, Barlavington, 1980s

Olwyn Bowey RA (b. 1936)

RA Collection: Art

The etching depicts a large house obscured by trees, which the artist has identified as Crouch Farmhouse, Barlavington.

It was made by Olwyn Bowey when she was teaching at the Royal Academy Schools in the 1980s when Peter Greenham RA was the Keeper. She was encouraged to try out etching by the Technician of the Schools, Lawrence Jenkins, who was one of her former students from Maidstone School of Art. On the whole she has had little patience with the process of printmaking, but in this case she liked the more immediate method of drawing on the spot using tracing paper on a soft ground from which Jenkins then printed the works.

Bowey was taught by Carel Weight RA when she was a student at the Royal College of Art, London. Bowey thinks that she gave this etching to Weight as a gift, possibly for Christmas. It was given to the Royal Academy as part of his bequest. Bowey thinks that she gave away all of the other prints from the series too.