Influences
RS working in printmaking department on lithography stone
for Artists in Residence Portfolio 1982.
Family & Teachers & Painters
Thinking of people who have influenced me, I began to write about my mother. She gave me the greatest support and encouragement; although she knew little about art and could not draw. People always wonder who influenced me to be an artist; certainly no one in my family. I remember an aunt who copied picture postcards in pen and ink; but I was already drawing and copying cartoons by then. At the age of five, I had won a prize for coloring a porcelain figure; not very original.
The influences were more on me as a person. In that regard my grandfather, Jack Stone, was an important part of my childhood; I adored him. My father, Trevor David Slade, and my grandmother, Florence Stone, died in January 1936. My mother lost her husband and her mother within three weeks. When I was 12 years old, my mother remarried as, years earlier, had my grandfather. They ended up by marrying a brother and sister; making my stepfather both my grandfather’s son in law and brother in law?! My stepfather, William Roberts, was good to me, being supportive through my student days at home and beyond. At school, I was influenced by my art teacher, Roy Saunders. In college, my painting professor, Eric Malthouse, became a friend; influencing my pub crawls rather than my painting.
Naturally, there were artists that I admired when I was a student: from Turner and Constable to Utrillo and Van Gogh. The artist that I had the greatest problem with was Paul Cezanne. I was puzzled by the awkwardness and crudeness of his painting. Picasso was more exciting at that time. Later, Cezanne became the painter for whom I have the greatest admiration. Through his life’s struggle to get it right, he can indeed be regarded as the father of Modern Painting.
As a young artist, I was made aware of Modern American Art through exhibitions at the Whitechapel Gallery in London. The director, Bryan Robertson, organized the most influential modern art exhibitions in post-war Britain: Jackson Pollock's first British show in 1958, Mark Rothko's in 1961, Robert Rauschenberg's retrospective in 1964. Other shows included Roy Lichtenstein and Pop Art. The exhibitions that he curated were in the large gallery spaces of the Whitechapel, in the unlikely setting of London’s East End. Exhibitions of the work of Lee Krasner and Helen Frankenthaler were presented. Years later, at the Corcoran, I was to organize exhibitions of these two women; Bryan was the first to do so. Indeed, in those days of the late 50’s and early 60’s, more recognition came to American Art in London than through New York; the shows at the Whitechapel were among the first major exhibitions of these artists. I went to London to see these shows, often in awe and sometimes puzzlement. The huge and colorful canvases were overwhelming, as were the images and imagination of these modern masters.
I met many painters, particularly as a museum director, and admired the work of many. I was particularly fortunate to have met and visited with Clyfford Still; a painter I regard highly. I stand in awe of his paintings; of a scale and sublimity that evokes the wonder of nature. From the beginning, of all that truly influences me, nature remains my own going inspiration. I would photograph rock pools and study the waves; the Welsh coastline is impressive and varied; from towering cliffs to sandy coves. The love of landscape was part of my upbringing. I became more and interested in the abstract aspects of nature: from passing clouds to swirling water. My paintings became stained canvases of gesture and mark with paint splashed and pigment poured. In all her awesome abstraction of light, color and mood, the lasting influence and inspiration for me is Mother Earth.