Original Acrylic on Board’bottles, Fruit and a Chair’ by Irene Stocks. B. 1943. Signed c.1980

Born 1943 in Rochdale, Lancashire. Studied art at Leeds University in the early 1960’s under Professor Quentin Bell, the son of Vanessa Bell. It was on trips to see Quentin that her painting style materialized into late Bloomsbury. After careers in teaching and town planning, she and her husband opened their first gallery in St. Albans, Herts, specializing in Modern British painting. In 1982 they settled in East Anglia, where they ran their business from galleries in Diss, and later in Bungay, Suffolk. At the same time she has continued to paint, mainly in oils and acrylic, her work being characterized by a feeling for strong colour and bold composition. Her preferred subject is the human figure, plants, animals and still life, treated in a stylized manner. She has exhibited at several galleries in East Anglia, including the Fry gallery, Saffron Walden and 21st Century Gallery, Bungay, Suffolk.