Surreal Gallery

A portrait of Rosemary Kennedy by Angus McBean

A photographic study of Rosemary Kennedy, daughter of the United States Ambassador, Joseph P. Kennedy. Angus McBean (1904-1990), began his career in the theatre making masks and designing sets. He took an interest in photography from an early age and from the early 1930s took it up as a profession after a stint as a window dresser in the department store, Liberty's. McBean's work was famous for being surreal and experimental, with work frequently featured in TheTatler and Bystander and The Sketch between the mid 1930s to the 1950s

© Mary Evans Picture Library 2015 - https://copyrighthub.org/s0/hub1/creation/maryevans/MaryEvansPictureID/10223830

Surreal study, 1952. Creator: Shirley Markham

Surreal study, 1952. Illustration for a poem by TS Eliot. Shirley Markham (1931-1999) studied Graphic Design and Illustration at Central School of Art in London from 1950-1952. The writer, artist, poet, and illustrator Mervyn Peake (1911-1968) was one of her tutors, and her style of drawing was also influenced by other British illustrators such as Edward Ardizzone, Quentin Blake and Edward Bawden. Markham spent time in the Dolomite Mountains in Italy, and also visited Rome, sketching classical buildings. After graduating from Central, she worked as a graphic designer, producing book illustrations, cartoons for comics, menus and programmes. She gave up her promising career however when she got married in 1957. Middle-class women at that time were expected to devote their energies to bringing up children and running the home, and despite her obvious talent, she lacked the confidence to return to illustration. Her portfolio remained in the family attic for many years, but now her work is published here for the first time

© Shirley Markham Collection / Heritage-Images

Into the Mystic #2

In Scotland, between The River Garry and Loch Oich, near the Village of Invergarry is a magical unnamed magical mossy forest that looks like it's right out of a fairytale. On this cold December morning a rare event occurred. Cold temperatures, fog, and a high pressure front created perfect conditions for hoar frost to form. Before my very eyes, the forest transformed into a mystical sugar coated delight. You can see the beginnings of the frost coating the tree top canopies, delicately glazing the intricate branches

© Matt Anderson Photography