Mary Stork (1938 - 2007) - Female Cornish Artist

A watercolour painter, member of Penwith Society of Arts and close friend of Rose Hilton

Mary Stork was born in Portsmouth but raised in Dartmouth, Devon, where her father was Director of Studies at the Royal Naval College. She studied at the West of England College of Art where her primary tutor was Paul Feiler. She studied further at the Slade School of Art, London, where she won major awards, and her paintings were toured with the Arts Council of Great Britain, Young Contemporaries exhibition. At the Slade, she met and married the West Cornwall artist Jeremy Le Grice and they returned to the county to live at St. Just in 1961. They were later divorced. In Cornwall, she met Karl Weschke who was to greatly influence her work but she temporarily gave up painting due to family commitments. In 1982 she took up her painting again showing in local galleries that included the Rainy Day Gallery in Penzance.

Mary Stork became a member of the Penwith Society of Arts and also of the Newlyn Society of Artists.

She showed widely at venues that included the London Group, 1959, 1960, 1961; Newlyn Art Gallery, Penzance, 1960- 1969, 1991-1995; Penwith Society of Arts, 1988-1995; Beaux Arts Gallery, Bath, 1990-1992; David Messum, Cork Street, London, 1994; Royal West of England Academy, 1958 and the Newlyn Society of Artists and the Penwith Society of Arts.

Sources: www.artbiogs.co.uk