Mabel Mary Spanton, Member, RWS

Royal Watercolour Society

The Royal Watercolour Society is an English institution of painters working in watercolours...

 (1 December 1874 — ca. 1940) was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 landscape

Landscape

Landscape comprises the visible features of an area of land, including the physical elements of landforms such as mountains, hills, water bodies such as rivers, lakes, ponds and the sea, living elements of land cover including indigenous vegetation, human elements including different forms of...

 painter

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

 who primarily worked in watercolour.

Life and work

Mabel Mary Spanton was born in Hanley, Staffordshire on 1 December 1874, the daughter of Dr. William Dunnet Spanton, F.R.C.S. She studied art at Hanley School of Art under J. S. Cartlidge, and also in Newlyn

Newlyn

Newlyn is a town and fishing port in southwest Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.Newlyn forms a conurbation with the neighbouring town of Penzance and is part of Penzance civil parish...

, Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

 under Stanhope Forbes

Stanhope Forbes

Stanhope Alexander Forbes R.A., , was an artist and member of the influential Newlyn school of painters...

, R.A.

Spanton was elected as a member of the prestigious Royal Watercolour Society

Royal Watercolour Society

The Royal Watercolour Society is an English institution of painters working in watercolours...

 in 1927. She travelled and painted extensively across the Continent including the Balearic Islands

Balearic Islands

The Balearic Islands are an archipelago of Spain in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula.The four largest islands are: Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera. The archipelago forms an autonomous community and a province of Spain with Palma as the capital...

 in 1925, Italy, Spain, Holland and Belgium in 1928, and in England and Scotland in 1938. During the early 1920s Spanton lived in both Hastings

Hastings

Hastings is a town and borough in the county of East Sussex on the south coast of England. The town is located east of the county town of Lewes and south east of London, and has an estimated population of 86,900....

 and Bexhill

Bexhill-on-Sea

Bexhill-on-Sea is a town and seaside resort in the county of East Sussex, in the south of England, within the District of Rother. It has a population of approximately 40,000...

, Sussex before spending the majority of her later years abroad.

Exhibitions

She exhibited extensively including in London at the Royal Academy

Royal Academy

The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...

; London Salon; Royal Society of British Artists; Society of Women Artists; Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours; Women's International Art Club; Dudley Gallery and New Dudley Gallery; Goupil Gallery; Walker Gallery. Elsewhere her work was exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy; Royal Hibernian Academy; Royal Cambrian Academy

Royal Cambrian Academy of Art

The Royal Cambrian Academy of Art is a centre of excellence for art in Wales. Its main gallery is located in Conwy and it has over a hundred members.thumb|right|240px|Plas Mawr, Conwy-Early history:...

; Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolours; Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts; Abbey Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent; Royal Society of Artists Birmingham; Walker Art Gallery Liverpool; and at Bristol, Derby, Oldham, Hull, Newlyn, Southport, and Aberdeen.