Malvina Cheek

In Luton she continued to teach and also worked for a Blood Transfusion Unit at the local hospital, later moving to St Albans, where the art school was rapidly establishing itself as a centre of excellence.

[3][1] An introduction to Arnold Palmer resulted in Cheek receiving several commissions from the Recording Britain project: the counties she was allocated included Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Cornwall.

These exhibitions and the handsome four volume hardback set published just after the war by the Oxford University Press, partly financed by the Pilgrim Trust from the USA, enhanced these artists' reputations both at home and abroad.

[5] In 1945 a painting entitled Study of American soldiers standing outside, the Rainbow Corner, North London, was sold to James Bussy of Sheffield.

Her work in portraiture continued apace and one of the most characteristic paintings, which remained in her own collection, was that of her father, Percy Ebsworth Cheek, in his ARP helmet.

[6] After the War, two further topographical books, illustrated by her exclusively, were published for the Visions of England series by Paul Elek: The Black Country, by Walter Allen in 1946 and Derbyshire, by Nellie Kirkham, in 1947.

Amongst her early students from St Albans as well as Ronald Maddox was David Gentleman, and from various other establishments were John Raynes, Stanley Smith, Albany Wiseman and Ian Sidaway.

Fresh, primary colours characterise her work of the 60s and 70s: highlights of red abound in her still lifes and portraits: pots of geraniums, a summer hat, the costume of an Indian wooden marionette.