Cherith McKinstry

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Cherith McKinstry

ARUA, MA
Born
Cherith Rosalind Boyd

4 March 1928
Powick, Worcestershire
DiedOctober 2004
Lisburn, County Antrim
EducationBelfast School of Art
Known forPainting
Spouse(s)Robert McKinstry

Cherith McKinstry ARUA, MA (4 March 1928 -October 2004) was an Irish painter and sculptor.

Biography[]

Cherith Boyd was born in Powick, Worcestershire to Lilian Goodwin, a nurse, and Arthur Boyd a psychiatric doctor. She was the middle child of three girls. When Cherith was three years old her father moved the family back to his native Ulster where he was to take a post as superintendent at Antrim Mental Hospital. Boyd was taught by a governess until the age of ten, when along with her older sister she was enroled as a boarder at Ashleigh House in Belfast. At school she befriended Florence McKinstry whose brother she would later marry. Her father died in 1939 and her mother was appointed matron at Ashleigh House in the same year. When World War II broke-out the students were evacuated to Learmount Castle in the Sperrins, where Boyd contracted polio which was to affect her gait for the rest of her life.[1]

Her art teacher Romilly Seymour recommended that she train at Belfast College of Art, where she was to meet Basil Blackshaw and T P Flanagan. She maintained a lifelong friendship with Blackshaw.[1] Boyd dated Blackshaw in the early 1950s and painted her portrait in 1958.[2] She studied under Romeo Toogood between 1950 and 1953.[3] Boyd was presented a prize for the best painting and drawing student of 1951 at the opening of the Ulster Arts Club's annual winter exhibition.[4] In 1954 Boyd was the first female recipient of a Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts travel scholarship worth £75, which she used to study in Italy and France.[3] Boyd was particularly interested in studying Florentine sculptors and their modern counterparts.[5] A Roman Scene was later one of 145 works selected from a thousand submissions for an exhibition at Liverpool's Walker Art Gallery in 1957.[6] Boyd exhibited with eight recent graduates at the YMCA Hall in Belfast in 1954. Exhibitors included Raymond Piper, TP Flanagan, Basil Blackshaw and Markey Robinson.[7] She taught for a time at Whitehead High School and also at Belfast Art College.[8] In the same year Boyd contributed a sculpture to the British Industries Fair at Earl's Court, one of six Ulster artists to show work, including Mercy Hunter, George MacCann and Dan O'Neill.[9]

Boyd met her future husband at Belfast School of Art, Robert McKinstry, an architect and lecturer, whom she married in 1958. She later bore three sons.[1] In 1968 the McKinstrys settled at Chrome Hill in Lisburn where Cherith held a studio attached to the house.[10]

McKinstry's earliest works were sculptures which was often evident in her figurative paintings of the 1960s. Her early paintings were often imbued with a sense of suffering and inhumanity as well as endurance, often focusing on Christian interpretations of these themes. She was later to work in a more abstract manner. Her works were influenced by the Dublin painters Patrick Pye and Charles Brady.[1] McKinstry's first solo exhibition was hosted by the Council For the Encouragement of Music and the Arts in Belfast in 1962.[11]

McKinstry accepted several large-scale commissions including the Stations of the Cross for St. McNissi Church at Magherahoney in 1967[12] and Students a mural, for the main staircase at Queens University Belfast in 1986. Her largest works were the six canvas ceiling panels she created for the Grand Opera House in Belfast, part of a renovation conducted by her husband in 1979.[10] In 1975 McKinstry showed a portrait of the Olympic pentathlete Mary Peters at the Arts Council of Northern Ireland Gallery.[13]

McKinstry was the recipient of a £5000 subsistence award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland in 1983.[14] In the same year McKinstry showed a series of new works in a two person show at the Keys Gallery in Derry, with Charles Brady.[15]

McKinstry showed on numerous occasions with the Irish Exhibition of Living Art after her first showing in 1961,[16] with the Figurative Art Group, and through the 1990s with the Royal Hibernian Academy. In 1987 she received an Honorary MA from Queen's University.[1] From 1973 onwards, McKinstry was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Ulster Academy of Arts annual shows,[16] where she was elected as an Associate member in 1981.[17] The Ulster Museum hosted a solo exhibition of her work in 1980, followed by another at the Gordon Gallery, Derry in 1991.[18] The Narrow Water Gallery in Warrenpoint hosted a joint exhibition of her work with Basil Blackshaw in the summer of 1989.[19]

Death & Legacy[]

Cherith McKinstry died in October 2004. She was survived by her husband Robert, and her three sons, Simon, Leo and Jason.[1] Jorgensen Fine Art in Dublin hosted a retrospective of McKinstry's work in 2006. The exhibition was opened by James Hamilton, the Duke of Abercorn.[20]

McKinstry's works can be seen in various public and private collections including the Ulster Museum, Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Queen's University, Belfast, Irish Linen Centre and Lisburn Museum, and the Northern Ireland Civil Service.[21]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f "Artist who explored themes of suffering, inhumanity, endurance". The Irish Times. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
  2. ^ "Master painter comes to Carrick gallery". Carrickfergus Times. 1 November 2012. Retrieved 24 July 2021 – via Proquest.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b Catto, Mike; Snoddy, Theo (1977). Art in Ulster 2: a history of painting, sculpture and printmaking, 1957-1977. Belfast: Blackstaff Press. p. 170. ISBN 0856401293.
  4. ^ "Student awards". Belfast Telegraph. 17 December 1951. p. 3. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
  5. ^ "A dream come true for girl art students". Belfast Telegraph. 31 March 1951. p. 8. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
  6. ^ "Painting chosen". Belfast Telegraph. 13 November 1957. p. 4. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
  7. ^ "Art Exhibition". Ballymena Weekly Telegraph. 9 April 1954. p. 4. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
  8. ^ "Two Ulster girls win CEMA scholarships". the Northern Whig. 1 April 1954. p. 2. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
  9. ^ "British Industries Fair: Northern Ireland stand". Lisburn Herald, and Antrim and Down Advertiser. 24 April 1954. p. 3. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
  10. ^ Jump up to: a b McKinstry, Robert (Winter 1986–1987). "Chrome Hill, Lambeg". Lisburn Historical Society Journal. 6 – via Lisburn.com.CS1 maint: date format (link)
  11. ^ "Irish Women Artists 1870 -1970 Summer Loan Exhibition". Adams.ie. Dublin. 2014. p. 114. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
  12. ^ Longley, Michael (1971). Causeway; the arts in Ulster. Belfast: Arts Council of Northern Ireland. p. 52. ISBN 0-903203-01-4. OCLC 578478.
  13. ^ Rosenfield, Ray (24 October 1975). "Recent Belfast exhibitions". Irish Times. p. 10. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  14. ^ "News". Circa (11): 26–30. 1983. ISSN 0263-9475 – via JSTOR.
  15. ^ "Playbill - Translations". Issuu. Derry: Field Day Theatre Company. 1983. p. 14. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
  16. ^ Jump up to: a b Stewart, Ann M. (1997). Irish art societies and sketching clubs: index of exhibitors, 1870-1980. 2. Dublin: Four Courts Press. p. 472. ISBN 185182328X.
  17. ^ Anglesea, Martyn (1981). The Royal Ulster Academy of Arts: a centennial history. Belfast: The Royal Ulster Academy of Arts. p. 139.
  18. ^ David., Buckman (2006). Artists in Britain since 1945. Bristol: Art Dictionaries. p. 1030. ISBN 0-9532609-5-X. OCLC 944950137.
  19. ^ Odling-Smee, James (1989). "Basil Blackshaw Cherith McKinstry, Narrow Water Gallery Warrenpoint, 27 June - 2 August". Circa (48): 41–42. doi:10.2307/25557477. ISSN 0263-9475 – via JSTOR.
  20. ^ Phelan, Angela (7 October 2006). "It's a double whammy for arthouse". Irish Independent. p. 62. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
  21. ^ "McKinstry, Cherith, 1928–2004 | Art UK". artuk.org. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
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