Valerie Thornton

1931-1991

Valerie Thornton was born in London in 1931. She studied art at the Regent Street Polytechnic School of Art 1950-53. In 1954 she went to Paris and studied printmaking with the renowned teacher Stanley William Hayter at Atelier 17. Thornton then moved to New York where she spent two years at the Pratt Institute.

Her first exhibition of etchings and watercolours was held in 1960 since when there have been numerous shows in Britain and America. During the 1970s Thornton made etchings of several East Anglian churches and ecclesiastical and architectural subjects continued to form the backbone of her work throughout her career.

She travelled extensively in France, Italy and Spain, inspired by romanesque church architecture. She said "Buildings have been my language". In them she found balance and order. In capturing the spititual and intellectual quality of romanesque architechture, she developed on what she had learnt from Hayter and established her own strong individual style.

Although Thornton occasionally uses abstract styles she most commonly employed representational elements in her work.