Under Moonlight by Silas Clifford-Smith (2016)
The long awaited biography of English modernist artists Stanley Clifford-Smith and Joan Glass brings to light the original paintings and designs created by the couple during the middle decades of the last century. Drawing upon contemporary reports as well as the recollections of fellow artists, family and friends, Under Moonlight illuminates the couple’s contribution to the celebrated Great Bardfield art community in rural Essex during the 1950s. It uncovers tragedies and family secrets which help explain why the pair shunned the public eye at the expense of their own artistic profiles. This beautifully illustrated limited-edition volume, with a foreword written by the distinguished artist Richard Bawden, is a must have for art lovers, collectors and historians.
A review by Nigel Weaver (founding chairman of the Fry Art Society)
"Thanks to Silas Clifford-Smith’s book about his parents – Under Moon-Light – which he published in Australia this year in an edition of 200, we can learn a great deal about the interaction and activities among the Bardfield artists, at least from 1952 when Stanley Clifford-Smith and Joan Glass lived there until they moved to Little Baddow near Chelmsford [in the early 1960s]. Clifford Smith’s painstaking research among contemporary reports, and his own family archive (for his father was the mover and shaker on the organisational side of the community) gives us an immediate and fascinating resumé of the village, and particularly of the Artists’ Summer Exhibitions in 1954 and 1955, the Bardfield Artists’ exhibition in Clare College Cambridge 1956, the Artists’ Travelling exhibition to eight venues in 1957/58 and the final open house exhibition in 1958. It was quite exceptional (and, in its time, original in opening up their houses) and might, we can now see, be viewed as the foundations of what has become, over fifty years later, the subject of much nascent interest and deepening appreciation."
"Thanks to Silas Clifford-Smith’s book about his parents – Under Moon-Light – which he published in Australia this year in an edition of 200, we can learn a great deal about the interaction and activities among the Bardfield artists, at least from 1952 when Stanley Clifford-Smith and Joan Glass lived there until they moved to Little Baddow near Chelmsford [in the early 1960s]. Clifford Smith’s painstaking research among contemporary reports, and his own family archive (for his father was the mover and shaker on the organisational side of the community) gives us an immediate and fascinating resumé of the village, and particularly of the Artists’ Summer Exhibitions in 1954 and 1955, the Bardfield Artists’ exhibition in Clare College Cambridge 1956, the Artists’ Travelling exhibition to eight venues in 1957/58 and the final open house exhibition in 1958. It was quite exceptional (and, in its time, original in opening up their houses) and might, we can now see, be viewed as the foundations of what has become, over fifty years later, the subject of much nascent interest and deepening appreciation."
A review by Jana Cironis in issue 11 (2017) of Oz Arts magazine
"Not simply a scrapbook of memories, drawings and pictures, [this book] becomes an artefact that maps the lives, family, art practice and the legacy of Stanley Clifford-Smith and Joan Glass. As a documentary, this book takes us on a journey through time describing the lives of two artists, their family and their community. It reveals their inspirations, their struggles, their triumphs and their need and perseverance to create art. It also exposes the influence of history and the power of the creative DNA... ‘Under Moonlight’ is a charming and loving biography that confirms how this family continues to support, influence and nurture their creativity."
Under Moonlight: a portrait of Great Bardfield artists Stanley Clifford-Smith and Joan Glass by Silas Clifford-Smith was published in 2016. The book is available exclusively in a limited edition of 200 copies [price £ 80.00 in UK]. Copies are available from the Between the Lines Bookshop in Great Bardfield as well as the Fry Art Gallery in Saffron Walden. Copies are also available direct from the author (click on Contact page on this website).
"Not simply a scrapbook of memories, drawings and pictures, [this book] becomes an artefact that maps the lives, family, art practice and the legacy of Stanley Clifford-Smith and Joan Glass. As a documentary, this book takes us on a journey through time describing the lives of two artists, their family and their community. It reveals their inspirations, their struggles, their triumphs and their need and perseverance to create art. It also exposes the influence of history and the power of the creative DNA... ‘Under Moonlight’ is a charming and loving biography that confirms how this family continues to support, influence and nurture their creativity."
Under Moonlight: a portrait of Great Bardfield artists Stanley Clifford-Smith and Joan Glass by Silas Clifford-Smith was published in 2016. The book is available exclusively in a limited edition of 200 copies [price £ 80.00 in UK]. Copies are available from the Between the Lines Bookshop in Great Bardfield as well as the Fry Art Gallery in Saffron Walden. Copies are also available direct from the author (click on Contact page on this website).