Cheese was born in 1925. He initially studied at Beckenham School of Art and later at the Royal College of Art. Edward Bawden and Edwin La Dell were among his teachers. Especially La Dell had a big influence on him. He encouraged him to document the daily life of Londoners in his artwork and like La Dell, Cheese’s medium of choice was the lithograph.
Cheese married his fellow student from the Royal College of Art, Sheila Robinson and at the suggestion of Bawden they moved in 1953 to Thaxted near Great Bardfield which had an active artist community. Other artists living there were Walter Hoyle, George Chapman, Marianne Straub, Michael Rothenstein and John Aldridge.
Bernard Cheese is one of the better-known British printmakers of the Postwar era. His lithographs, can be found in many public collections. They are usually very colourful, quite whimsical and portray everyday scenes around the UK and further afield. Apart from an artist, Cheese was also a teacher. He taught printmaking at St.Martins School of Art, later at Goldsmiths College and eventually at Central School of Art and Design. Cheese died in 2013.
This particular print is one of my favourites. It was printed in 1965 in an edition of only 50. Called ‘Wheatfield’ it shows just a very simple field of wheat in the evening sunlight. Some small dotted orange clouds hang quietly in the sky. Even though there are no people present, it still gives a great sense of a traditional British countryside scene. Somehow it feels like the wheat may have escaped the harvester today but won’t be so lucky tomorrow.
This is a fairly large print and what I particularly like are the fantastic colours. The orange and green, or ‘tangerine and avocado’ if you like, are the ultimate retro colours that instantly take you back in time to the 1960s.
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