Phyllis Dodd (1899-1995)/ Douglas Percy Bliss (1900-1984)

Phyllis Dodd was born in Chester and studied firstly at Liverpool School of Art 1917-21 After winning a Royal Exhibition scholarship spent a further four years at the RCA in the company of her life-long friends Henry Moore, Raymond Coxon and Edna Ginesi. After gaining her diploma and winning the Drawing Prize in her final year she went on to teach part-time at Walthamstow Technical College 1925-30. Dodd exhibited at the RA, NEAC, RP, RSA and at the Walker Art Gallery. Her ninetieth birthday was celebrated with a major retrospective exhibition held at the Hatton Gallery, Newcastle University in November 1989. Married to the artist Douglas Percy Bliss, she held a joint exhibition with him at Derby Art Gallery, 1947. In the year of her death, a retrospective exhibition of her work was held at Newport Art Gallery who also have a fine portrait example in their collection as do Hull University. Douglas Percy Bliss was a Scottish painter and art conservationist. Born in Karachi, India (now in Pakistan), Bliss was raised in Edinburgh and educated at George Watson’s College from 1906 to 1917. Bliss left school in 1917 to join the Highland Light Infantry until the end of WW1. In 1922 he was awarded an M.A. in English Literature by the University of Edinburgh. He had studied Art History in his first year. Bliss then studied painting at the Royal College of Art in London. In his post-graduate year he studied engraving. In 1925 the Oxford University Press published his engravings illustrating Border ballads. Bliss then received a number of commissions, including a commission to write A History of Wood Engraving. This work received such critical acclaim that Bliss’ reputation as an artist was overshadowed by his reputation as a critic and teacher. In the 1930s he taught at the Blackheath School of Art and was the London art critic for The Scotsman. In 1941 Bliss joined the RAF and was stationed in Scotland. After the war he was appointed Director of the Glasgow School of Art. An exhibition of his work was held in the Glasgow School of Art in the summer of 1998.