In memory of Elaine Marshall
- lucy w
- 18 hours ago
- 11 min read
We are sad to share the news that Elaine Marshall has died, age 90. A founding member of Greenwich Printmakers Association, she was an active member ever since the group’s beginning in 1979, and she was the gallery manager for decades.
She went to Goldsmiths College to study art at age 16 in 1951, where one of the life models at the time was Quentin Crisp. She then studied at the Slade.
She was still making new prints until very recently and her beautiful etchings and linocuts have a loyal fanbase both locally and internationally. Her passion for printmaking and her love of Greenwich Printmakers have been an inspiration.
We pay tribute to Elaine, who was our last surviving founder member, with words from the group. Without Elaine, our wonderful printmaking co-operative wouldn’t exist, and Greenwich Printmakers’ past and future success is in many ways a testament to her determination and dedication.
“Elaine was an extraordinary and remarkable lady, with such energy and commitment, not only to her family, but her friends too, and of course to Greenwich Printmakers.
She was an amazing and prolific artist who made so many magnificent etchings, and more latterly, exquisitely executed linocut prints, which have graced our gallery since its inception in 1979.
Already Greenwich Printmakers feels very different. Elaine was always at the heart of everything, with strong opinions and a ferocious desire to uphold all the principles of the co-operative, that of fairness to all.
I have been so impressed and inspired by her determination to make every day count and to continue her beloved printmaking until the last.
Elaine has been a wonderful example of fortitude to us all, for which I thank her.”
Angela Brookes
“Elaine was such a big presence that it’s difficult to imagine Greenwich Printmakers without her, but I know we are all are determined to carry her ethos of being a true co-operative where we all pitch in and help each other forwards, and we have such a wonderful, tightly-knit group and successful gallery thanks to her and the other founder members’ hard work and imagination.
She sparkled when she was talking about printmaking and her family – she obviously loved both so much – and I always felt very honoured whenever she said she liked one of my prints because she was so knowledgeable and talented. She would often pop into the gallery or ring up for a chat.
I interviewed Elaine shortly after I’d joined the group when it was Greenwich Printmakers’ 40th anniversary (you can read the interview here). We had a long chat over tea at her house about how Greenwich Printmakers came to be, and I think the interview really captures her personality and determination.
I’m really glad she was able to stay involved in the group right up until she passed away. It clearly meant the world to her.”
Lucy Ward
“Elaine was always such a remarkable enduring printmaker, making more prints in these later years than many of her younger contemporaries. I particularly admired her linocuts of Egyptian cats and birds from the British Museum, which she made in her early eighties.
I think we owe her a great debt for setting up Greenwich Printmakers Association in 1979, and I think all the members are committed to it flourishing as a lasting legacy of her lifetime in print.” (Read about how Elaine made her Egyptian bird and cat prints).
Kit Boyd
“I am so sad to receive this news. Like many others, I was also in recent contact with her. She always called for a chat, or popped into the gallery. She was always interested in my work and supportive, and so invested in this organisation. Always proud of being a founder member, and rightfully so, for creating this wonderful gallery which functions as a collective, run by printmakers, for printmakers. It is a testament to her and others’ grit that the space is standing strong.
She always remembered the smallest details about me, and we often laughed of the few times she told me off as a new member (really always watching out for me). I loved hearing stories about her travels, she had even been to Romania, where I come from. I feel grateful to have met Elaine, and her perseverance and constant will to work and print will inspire me to push forward in my printmaking business and practice.”
Alexandra Motiu
“I only knew Elaine for a short while, and during that time I witnessed her passion and dedication to GPA. She was a true force of nature, embodying the spirit of the group from the very beginning and pushin it froward for nearly 50 years. It was a privilege to work with a founding member and I feel fortunate to have met her. As a group we will be taking up the mantle she has left behind.
It was so moving to hear how she was at home, surrounded by family, next door to her presses when she passed. Printing all the way to the end and still an active member of the group. What an inspiration! You'll be missed, Elaine.”
Donna Shrestha
“I am sad to hear about the passing of Elaine. I had heard a lot about her before I joined Greenwich Printmakers, so it was good to meet her in person in the gallery.
Although she was ninety, she was so full of energy and ideas. She was thrilled that she was given a new Apple laptop for her birthday. We had many long chats in the gallery and on the phone; about printmaking and her children. She was so proud of them and all that they had achieved. She was a mine of information about the history of Greenwich and its surrounds, and obviously loved the place.
Apart from being a highly skilled printmaker, she also had a head for business and was always thinking about what was best for the gallery.
In one of our last conversations, she was talking about the pronunciation of Greenwich – “it rhymes with spinach” – so whenever I hear someone saying “Griniach”, I will think of her.”
Susan Short
“Elaine came into the gallery on one of my first sits. She clearly loved the gallery and talked about how they set it up when they came to the market. I also visited Elaine at her home, and she showed me her two printing rooms, with two glorious presses and one whole room was her print studio. It was so special to see it. Thank you for inviting me in.”
Ruth Greenwood
“I remember Elaine from when I used to go to lithography printing classes in the 1980s at what was then LCP London College of Printing at the Elephant and Castle. She always had lots of energy and enthusiasm for all things printmaking and was very focused on her work.
She took part in an ambitious exchange exhibition with a group of Russian printmakers and went out to Moscow with several other members of GPA to organise it, which was in no way an easy thing to do at that time. The Russians’ work was brought back and we all got together to frame it for the exhibition in Blackheath (Mycenae House, I think).
Her dedication to Greenwich Printmakers was total and it’s really a legacy to her that it kept running all that time since being founded in 1979, coping with various hiccups along the way including a change of premises.
She was a canny business woman and still very mentally sharp up to the end.
Even a month ago when I sent round an email about the Edinburgh Art Fair, she replied saying she thought Greenwich should take part and that she’d be able participate and could stay with her daughter, Catherine.
For many years she let out a room in her house to students and enjoyed having the company of young creative people around her.
I’ll remember her with great admiration and affection and hope that I will be like her, still printing at the age of 90.”
Diana Croft
“I have known Elaine for the 10 years or so since I became a member of GPA. She used to come into the gallery when I was sitting and like others, we’d have lots of discussions on many and varied topics. She was always interesting and interested.
She was very kind to me on a few occasions and I always felt I could go to her if any problems had arisen.
She was embedded in the fabric of the gallery and will be sadly missed by us all.”
Laura Reiter
“I was doing my sit in the gallery on Sunday and thought it was unusual that I didn’t get a phone call from Elaine. She always called me for a chat. I now realise that she will never again call me and that makes me very sad. I’ve known Elaine for a very long time and will miss her so much.
The gallery was everything to her.”
Barbara Zalecki
“I’m saddened by the news of Elaine’s passing, she always seemed indestructible and destined to outlive us all. I last saw her just before Christmas and she seemed as determined as ever to get back to making new work – an example to us all when we question whether we can keep going.
We may not have always seen eye to eye, but I could only admire her determination and indomitable spirit. Speaking her mind and ruffling a few feathers.
Elaine bought one of my linocuts at a time when my work wasn’t selling, and for that moment of kindness alone I am always grateful. May she rest in peace.”
Julian Davies
“Elaine was one of the first members I met when I joined GPA 16 years ago and I was immediately struck by how passionate she was about the group and the gallery which she helped found in 1979. It was her life force. When I joined she was the gallery manager, a job she did for a total of 20 years. She was always on top of what needed doing and who should be doing what. She frequently visited the gallery to chat with whoever was sitting that day and made sure she got to know us all well. She had a fabulous memory and quick mind and was also a very talented printmaker. Age didn’t stop her. She was an inspiration and if I live to be such a grand age, I hope I will be as remarkable in my abilities. It feels very strange without her. She will be very much missed.”
Jennie Ing
“It is hard to imagine Greenwich Printmakers, and indeed Greenwich, without Elaine. Her wonderful talent and precision as an artist, her fierce intelligence and strong personality, her ability to overcome every obstacle put in her way, which makes it even harder to imagine she has gone. Her rootedness and her great pride in her family. Unforgettable."
Chris Moody
“Elaine was Greenwich Printmakers and with her goes a lot of the memories of how the group was set up. She often came in on my sits in the early days and passed on little gems of information about the place.
She was a canny lady, a talented printmaker and a fierce left-wing socialist.
She could be infuriating on occasions, but only because she fought so hard to keep Greenwich Printmakers alive, and for that I will always love her and admire her.”
Nikki Braunton
“After all these years of devotion, to lose Elaine is very upsetting but we have been fortunate to have someone who believed so passionately in Greenwich Printmakers and its principles for all this time. She will be fondly remembered forever.”
Carolyn Fuller
“Granted I haven’t known Elaine as long as a lot of other members, but I always admired how headstrong, active and incredibly lucid she was, even at 90! She was always making her way to the gallery, and even the last time I was on a phone with her a couple of weeks ago (like others have mentioned), she just seemed to want to get on with it and get back to printing. While not all of us may have agreed with her at all times, it’s clear that she was a woman of pure passion and determination, and I just always always really admired this about her... Every time I saw her I couldn’t help but think, “Wow, I can only hope to age how she has and to be as with it at this age as she is!”.
She was actually my introduction to the gallery in a way – when I first came in to enquire about membership she happened to be sitting, and while she explained how the process works she was also very protective of the gallery membership (“You have to actually do things and take on a job at the gallery!”), which is very like her and very representative of how much she cared about this place.
I’m sure I’m not the only one that feels like it’s sort of... weird now, without her.
But it seems to me she’s lived a very full life and she had so much support from her family towards the end, which is lovely.”
Nikolas Wereszczyński
“I knew Elaine was very poorly, but nonetheless I was surprised to hear the news.
The last time I spoke to Elaine was on the phone in March, whilst she was staying in hospital. She sounded a bit quiet and frail, yet at the same time she was very determined to crack on with some printmaking and was going to give her grandson Max a job as her studio assistant – how fabulous!
Whenever I was in on a Saturday she would pop in to have a chat; topics ranged from exhibitions, books, teaching, politics, to family life. She was indeed proud of her children and grandchildren. Thinking of Elaine’s family at this sad time.”
Jennifer Jokhoo
“Like everyone, I will miss Elaine very much and I’ve really enjoyed other members’ beautifully expressed tributes.
I would like to add my own happy memories: taking Elaine to Relleu, a village in the mountains of Spain, for a painting week, and her company when she dropped in on my Thursday sits.
Her legacy is a terrific folio of work (with its loyal fans), the affection of her family, the mettle of her character and, of course, the very existence of Greenwich Printmakers, for which much gratitude!”
Sue Whitmore
“Elaine was a force of nature. For such a diminutive person, she really packed a punch. Elaine was the heart and soul of Greenwich Printmakers Association and its conscience, caring passionately about fairness and the principles on which the collective was formed.
In my 15 years as Treasurer of GPA, her support and knowledge of the history and background of the Association has been invaluable and going forward during this time of change will be greatly missed.
As others have said, her work was beautiful and has clearly been appreciated by customers who have been buying her prints for the past 47 years. I am sure regular customers will miss seeing her new work on the wall, and as a familiar figure in the market she will be missed there too.”
Bonny Young, Treasurer of GPA 2011-2026
“Elaine had such vitality – an almost reckless aliveness – that it seemed genuinely impossible she would ever leave her presses behind forever. And yet, in the ways that matter most, she hasn’t left at all.
She lives on in the everyday activities of the gallery. In the lives of us, the printmakers, who learned from her what it means to work together and to determinedly make work to the very end. She lives in the prints that strangers love and carry home – her Mediterranean gardens dreaming on walls of many, her alleys of Old Greenwich inhabiting rooms she’ll never walk into. She is present in all of it.
Her vision of a fair gallery – where artists work in solidarity with and for each other – is the other intangible legacy she leaves behind. It is a living reminder that principles aren’t just something we hold privately. They are something we practise, daily, in the way we treat people, how we get along, in the spaces we build together. Printmaking has always been a democratic art form, made to be affordable as well as to be hoisted on the barricades. Elaine understood that to its core, and she reminded us of this.
On a personal note – I find myself smiling when I remember the day she came into the gallery, watched me chatting with the public for a moment, and then said: “You must be charming to sell, and keep a twinkle in your eye”. And she winked at me. And in that wink I saw it – an ageless woman, burning bright with something inextinguishable behind her eyes.
That twinkle. That’s what I’ll carry. Thank you, Elaine, for being formidable.”
Bess Frimodig
Comments are open for past and present Greenwich Printmakers and others who knew Elaine to leave some words, if they would like to.
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