Peace of belonging

Rainmaker Gallery’s spring show is celebrating the work of artist Rick Grimster. Having found peace through his life-long love of painting, we hear how he found a sense of belonging through the discovery of his tribal heritage...

Connie and George Grimster, with whom he enjoyed a happy childhood. At the tender age of eight, his teacher at Notting Hill Primary School described him as “highly-strung and artistic”, character traits which remain with him to this day.

As a young man Rick worked in a London art gallery on Bond Street. That experience prompted his decision to apply for art school. He graduated from Cheltenham School of Art in the 1960s and gained an MFA from Birmingham Polytechnic in 1970. An intensely private man, Grimster has continued to paint throughout his life without any desire to exhibit his work, until now. “Without painting, I would have no way of expressing myself,” Grimster says.

At the venerable age of 77, the artist is making his gallery debut. The title of his exhibition, Belonging, encompasses being, longing and belonging and articulates the feelings of many adoptees as they navigate complex identities. Where we land on this Earth is dictated by forces beyond our control –migration, colonialism and in this case, World War Two. How we make sense of our individual journeys is up to us. Grimster has found peace and belonging through his life-long love of painting, his tribal heritage and an unbreakable connection to land, wherever he may be.

His daughter Lucy describes her father’s earlier work as ‘intense’. His previously subdued palette and sharp geometric shapes have more recently transformed to softer natural forms and a playful use of uplifting colour. Lucy explains: “This exhibition is a milestone in our story. Inter-racial adoption, displacement from our homelands, and finding connection with our tribe, family and nature are threads that are strongly visible throughout my dad’s art, culminating in the joyous landscapes in this exhibition.”

Rainmaker Gallery has specialised in contemporary Native American art for 34 years. Grimster’s paintings came to the attention of resident curator, Jo Prince, when Lucy visited the gallery last year. She mentioned that her father was a painter but his shy disposition deterred him from

Rick Grimster was a love child. His parents were thrown together by war and torn apart by peace. The spring show at Rainmaker Gallery celebrates his art and life. In the exhibition, Belonging, Grimster explores his relationship to the country of his birth, Britain. While his abstracted landscapes fit firmly into the school of mid-century British modernism, they are elevated by an instinctive and unbridled joy of colour and a love of nature aligned with his Indigenous heritage. Grimster’s early works were large scale geometric constructions that would easily fit into the canon of contemporary Native art. However, he knew nothing of his tribal heritage back then and his fascinating family story is but one of the numerous unique stories that make up the Indigenous diaspora.

His birth father, Freeman Marshall, was an American GI from the Muscogee (Creek) Nation who served in the US Army Airforce from 1943 –1945. Around 25,000 Native Americans served in World War Two. Over two million American troops passed through Britain, fathering more than 22,000 children. Between 33 –50% of the mothers were already married to British soldiers posted overseas. More than 60,000 British women became GI brides.

Rick was born in London in 1945. He was adopted by a loving couple,

“Grimster’s early works were large scale geometric constructions that would easily fit into the canon of contemporary Native art...” showing his work. Prince anticipated that one or two of the artworks might fit into a future group exhibition. However, when Lucy delivered a number of paintings to the gallery in February, Prince was so impressed that she proposed a solo exhibition in place of the previously planned spring show. To Lucy’s surprise her father agreed. The exhibition opened just three weeks later. “Finding an unknown artist of this calibre with such a rich body of work to choose from is thrilling and UK-based Indigenous artists are rare, so this collaboration is a gift for the gallery in every sense,” says curator Jo Prince. “Rick is so lovely, the paintings are astonishing and the show is a triumph.”

It is not just Prince who thinks so. The gallery’s visitors book is filled with effusive comments: “Every piece is such a glorious celebration of colour, nature and the joy of painting. Each piece appears to glow with an internal light. My heart feels full,” says Sophie. “I haven’t seen any art that moved me so much for a long time,” writes Beth. “Love everything here, want to see more,” Tony comments.

Rainmaker Gallery is already planning another show of Grimster’s artwork for next winter. Prince explained: “For Belonging, I chose paintings with a spring-like theme but Rick’s repertoire is broad and the winter show will be quite a different selection of work showing more of his extraordinary range.”

But what of the young wartime sweethearts? Their romance lasted almost two years but Freeman Marshall’s paramour was not destined to be one of the tens of thousands of GI brides. Her British husband returned home at the end of the war. Meanwhile, Sergeant Freeman Marshall was posted back to Oklahoma. He never married and had no other children. He resumed the rural life of a nurseryman, planting and nurturing young trees until his retirement.

Significantly, Grimster has spoken of a powerful affinity with trees, often painting as from the perspective of a tree and representing himself as a tree or a copse of trees, a repeated motif in many of the Cotswolds landscape paintings featured in the exhibition.

In the year 2000, Lucy set out to trace her father’s birth family. Fortunately, she located her grandfather in a nursing home in Oklahoma. She flew immediately to the United States and was able to meet him in the final months of his life. Suffering from Alzhiemer’s disease, he was at times confused, but when asked if he had had an English girlfriend during the war, his face lit up, his eyes shone, and he declared with a broad smile: “Rose!”.

Rick, Lucy, and her daughter Sophia are all enrolled citizens of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. They visit relatives in Oklahoma regularly and Lucy is beginning to speak her tribal language. Their Muscogee relatives are planning to visit Bristol this month to see the exhibition. n