Youth Glass was born in
Orpington,
Kent. She was the oldest of three daughters born to John Pomeroy Glass and Edith Mary Muirhead. Her father, was a senior partner and later chairman of
James Templeton & Co, then one of the leading makers of carpets in Britain. After her schooling Glass studied art at
Chelsea Polytechnic in
London. One of her teachers was neo-Romantic English painter,
Graham Sutherland. At this time she was influenced by Sutherland as well as
Pablo Picasso and
Vincent van Gogh.
Career During the war Glass joined the
Women's Royal Naval Service and worked in military censorship. After her marriage, she became known as Joan Clifford-Smith but continued to sign her work under her maiden name (Joan Glass). She is best known for her textile designs and one of her carpet designs became one of the biggest selling commercial carpets available in Britain during the 1950s and 60s. In 1952 she moved to
Buck’s House in
Great Bardfield,
Essex. While in Great Bardfield, Glass and her husband became friendly with the village art community known as the
Great Bardfield Artists. They organised a series of large open house exhibitions during the 1950s, which attracted thousands of visitors. Glass exhibited textiles and pictures at all these shows. Known for her fine sense of colour her textiles and paintings were mainly semi-abstract in design. Some of her work is included in the collection of the Fry Art Gallery in Saffron Walden, Essex. The Bardfield art community fragmented in the early 1960s and Glass and her family (which now included four sons) briefly moved to London before relocating to (15th century)
Little Baddow Hall, near
Chelmsford, Essex. During this time the artist’s output was restricted to making and decorating ceramics, Following the example of the earlier Bardfield summer exhibitions, Glass established in 1971 a series of large summer art festivals at her Essex home. These were very popular with the local art community and in 1974 she converted her house and established the Little Baddow Hall Arts Centre. Musicians and artists attracted to the centre included
Howard Shelly, the
Medici Quartet,
John Miller and
Andy Warhol, as well as prominent local artists
Geoffrey Burnand,
John Doubleday and
Humphrey Spender. According to her obituary, the Arts Centre’s ‘enormous popularity was due in no part to Joan’s own stamp of style and sophistication, combined with a welcoming lack of pretension.' Despite its popularity with the mid Essex art community, the arts centre closed in 1979 and in 1990 she moved to a smaller house in
Little Baddow. ==Personal life==