Marianne North

Marianne North

I have been experimenting with mixed media this week and it isn’t ready to be seen yet, so I decided to write about another of the books in my art library. It is right next to “From Hogarth to Keene” on the shelf and I thought I must share it one day, but I didn’t expect it to be this week. 

I hadn’t heard of Marianne North before I found the book “A Vision of Eden” in a second hand bookshop. It is part autobiography and part biography. She described how she learned to paint flowers. 

After her mother died they moved to London and often visited Kew Gardens which made her want to visit the tropics. She traveled Europe with her father and later many other parts of the world, and wherever she went she painted the flowers.

Eventually she had so many paintings that Sir Joseph Hooker offered to house her paintings at Kew, and she had a gallery specially built. Sir Joseph Hooker gave her introductions to botanists all over the world and they helped her access the plants she wanted to paint. She discovered many new species and brought them back to Kew. 

Having learned about the Marianne North Gallery, I couldn’t rest until I had visited it. I was living in London and had visited Kew Gardens many times (I loved the Palm House) but I hadn’t noticed the gallery. So I went and looked for it. 

The photo of the gallery in the book didn’t prepare me for the vision that met me when I entered the gallery. The paintings glow like jewels. 

I don’t know if you can read the text under the photo. It says that there are 832 paintings in the two rooms. 

Below are some more photos of pages from the book. One is a photo of the other room and there are photos of a few of the paintings to give you an idea of the impact. 

Do visit the Marianne North Gallery in Kew Gardens if you have the opportunity. 

A lynx kitten emerging from a den under a tree

I had already done a pen and ink drawing of the lynx kitten with a fern. That one was the size of a playing card so I drew this version at 6 x 4 inches. At this size pen marks look more delicate and I have room to add more colours and details. 

I delivered this drawing and two others to the new gallery in Penrith. It is the Flying Bacon Café and Gallery. My three drawings are for sale there. 

I have been asked to do more drawings of this style, of subjects such as lions, tigers, wolves and horses. I am going to be busy. 

New plans

I have been building a new website for myself. I haven't uploaded it yet because I still need to do all the keywords and things. 

After not very careful consideration, I decided to use Blogger for my Artblog. It will make it easy to update. Perhaps I will upload new posts more often than in the past if I use such an easy platform. 

I am not going to delete the posts from my old website yet because I hope to be able to link to them. 

The software I am using to build my new website is Macaw. I like it very much. It produces very clean code and I have achieved exactly the simple look that I want. It makes responsive websites too. 

I hope that as the app evolves I will be able to produce my blog as part of my website. I could do it now but it would be complex to keep it in order as Macaw doesn't have folders yet. I am sure they will eventually. Hint hint!

I have other plans for the future. One is to put together a portfolio of equestrian art. I have been keen on that idea for a long time. Once I have a few more portraits of horses, I will make an equestrian art gallery on my website. For now horses are included in animals. 

My other plan is a very new one!

A new art gallery/coffee shop has opened locally. My friend twisted my arm to speak to the gallery owner. I wasn't expecting anything. It is difficult to exhibit portraits especially as once they are finished they are no longer in my possession.  But I took my iPad in to show my work. He liked the miniatures I have done of wild cats. I do them in pen and ink and then colour parts of the image. 

The trouble is that they are the size of playing cards and I think that is too small for a gallery. And I make them to give as presents to my daughters in law who both love cats. I just have one left which is the one above. 

So I spent the last two days going through my reference photos of tigers, lions,cougars and lynxes. I don't want to do them big. It would be too tedious to do a large pen and ink. So I will do some at 6 x 4 inches and see if the gallery will take them.