dovegreyreader scribbles

To Sandymouth for a paddle...

I thought you might all appreciate a paddle in the Atlantic today, before the holidaymakers arrive...

We were on a bit of an "In the Footsteps of Rena Gardiner" excursion using this book as our guide...


Printed in 1985, from hand-drawn lithographic plates by Rena Gardiner at the Workshop Press in her cottage at Tarrant Monkton, and whilst professional and exquisite in its content, the book has a beautifully home-made feel to it and is a guide to some of the lesser known properties of the National Trust in North Cornwall.

'Manor houses, farms, cottages, bridges, harbours, monuments, castles, holy wells and chapels, linhays, mowhays and round houses together with the remains of past industry, machinery and buildings in hamlets, gardens, small villages and towns all set in varied and exciting landscapes.'

This is off the beaten track Cornwall and first stop was the beach...

"... a lane plunges dramatically down to the sea. A cleft in the steep cliffs opens onto the great beach of Sandymouth, which at low tide runs clear below the cliffs to the popular beaches of Bude..."

And Sandymouth, owned by the National Trust, was indeed looking very inviting as we walked down the pathway to the beach this week. It had been scorchio for a couple of days and we needed the sea breeze though, having not given the tide times a thought, it was pure luck that we could see this much sand...

Hardly a soul to be seen for as far as the eye could see...


So we quickly shed the shoes and headed for the water...


Warm sand, really warm water ...

and hundreds of jellyfish...

Someone will doubtless know which varieties ...



This one so pretty...but still...



I'm sure if they were a serious risk to health we would have heard an alert by now, because if Prince George can't give his dog a lick of ice cream without a national warning being issued to keep all dogs safe from harm (chocolate and dairy allergies) then I expect no less from the Department of Worrying with reference to humans and jellyfish and the possibility of being stung with fatal consequences.

We had a fine walk and a paddle, regularly testing the water and declaring it to be 'fine'...

The cliffs are dramatic and very Rena Gardiner-ish we decided, plenty to inspire a lino-cut or two here...





And if you are heading to Cornwall this summer please be assured the shops are tourist-ready...

It wasn't lost on us that twenty-five years ago a trip like this used to set us back three water pistols, three buckets, three spades, a bat and ball or two and a windbreak for me, plus we would have been carrying five wetsuits, snorkels, five towels and a picnic whilst trying to steer the young teeth away from this lot...

A lovely hour or two but it was time to move on to the next stop in the Footsteps of Rena.

Hope you've enjoyed the paddle and If you do head west you will all be very welcome, it's not fair for us to hog it all year round.

 

Rena Gardiner redux

Having devoured every word and illustration in Julian Francis and Martin Andrews's sumptuous book about the life and work of Rena Gardiner, and engaged in a very un-pretty tog-of-war over it, Bookhound and I immediately set off to visit some of our usual bric-a-brac and second-hand book haunts to see if we might come across any of her books.

Rena published forty-five books in her lifetime and once we had seen the pictures we were kicking ourselves. Racking our brains...had we bought any for the children when we used to visit National Trust properties around us here back in the day because Rena wrote, illustrated, printed and published a series of child-oriented guides to both Cotehele and Lanhydrock locally, and don't ask how many others we have passed over in second hand shops and on market stalls without realising their provenance.

We did quite well on Foray No 1 taking in Topsham and Lyme Regis and coming home with some bargains found at the bottom of boxes and lying forgotten at the back of shelves.

This was good news the books are still out there. Francis and Andrews' book does much to increase Rena Gardiner's profile and I agree with them, she most certainly deserves to be better known, so get out there and get looking everyone, rummage around those bins of old National Trust guidebooks in the charity shops and start to enjoy the exuberance and sheer cleverness of this brilliant artist.

Rena Gardiner cited Eric Ravilious, Edward Bawden and John Piper as major influences; John Piper also born in her home town of Epsom and with whom it is clear she felt that sense of local and artistic affinity. On leaving school (I still haven't discovered which school but it must have been very near to mine in Cheam) in 1946 Rena attended Kingston School of Art where she studied graphic art on a course which also included book binding and calligraphy, as well as printing and lithographic processes, all skills that would serve her well as she developed into a one-woman cottage industry and producing her own books from start to finish in later life.

A young Rena also met Joan Hassall and an elderly Gwen Raverat at an exhibition given by the Society of Wood Engravers on one of her many youthful excursions to London. Gwen Raverat, the revered woodcut engraver and likewise Joan Hassall, talented and in-demand and Joan the first woman to be admitted to the renowned Art Workers Guild founded by William Morris, later becoming its first female Master. Whilst Rena Gardiner, as her career progressed, had little interest in self-promotion or fame it must have been a meeting for her to savour. Interestingly, I thought... Joan Hassall was a perfectionist, 'often re-cutting blocks that did not entirely please her' (this according to an article I came across by coincidence in an old edition of This England magazine on the Tinker's shelves,) Rena Gardiner though loved and embraced the happy accident.

Looking at her work Bookhound and I have been deeply impressed by Rena's precision and accuracy, especially evident in the lino cuts created in the last years of her life and we saw those and great deal more thanks to a chance conversation followed by a phone call to Rachel Hunt, the House and Collections Manager at Cotehele. The archive was packed up and days away from being moved to the Dorset History Centre but if we wanted to go and look through it and promised to put it all back in the right boxes, we would be most welcome.

We booked a day and were very grateful to Rachel who showed us to an little upstairs room in the old house, introduced us to the boxes and left us to it...

Faced with a phalanx of carefully labelled brown boxes it was a case of where on earth to start, but to open a box and find the original lino cuts was like discovering the map of Rena's amazing life...

Back to the beginning and all the sources of her inspiration... notes, scrap books, albums of photographs, sketches, mock ups of books, calligraphy, it was all here...

Here the sketch for Mullion Cove in Cornwall followed by the lino cut..

Rena revived her interest in lino cutting later in her life and the originals were fine examples of what an artist on our Drawn to the Valley Open Studios adventure last year called 'suicide' plates. A layer printed and then successive parts cut away from the lino, more layers of paint added to the print run and never to be repeated. It's a wonderful (and to my mind brave) technique ensuring and guaranteeing that only a limited number are produced...


We could have stared at them all day and, apart from a brief sojourn in the restaurant for coffee and cake, we did. Box after box of treasures.

Little mock-ups for the books that Rena would eventually draw up, print and bind herself..

If it stops raining (rubbish about that oak before ash thing) we are going to take this book out and do a Rena Gardiner trail around the Cornish coast before the holidaymakers arrive, so hopefully much more about it soon

There were boxes of original prints too and a few for sale.

In the end we couldn't stop ourselves, it seemed right to take home a wonderful reminder of an inspirational discovery, though we were torn between this one of the Cornish engine house...



Or maybe this one of the dovecot at Cotehele...

But settling in the end for this one...

Sycamore Shadows : The South Front (1998 12 x 16 ½ ins) Cotehele on a spring day. It is a place we go to often, this a walk we do each time and one that fills me with that sense of anticipation about the house through the archway and the orchards and gardens beyond.

We skipped back to the car with a spring in our step, the sort that you have after a really special day and with everything we had seen in the Rena Gardiner archive buzzing around in our heads. Who knew that the chance purchase of one book would lead to so much enjoyment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In which we discover Rena Gardiner at Cotehele...

Cotehele House, just across on the Cornish side of the Tamar Valley, is one of our go-to spring visits. If the apple blossom is out in our little orchard Devon-side...

...then the orchard at Cotehele will be looking superb, and we weren't wrong.


and there was misteltoe, I'm not sure I've noticed that before, or seen it growing anywhere else...


It was such a lovely day we by-passed a wander through the house and stayed in the grounds before heading in for lunch and the shop. It was quiet and we felt, like Barrington Court, we had a National Trust property to ourselves..

The flowers and the views stunning in equal measure...

Calstock...

I think Bookhound shudders when I go near a National Trust shop, I mean do I really need any more postcards, or recipe books for high tea or soups, or another one of those recycled wool blankets that seem to be a magnet for moulting cats.

In fact Cotehele has a wonderful craft gallery as well.

'I'll just nip upstairs to the gallery,' I whispered as Bookhound headed into the Victorian library which he loves.

I can't usually afford anything in the gallery but it is still nice to look and decide where I'd put the stunningly upholstered chair and foot stool, or that nice piece of Jenny Hale's ceramics.

But something caught my eye on the counter.

It was a pile of books and a cover I recognised, Rena Gardiner Artist and Printmaker by Julian Francis and Martin Andrews. Published by Little Toller in 2015 the book had flown onto my radar and quickly off again. At £25 it would need to be a well-researched purchase, but also I had a problem with the cover. It's not a criticism, more a series of personal observations and preferences...

It seemed wildly abstract and spoke of nothing of interest to me...

The colours were not in my favoured palette...

If it was a place I didn't recognise it...

And the name Rena Gardiner was unknown to me.

Plenty of people would have viewed it differently I am sure (I would be interested to hear your first thoughts) but I hadn't seen a copy to look at properly so now was my chance to confirm that I wouldn't want the book and walk on... until I opened it that is and well, you can guess...

This centre page spread from a son et lumiere programme for Salisbury Cathedral has me thinking swan et lumiere and I love it...

And then Rena Gardiner's connection with Cotehele and Cornwall revealed itself and surely hadn't we just looked across at this very same view...

Needless to say I walked out with a copy of Rena Gardiner Artist and Printmaker 'neath my arm. Bookhound recognised the cover as Durdle Door, a rock feature off the Dorset Coast, in an instant. His school geography trip circa 1969 had been to Lulworth Cove and Swanage, mine circa 1971 had been nowhere near (Bude).

I probably should have bought two because since the book arrived home it has barely been out of our hands; as one puts it down the other picks it up as we soak up the pictures and information about a modest yet prodigiously talented woman. So stand by for a series of posts about Rena Gardiner, because she has gone straight to our hearts and we have made some wonderful discoveries and seen some amazing things since we discovered the book barely ten days ago.

Along with it came the realisation that we had known of some of Rena's work for many years but hadn't been paying attention...

Bookhound loves her for the sheer breadth and depth of her talent, and the precision and technique, to say nothing of the superb vibrancy and quality of the end results, whilst I am enthralled for other reasons besides, not least that Rena Gardiner (1929-1999) was the school art teacher that I'll bet many of you had too. Teaching first at Leamington College for Girls and then Bournemouth Girls School in the 1950s and 60s, when I saw this picture it conjured up an image of just about every teacher I ever had..

The single women in that post-war generation who dedicated themselves to our education, and for which I doubt I for one showed much gratitude. I didn't distinguish myself in the art room at Nonsuch Girls', Cheam it has to be said (not far from Epsom where Rena was born and went to school) and can only pity the poor art teachers who tried, often women of formidable talent but with no other avenue available for their creativity beyond the school remit, except living alone Rena worked tirelessly to nurture hers and to share it. Teaching was not a vocation for Rena and eventually, to the dismay of her friends (also teachers) she took the courageous plunge and became a full-time artist..

"Her principal achievement was some 45 books, all of which she wrote, illustrated and printed herself. No two copies are the same.  Her legacy also includes paintings, pastels and linocut prints.

Rena Gardiner dedicated her life to her art, doing so alone in a thatched cottage in Tarrant Monkton, in the heart of Dorset. 

An unsung heroine of printmaking, uninterested in publicity or fame, she created an artistic legacy that is instantly recognisable for its exuberant use of colour and texture. "

Hence the Dorset significance of the book's cover and if there was ever a portal to venture through and see new (to us) things then that picture of Durdle Door is it and now I get it.

We have been lucky enough to spend a day browsing the Rena Gardiner archive at Cotehele before it leaves this week on permanent loan to the Dorset History Centre and if anyone is interested there is currently an exhibition of Rena Gardiner's work at Mompesson House in Salisbury, we have promised ourselves a day there dreckly.

Much more about Rena Gardiner, the book, her life and her work along with our joyous trawl through the archives (and news of a purchase or two) very soon.