Newsletter August 1st 2024

Our free to read weekly news

Hello and welcome. If you are here in the UK you’ll know that summer has arrived with a vengeance at last. After all the rainy days we’ve had this spring I don’t want to be the one to start complaining about the heat but doesn’t it make you want to sit around doing nothing much at all? I’m resisting the urge to sit in the garden under the shade of a tree with a cool drink and a good book. Well, I might give in to that idea after I’ve done my stint at the computer today.

Wanting to make the most of the sunshine we did venture out for a couple of hours yesterday to visit a National Trust property that’s not far from home. It was too hot to spend much time wandering the extensive grounds but we had a fascinating time viewing the house. We’d been to Dudmaston Hall several times before and thought we were quite familiar with its history.

In my experience a visit to these historic places is made all the better by the volunteer guides on the day. Yesterday we had really knowledgeable people who were obviously passionate about the house and the family who have lived there for 875 years. It’s the art that attracts my attention in a house like this and fortunately I was allowed to take photographs.

The painting of the two children is intriguing isn’t it? The paint has been dated to around 1600 but despite much research the artist remains unknown. It is thought to be about Tulip Mania that gripped Holland during the 1600s. One of the children holds tulips illustrating the family’s great wealth from the trade in tulip bulbs and the tulip garden can be spied through the window at the side.

The portrait below is of Ann Hulston.

This is Francis Wolryche (1563-1614) aged 28.

This wooden doll caught my eye. She dates to the early 1760s and was dressed in the fashion of the day. A precious doll like this would have been passed down through the generations so it’s remarkable that she’s survived in such wonderful condition.

Dudmaston has a gallery devoted to wonderful botanical art as well as a collection of modern art that includes works by many famous artists including Matisse, Kandinsky and this Sonia Delaunay (apologies for the reflections on the glass).

All those circles put me in mind of a quilt I started a while ago and abandoned. I will go back and finish it I promise!

I might have to pack it in my bag to take to Festival of Quilts on Saturday. Don’t forget to come and find us on the Madeira stand if you are visiting. We’d love to see you.

Handing over to Laura now…

You might have spotted earlier this week that I posted the flip-through of my Sketchbook Challenge book here on Substack. Here it is again if you missed it:

Since I posted it, we’ve had some very kind and generous feedback about the course, and also welcomed some new students. If you’ve just signed up for this class then welcome! If it’s your first class with us, we hope you enjoy it and don’t forget, you can message with any questions or if you want to share your work so far. We always love to see what you are working on.

Here’s a link to the Sketchbook Challenge page on our website. You can sign up whenever you are ready and work at your own pace. It’s also a great course to repeat, just choose a different theme and away you go!

Now you might remember I spoke about a painting I was working on and that I wouldn’t share it because it was so terrible. I left it alone for over a week just to get some perspective on it. Today I went back to it with fresh eyes, scraped my palette clean and tried to fix it.

The photo on the bottom right shows how it looked when I left the studio earlier. You’ll have to trust me that it’s a lot better than how it looked last week. It still needs work though. I think it looks like I’ve placed her right eye slightly too high. I need to check with some measuring. Maybe it’s the nose that’s not quite on the right angle. That would be a shame because I’m quite pleased with both the right eye (so far) and the nose and I really don’t want to have to scrape either off or over paint them!

If this were a painting of a landscape or a bunch of tulips in a jug no-one would care! Faces are MUCH more challenging and far less forgiving. I have enjoyed mixing the skin tones though and I think I sorted out the cheek profile and her chin which helped with the likeness. I’m going to pop it to one side, let it dry off a bit and then decide how to finish it.

I love solving the painting puzzle. It really is the very best thing.

Thanks for reading our newsletter this week. If you’ve enjoyed it, please do pop a click on that heart at the bottom. It helps raise the profile of our posts so others can find them. And if you’re new here this week, thank you for dropping by! You can find all our previous newsletters by visiting the Archive.

We’ll be back soon with more.

Bye for now,

Linda and Laura x