#Sketchbook September.

Sketchbook pages from my walks around Thoresby Park.

 All artwork copyright ian gordon craig.

Pastels in the Park.

 

Weather was fine enough to visit Thoresby Park. I needed a bit of an art reset. So, oil pastels on large, cheep brown wrapping paper was the challenge of the day.

All artworks copyright ian gordon craig.

October sketchbook.

 Bridge over River Maun, Ollerton; clouds over Thoresby fields; Thoresby Park country lane. On the look-out again for new subjects. It's getting tricky!

 All artwork copyright ian gordon craig.

Looking for subjects to sketch.

 It's getting difficult to find new places to sketch. Seen here are a lightning tree in Thoresby Park, Nottingham Rock Cemetery, a bench on a hill in Thoresby Park, and a path leading to Perlethorpe Church.

All artwork copyright ian gordon craig.

#thedailysketch 2021

 

Top: My favourite place to sit is a bench in the shadow of those trees, Thoresby Park.

Middle: Thoresby Hall.

Bottom: The Witches Bench, Sherwood Forest.

All text, pros, poetry & artwork, copyright Ian Gordon Craig.

Closure on those "blue remembered hills"?

 Thoresby Park dominated much of the month. Firstly, the photographs I sorted out for them at their request, for an intended exhibition / publication, were enthusiastically received. I also received a request from a “Ploughing Competition” event being held there to use some pictures from my Thoresby blog for a display. I of course agreed.

Secondly, two of my artworks were hung there in this year’s Open Exhibition, although I have to confess the gallery there is not what it once was.

Thirdly, and importantly, I attended their Heritage Day event, which proved to be quite a revelation. I had always thought the estate’s status effectively ended with the death of Lady Rozelle, the last of the Manvers family line, but not so. She had sought out a distant descendant of the Pierrepont's, and it is he who now lives in the large purpose-built mansion I used to observe from the far side of the lake, and which now harbours several artefacts from the Hall.

At the end of the tour I gained permission to walk around the outside of the Woodyard and take some photographs, Permission I was soon in need of when a security van pulled up to ask me what I was doing! It meant a lot to be able to do that one last time. Box ticked. Closure?
 

 All text, pros, poetry, photos & artwork, copyright Ian Gordon Craig.

All in good time. Thoresby Hall.

 I usually plan on a painting taking two or three weeks to complete; a time scale born of necessity during the years I was a full-time teacher relying on the school holidays in which to concentrate on my own art. Started in the late 90s, Thoresby Hall was probably one canvas too many of my Thoresby Estate themed paintings, obviously inspired by my childhood there. As the painting progressed my enthusiasm diminished and, never sure of what to do with the bottom right-hand corner, it was soon abandoned.

The rectangles in the composition were a probable result of my video making with a group of students in the 90's. It was all about what was in the viewfinder. Those rectangles also provided a way of putting a sense of time-lapse into the picture, something I’d been doing years previous when depicting the Primary School on Thoresby Estate.

During these recent weeks of January 2018, strolling around Thoresby Park, I noticed for the very first time how profuse the growth of mistletoe is on the uppermost branches of those trees nearest the Hall and the River Meden. There was my solution as to how to fill that right-hand corner! After c.18 years I finished the painting.

 All text, pros, poetry, photos & artwork, copyright Ian Gordon Craig.

Artist Lady Manvers, my dad, and Coquette.

Those familiar with my Thoresby Park blog, or the piece I wrote for Nottingham University Art History Department, (see THIS LINK), will be aware of my respect and admiration for artist Lady Manvers. I accept that my opinions are in part due to sentiment, having spent my early life on Thoresby Estate, but I do like to think my years of teaching and lecturing in Art, give my opinion about her canvases some credence.

I refer in particular to those which depict the interiors and grounds of Thoresby Hall. Her outdoor studies are excellent in their own right, mostly water colour sketches documenting the seasons as they pass through the estate, its employees in peace time, and the military presence of the war years. But it is the interior canvases which she was able to leave undisturbed on her easel at various locations within the hall, returning to them at will over a period of days, which exhibit her true skills and understanding of the colourful palette she acquired in France. That said, I should set my story here within a little biographical context.

In 1947 my father, William Craig, had recovered from the head wound received in the Battle of Arnhem, and the tuberculosis he subsequently contracted in P.o.W. Camp Stalag 9c. Having then begun his married life in nearby Edwinstowe, his skill as a carpenter and joiner soon found him gainfully employed by Thoresby Estate.

 
The Woodyard was essentially the place which processed the timber from the forestry department, turning out everything from telegraph poles and fence posts, to items needed by the pre-PVC building trade. Thoresby workers were also responsible for the maintenance of the estate, and in this respect my father was frequently involved in repairs to Thoresby Hall and its contents. My father's team hung the  blue wallpaper in the Blue Drawing Room, and items of antique furniture would often find themselves transported to our kitchen whilst he tended to their upholstery. Such work of course had to meet Lady Manvers’ standards and, although a lady of sweet disposition, she could be rather fastidious in her demands. For example, all the firewood for her bedroom, sitting room, and dining room, had to be billet wood, 9” (23cm) long and 3” (8cm) diameter, and totally free from knots. Nothing short of these specifications would do. Happily, dad’s skills and general work ethic soon won the Ladyship’s approval. During their encounters she would always enquire about his family’s welfare, and in 1962 she would even ask him to pose for one of her water colours. (THIS LINK).

Sometime in the late 1950s dad came home from Thoresby Hall with a broken figurine in his pocket. Smashed might be a more appropriate description. (I count ten pieces). Quite possibly it was a favourite ornament with Lady Manvers and so, rather than relegate it straight to the bin, dad was asked if it could be fixed. Not surprisingly the outcome was rather unsatisfactory. One elbow was missing, and lines of Evostik adhesive were unavoidably visible. As a consequence, the “Coquette” figurine remained on our family sideboard, often commented on through the decades, though its origins all but forgotten. Until now.

In March 2016, Thoresby Courtyard Gallery exhibited a selection of Lady Manvers’ still-life paintings, the majority of which had quite possibly not been seen anywhere since Thoresby Hall closed to the public in 1979. (THIS LINK). So you can imagine my surprise and delight upon seeing the painting above. It is probably an unfinished piece, or perhaps abandoned; the leaves are somewhat heavy handed and the background left rather unresolved. But there in the corner sits “Coquette”. The very same one.

Last thoughts on Lady Manvers.

In 1963 the estate’s management of the time decided our family of seven should move out of Three Gables and back to a much smaller house on Perlethorpe Village Green. One afternoon before that move took place, the news of which had only just reached Lady Manvers, her chauffeur driven limousine pulled up outside. She expressed much concern at what had happened, and even offered us the flats in Thoresby Courtyard as accommodation. It was a sincere gesture, and typical of her character. But it was time to move on.

I was born into Thoresby Estate, and left there as a teenager. Everyone I’ve spoken to who once lived there says the same thing: When they left, they left a little piece of them behind. It’s true. Just like Coquette’s little elbow, as she now resides on my shelf.

 Top painting copyright Thoresby Estate. Text copyright Ian G Craig.

Sketching on Thoresby Estate.

Currently hooked on Staedtler Mars Micro mechanical pencils and the small sketchbooks I won in an award in 2013. (THIS LINK). And of course I’m always hooked on Thoresby Park as a location for sketching. It is my constant muse.

All text, pros, poetry & artwork, copyright Ian Gordon Craig.

Lady Manvers, Thoresby Estate artist.

 In September I was asked to write an article for Nottingham University’s Art History dept., to be used in conjunction with their organising an exhibition of Lady Manvers' works in Thoresby Gallery. Lady Manvers’ paintings would be the first artworks I ever saw after those of my great great grandfather William Catto, so I submitted the following with pleasure:

 If, as the early 1960s advertising slogan stated, Thoresby Hall was the Heart of Sherwood Forest, then Lady Marie-Louise Manvers was surely the Art. The Lady in the cream jacket, skirt and hat, that the residents of Thoresby Park would routinely come across seated amongst the trees, faithfully recording and cataloguing the life of the Estate in her water colour sketches much as one might do today on iPads and cell phones. As someone who lived the first thirteen years of his life on Thoresby Estate, formative childhood years during which I observed and encountered the Lady in question at work, I offer this article in response to Nottingham University’s 2013 “Wandering Thoresby” project. 

 Born in 1889 as Marie-Louise Roosevelt Butterfield, the future Lady Manvers exhibited a passion for art at an early age. So it was that her father Sir Frederick Butterfield of Cliffe Castle, Yorkshire, enrolled her in the Julienne School of Art when the family moved to Paris in her teens. This Art School placed particular emphasis on developing a high standard of drawing skill, the legacy of which is evident in the portrait and figure studies she would subsequently make of the servants and game keepers on Thoresby Estate. At the turn of the century, the young Marie-Louise’s style combined a high level of observational drawing skill with the colourful palette of Post Impressionism, and would continue in this manner for the rest of her life; capturing the vitality of a scene without sacrificing the accuracy of its detail. When one looks through her oil paintings, and the voluminous amount of water colour sketches, it is apparent this is not simply the work of a privileged girl spending her hours painting for leisure. This is a highly motivated, prolific artist with a clearly defined agenda: To record life as it goes on around her, paying equal regard to accuracy and artistic expression.

 Before recounting my own memories of Lady Manvers at Thoresby, might I direct the historians’ attention to one particular 1930s water colour of hers which will both illustrate my point and chill the soul. It is a small painting depicting a narrow street I assume to be situated in Germany. It is not a remarkable piece. One imagines Marie-Louise seated there in a fairly innocuous place documenting her travels in her sketchbook. But look closer. From one of the upper widows hangs a small flag, unfurled, but bearing the unmistakable insignia of the then rising Nazi party. The artist places no emphasis on the flag. It is simply and accurately recorded within the impression of the street as one might depict the doorsteps and paving stones. But oh, what that little flag would soon come to represent in that very place.

  Marie-Louise had married Gervas Evelyn Pierrepont in 1918. When he succeeded his cousin as the 6th Earl Manvers in 1940, she took on the title she would always be known as when moving into Thoresby Hall at the start of that era. I was born the son of one of the estate’s joiners at the very start of the 1950s. Like every other small child on the estate, I knew how to stand still at the side of the road when we saw Lady Manvers’ limousine approaching from the distance, to wave politely should she wave first, and to move on only after she had passed. Does that sound a bit servile? Not a bit of it. We loved her. She was the nice lady who stood by the piano in the grand hall, handing us our presents at the end of the annual Christmas parties organised for the children of the estate’s workers. We were looked after. The 3rd Earl Manvers was responsible for the building of Perlethorpe School, on the estate. The 4th Lady Manvers would organise the delivery of fresh milk, eggs and butter to any child too ill to attend Sunday School. Marie-Louise, the 6th Lady Manvers, carried on this close, caring relationship between Duke and estate employees. And, of course, she never stopped painting.

 One of my earliest memories of seeing Lady Manvers outside of her limousine or the Great Hall, was the day she came into Perlethorpe Primary School, situated close to the Hall, and now serving as an Environmental Education Centre. In the already silent classroom, there was of course a great hurrying to stand as teacher Mrs Bruce greeted such an important guest. It transpired Lady Manvers was looking for a model for that day’s sketching. It came as no surprise to us all she selected Verna Langstaff, one of the senior girls (c.11 years old) widely regarded by us all to be the prettiest. Lady Manvers then escorted an undoubtedly nervous Verna across the road, seated her on a low branch beside the church gate, and commenced to draw. That drawing became a must-see favourite with us all when visiting the Hall. But it did something else. It planted a seed in small minds that Art was something important to do. Combined with the endless nature walk specimens we drew, and even the little weaving frames we used in class, the fact that the Lady of the Estate spent time sitting and painting, gave such skills a position of importance to us. A skill to respect.

 A second encounter with the Art of Lady Manvers occurred much closer to home. By the mid 1950s my father’s work as a joiner had gained him the position of Foreman at Thoresby Estate’s Woodyard, requiring us to move from Perlethorpe Village Green to the Victorian house know as Three Gables, attached to his place of work. There was undoubtedly an element of friendship within my father’s relationship with Lady Manvers. Possibly because it was not uncommon to find him re-upholstering and repairing items of her antique furniture in our back kitchen before they were returned to Thoresby Hall in time for the weekend tourists. That amused us no end.

 Perhaps as a consequence of this relationship, when Lady Manvers turned up at the Woodyard one day in 1962, intent on depicting the activities therein, her choice of subject was to be my father, William “Jock” Craig, in the joiner’s workshop. Lady Manvers, with her chair and easel, was almost always chauffer driven to her painting sites. On this occasion the car’s engine had barely stopped before William was dashing all of a nervous fluster into our house calling out for a clean shirt! I’m sure a most understanding and patient Lady Manvers had probably tried to persuade him that wasn’t really necessary.

 The resultant large water colour sketch (above), a combination of relevant detailing and enhanced colour, accurately captures the atmosphere of that mid-Autumn workshop I remember so well. We certainly enjoyed seeing that picture hanging on the wall in Thoresby Hall, and I was even more delighted to obtain it upon the Hall’s closure as a stately home.

 We left Thoresby Estate in 1963. The last time I saw Lady Manvers was in 1979. She was once again engaged in conversation with my father as I, now a full time art teacher, kept the respectful distance I would have observed as a child. She was in the Great Hall, standing by the same piano where a lifetime before she had handed out Christmas presents to children like myself . It was the end of the Manvers line; the end of Thoresby Hall as a stately home open to the public. With her usual grace and smile she was greeting the Hall’s final visitors before its closure; selling souvenirs. I bought a souvenir pencil, and have it still.

UPDATE: Artist Lady Manvers, my dad, and Coquette. Click on the link..

Text copyright Ian G Craig. Painting by Lady Manvers private collection Ian G Craig.

An empty seat & Childhood in Thoresby.

This month’s sketchbook video diary is about empty seats:

Above: Dukeries Childhood, was to be part of a triptych, but it looks better as a stand alone item. The person is from an old black and white photograph of my brother. The house is Three Gables, Thoresby Park, in which we lived as children. Magpies will take small treasures away if you're not careful.

 All text, pros, poetry & artwork, copyright Ian Gordon Craig.

Perlethorpe Church

 

I made a drawing of Perlethorpe Church in a very small sketchbook, whilst sat amongst the Duke's graves. Then in my studio I made an acylic painting from the sketch, on stretched brown wrapping paper. My intention was to make an expressive piece, avoiding all photographic references.

EDIT: I returned to this subject, and this view, in January 2017. See THIS LINK.

 All text, pros, & artwork, copyright Ian Gordon Craig.