CHARLES DICKENS 200 Pickwick

To celebrate Dickens' 200th birthday here is my Grandfather's painting of "Pickwick, Christmas at Dingley Dell" painted in 1926.

A Prince in the garden

"No, I am not here".

First time I have managed to grow basil from seed.

Wild Geranium outside.

Muddled up with the lawn mower, this little cap was also worried about the lack of butterflies this year.

Tempera Harry R Mileham

Swallows

Tempera, when oil was ‘invented’

I have posted up a couple of images for you. The first, Vintage Harvest is from the 1995 100th anniversary exhibition brochure held at Leighton House in London. It was a sketch submitted for a competition for a decoration in a public building in 1894 whilst Harry R Mileham was at the Royal Academy Schools.

The other three pictures are of a painting discovered recently behind a portrait of my grandmother. The scruffy frame was to be cleaned up! It is just an intelligent guess that this is part of the same project and includes a ‘blank’ fireplace which suggests that this was a mural design.

I love the texture of tempera, it has perhaps a less vibrant look but often a pastel feel is attractive in its own right. With limited time and equipment I have tried to match the colours to the original.

They are only ‘snap shots’ as we are to do an exhibition in Brighton where he lived for the second half of his life, in September. Better pictures and a full brochure will be available on line for that.

I hope to be better informed by then!

He died in 1957 so all his works are still in copyright.

Perhaps influenced by Leighton just a little! (oil)

Thank you to Christies for this last picture