It was a bitterly cold night, but despite this many of our members braved the weather to come out to our monthly meeting.
They won't have been disappointed as we had a wonderful illustrated talk from Sarah Oldridge about Marianne North, a truly remarkable flower painter.
Most of us had never heard of Marianne North before the meeting, but by the end we couldn’t help but be impressed by her bravery, travel experience and talent.
Marianne North opened her permanent collection of paintings at Kew in 1882. There you can find displayed a collection of over 800 paintings, painted over 14 years of travel to 15 countries in the world, covering all continents.
Most of her travel was conducted solo, which was very unusual for a Victorian woman, and with only ‘letters of introduction’ to help her find accommodation and assistance during her stays overseas.
She will have endured all sorts of weather and so many different modes of transport (many sounding hugely uncomfortable); however, it would appear that she was undaunted by any challenges that came her way, so much was her desire to paint.
Having worked at Kew for many years, Sarah Oldridge was very knowledgeable about Marianne North and gave an informative and enjoyable talk, with extracts from the artist’s diaries, which gave an insight into her character and sense of humour.
A really enjoyable evening, which has left some us thinking that a trip to Kew is required, to fully appreciate the paintings of this intrepid lady, who truly pushed the boundaries for women of her generation.