One day in the autumn or winter succeeding Mrs Brontë's death, Charlotte came to her nurse wild and white with the excitement of having seen a fairy standing by Baby Anne's cradle.
When the two ran back to the nursery, Charlotte was flying on ahead and treading softly not to frighten the beautiful visitant away.
None was there besides the baby sleeping sweetly in the depths of her forenoon nap. Charlotte stood transfixed, her eyes wandered incredulously around the room
"But she was here just now" she insisted
" I really and truly did see her"! and no argument or coaxing could shake her from the belief
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When I read this antidote about the young Charlotte Brontë seeing a fairy standing by her sister Anne's cradle, I could truly see the fairy too and had to make a drawing!
I saw the fairy give a bow to a fellow elfin creature lol
It's characteristic Charlotte could not be persuaded she was mistaken about seeing her fairy friend . She knew her own mind early on!
open a new window to see it in its true size
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Of course I'm also working on my latest Romanov painting of Nicholas and Alexis from 1916 . After a month , Nicholas's tunic is finally making sense!
I never thought this one would take so long...but one never knows!
Every time I think I'm close to finishing my current Romanov painting of Nicholas and his son , Alexis ,along the Dnieper River in 1916, the painting goes to another level and the time table shatters too...when a part of the painting zooms up in quality one has to bring everything else up to that level as well, in fact that's part of the fun This painting has followed the usual pattern so far...it bolts out of the box and then I get mired on one thing. In this painting it was Alexi's head and face...the photo is fuzzy and trying to figure things out was difficult...it was months of painting and painting. Nicholas was steadily coming in...thankfully Currently both faces are good...what is my concern right now is Nicky's uniform. That can take some time, because everything must make sense and fit I have had help from my friend Nicola from Russia. He has helped me in the question of the uniform's colour. I began speaking to him about this painting in Sept 2011...you have to take the long view, well I do anyway. He appreciates my keen wish to get it as right as I can These paintings are quests... looking back on some I wondered how I dared to even start...but you just start painting and keep painting for shore There are times when I think , well the ride is over...but you keep painting and you get there That's been my experience. Quests aren't about expectations. In fact I'd say it is when my expectations are once again proved unworkable and I give them up, that the painting goes forward.
It's a process of giving up one's ideas of how things should go while still painting...and it happens many times over during a painting . So lord know when it will be finished. But I promise when it's done, no one will be disappointed..and that's another reason these paintings take so long...the emotions they bring up as one gets nearer the end...The video is ready to go.I'm looking forward to showing off this one! As a Romanov fan, being able to make paintings like this, well I wish I could bring people along the trip truly. It can be hard, but it's always so rewarding. Quest is not too big a word. You have to dig deep to get any where..at least that's how I paint. ______________________________________
Brontë portraits Of course while I'm painting Nicholas and , Alexis , I'm thinking ahead of my next paintings. There will be a short break from Romaovs and I'll be painting Brontë portraits!
Charlotte Brontë Arthur Bell Nicholls
I will do a portrait pair of Charlotte Brontë and her husband, Arthur Bell Nicholls .
Theirs was a powerful and unexpected love story that is often over looked because their happiness was so short lived. Charlotte tragically died within a year of their marriage
I will also be doing a portrait of Charlotte's father, Patrick Brontë, as well for this was a love triangle of sorts and who can resist this photo to paint?
Rev. Patrick Brontë
( Papa)
But speaking of challenges , this will mark the first time I'm trying to make a portrait based mostly on other art work. All we have of Charlotte in the way of photo is a small, profile...and I wonder if that was taken without her knowledge! lol She seems to be watching something else. I'm working from four images. I show them here from earliest to last
Charlotte by her brother, Branwell
I will be using the famous portrait of the sisters painted by their brother, Branwell...which I think is a quite good beginning . He should have kept going. But it seems staying power was not Branwell's strong suit. But I find everything in the one photo of Charlotte that we have is in this painting by her brother. Her nose looks different his painting. That is because other artists had her turn her head to the side imo
Charlotte by J. H. Thompson, Branwell's friend
The 1850 Richmond portrait
The portrait of Charlotte by the society painter, George Richmond was done at the behest of Charlotte's publisher, George Smith. It was a gift to her father. Mr. Smith was clever. It would be hard for Charlotte to refuse such a gift for Papa.
Otherwise I can see her declining. Charlotte did not care for her looks. And while she may not have been the era's ideal, she was by no means as ill favored as she thought.
Charlotte received four marriage proposals and certainly her successful suitor, Mr.Nicholls, thought her alluring enough to stay her father's curate in order to win her when he could have had his own living else where. It seems this tiny woman caught Arthur's heart shortly after he arrived in Haworth.
Only known photo of Charlotte Brontë
One thing I have notice is how Charlotte's hair has the same sheen in each picture...this tells me it was a of a fine nature. Also she seem to have a redish cheeks because that is shown everywhere as well.
One can gain insight by looking at her father's photo because it was said she took after him.
All the Brontë children seem to have a predominate bottom lip and it's in all the pictures. Richmond cleverly dealt with Charlotte's nose by not putting in one side . I'm basically going to follow his lead and paint his portrait, but in my way ...which means using his original , not the many variations that have been made of it since
Rev. Arthur Bell Nicholls
For Arthur I'm using his most handsome photo. However , one of Arthur Bell Nicholls eye lids drooped a bit, and that got more pronounced with age. It makes me wonder if this photo is flipped, because that eye is on the other side in his other photos...but no matter, this how people expect to see this photo and I like how it makes it seem they are looking each other's way. I also like that by painting a pair, their images will match more closely than before
I think Arthur is a good looking fellow. In his 2 honeymoon photos, he looks a bit put out and I wonder if that is to due Charlotte refusing to join in the photographs! lol
Charlotte had no idea her father's statue like curate was capable of her high level of emotion and passion until 7 years after Arthur first arrived at Haworth and in a overwrought state , he asked for her hand in marriage
The manner of his proposal was the shocking part of the event for Charlotte. That penniless Arthur Bell Nicholls had the temerity to ask at all, shocked her father, Patrick. Her father was furious and Charlotte was rather dazed and confused. It took another 18 months of Arthur's persistence and her own loneliness to convince her to accept him.
Once she did, much to Charlotte's own surprise, a happiness she had never known steadily blossomed. Intellectually Arthur was not her match, but how many were? These two found common ground in a simular dry sense of humor, a love of constancy , a great love of nature and finally in love itself .
Charlotte grew to love Arthur deeply. She refers to him as "my dear boy" and she was expecting their child at the time of her death. All this makes Charlotte's untimely passing all the more sad.
And though Patrick opposed the marriage at first , Charlotte's father's letters after her death, touchingly refer to the marriage's happiness and the promise it held for all. Patrick's tender, dignified expressions of grief in the face of the total loss of his six children are heartrending to say the least.
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Brontë Novel
The other interesting event that has come about since I last posted is I find I have so much to say about this time in Charlotte's life that I'm writing a novel about the Brontës!
It occurred much like the paintings....like spontaneous combustion, it just happened! I'm having alot of fun
And wow, there are ALOT of novels about the Brontës! The earliest I have found were published in the 1930's . They have appeared ever since with great regularity and show no signs of stopping. And no wonder, often the history of the Brontë family is as interesting as the Brontë novels themselves! It's an amazing story
But does the world need another novel about the Brontës?
That's not the question an artist asks themselves.
The artist asks : What do I need to do?
It seems I need to write this novel . It also seems to be writing itself!
Everyone who has read some say thumbs up, which is encouraging ...what's funny is I find looking at modern novels also very encouraging...after reading awhile I'll say," oh I can do that!" Let's see if I say that as it goes along. LOL I have a feeling, much like with the paintings, one day I will be amazed I dared to start it.
But once started, why stop? Simply keep at it
The doing of a creative project is as important as the result, in some ways perhaps more. It's at 150-180 pages at the moment with lots more ahead.
It will have the exact known history or at least there will be a good case for whatever I depict. I'm really interested in working with the known facts and the more than likely. That doesn't mean there won't be surprises.
Much like the Romanov paintings, you almost have to be a fan already to see what I'm doing. I'm using Charlotte's letters, which can be enjoyed on the surface of course , I love her way with words. But they always reward a careful study as well . There is also 150 years of excellent Brontë scholarship to lean on.
But after 40 + years of reading about them I know a great deal myself and that helps to keep the fingers flying as I write . It's fun to have to work within the known history and still find much to say that imo has not be said before.
I can promise no vampires or zombies will appear.
If that's a spoiler, so be it lol
Charlotte 's father, Patrick and Charlotte's widower, Arthur drew close after Charlotte's tragic passing . In his will, Patrick called Arthur, " my beloved son". Who could understand each other's grief as well as they?
Arthur was devastated when his father in law passed six years after Charlotte in 1861...perhaps that is when the full weight of her death was felt by Arthur. When there was no longer anything left to do for his beloved wife.
Arthur lived another 50 years after Charlotte's death. He married again, he was surrounded by fond friends and an adoring family of nieces and nephews in his Irish home .
But in all those years,Charlotte never left his heart or mind. In old age, Arthur would wonder aloud how it will be upon his own death, when he and Charlotte would meet again , a meeting he never doubted .
The Tsar and the Small Pair 1914 I'm working away on my current major Romanov painting of the Tsar and Alexis in 1916 on the Dnieper River, but I did this smaller Romanov painting for fun concurrently.
At 16 x 18 it's very small for one of my Romanov paintings.. It's almost more landscape than portait! It's interesting because we don't see their faces, they become shapes like the sea and land around them. One has to make the portait of a known stance,with the body , rather than a face.
I've always loved this photo of the Tsar and his younger daughters, Maria and Anastasia, during one of their cruises in the Crimea in 1914 , just before WW1.
The Tsar is pointing something out to the girls
Of course there is a video! .
It has a number of water colours as well as the painting. The music is "The Kite Song " by Patty Griffin
My current painting is giving me the usual fits. I've spent 6 weeks on Alexis head and torso! ...but I'll get it and I believe no one will be disappointed when its finished ...though Lord knows when that will be! The paintings have their own time tables and I have learned to just go for the ride
But since the last post there's been a Brontë interverntion!.
For over 3 years, my art has been Romanov related. Now the Brontës want in on the fun....specially , Charlotte Brontë and her husband, Arthur Bell Nicholls.
People don't seem to know the author of " Jane Eyre" was married. It was a very happy, but tragically short marriage because she died of an infectious disease only 8 months after the wedding.
Arthur Bell Nicholls however lived another 50 years. He never got over the loss of Charlotte, indeed he died with her name on his lips.
We have a staggering amount of Brontës items today and it is thanks to Mr. Nicholls for keeping them .It was said he viewed these items as being simply personal mementos...but I believe Charlotte loved that fame blindness he had. Most of us are like putty before it. And if we now have these Brontë manuscripts , art work and even clothing for all time, I don't think we can begrudge Arthur Bell Nicholls the first 50 years.
Their love story has as many twists , turns and high emotion as any Brontë novel. It's always been one of my favorite from Brontë history. Mr. Nicholls is just getting his due in the last few years, but I've always loved how he adored Charlotte and could not help but allow all of Haworth see how in love he was.
It very likely only that level of emotion would have won a Brontë! They wouldn't notice anything less!
So a portait pair of Charlotte Brontë and her husband, Arthur Bell Nicholls, is in the pipe line
It will be a real challenge to produce a portrait of Charlotte because I will base it on a drawing. But if I heeded problems, I would not have started Romanov painting! My lack of training keeps me from knowing how tough it will be...and once I'm in it, I painting like mad for shore and somehow get there
More Romanov art ahead of course! After the Tsar and Alexis, I will be painting Alexandra and so the family will be complete....but at my rate, it will be awhile!
After 8 and a half months, my painting of Anastasia Nikolaevna is finished! It's based on a photograph taken in the park of Alexander Palace during the summer of 1917....and so Anastasia and her family are in captivity
This is a fascinating photo. Somehow this young woman best known for being an impish child , makes a golf hat a crown and a tree stump into a throne. Usually I'm not greatly interested in the family's royal heritage. But here, Anastasia shows me what it's all about. Whether by breeding or training or both , she has an innate dignity that has been brought sharply into focus by her circumstances. The world has turned upside down seemingly over night. She , her family and Russia face an uncertain future. But she's facing it with remarkable self possession for one so young. She has just turned 16....
Well, her body language is so, yet her expression is unsettled. After years of wondering, I believe I know why...she was not quite ready for the photo when it snapped.
I say this because after many years, I finally realized what appears as the Imp's hand, it not all hand. There is a ribbon of skirt above her hand, and with her hidden index finger and thumb, she is yanking at her skirt that is caught on the sharp edges of the tree stump. She was not 100% ready for the snap of the brownie camera
The mystery of Anastasia "huge" hand.
For years I wondered at the large hand in this photo because of the four girls , I believe the Imp's hands were the smallest. It was only after months of looking and painting, I saw the situation. Finding the gold bracelet was a help, that told me the limits of her wrist. But also looking at the creases on her lap was key . They line up with where her fingers would be as she's pulling on that material .Those creases are there because she's pulling. In the black and white photos, the shirt and hand share a very similar grey and highlight. So the ribbon of skirt became hand in the photo print.
Once I saw it was not just her hand , I painted a small line of skirt above ( indeed one can see some skirt above her right sleeve as well ...this is discovered ribbon but a continuance of that) ....and now we see Anastasia Nikolaevna's hand as it was .
What teenager would not be unhappy if the camera snapped before they were ready? Well at least this is how it now seems to me.
The Swan
The name of my painting is "the Swan" and the thought behind it is: Anastasia reached at least the beginning of her physical maturity before she and her family were murdered a year later in the summer of 1918. She was no longer a child, yet that is how history sees her. I aimed to change that a bit.
I see a remarkable young woman here: on the threshold and full of adult potential. One is keenly aware of what was lost when she, and we ,were robbed of her natural life. But I did want to say that over the course of the painting I gained a clear sense of Anastasia's shyness. Yes, Anastasia Nikolaevna, shy. At least as she emerges from childhood to being a young woman. Shyness can be also hidden in outlandish pranks , roughhousing and cutting mimicry.
Anastasia Nikolaevna had many nicknames, "The Imp" , being the most famous. I would add another: "Quicksilver". She was constantly on the move and darting about. In many family photos, someone is holding on to The Imp to keep her put. But in this photo the young woman has composed herself. Here , in a lighting flash, we are given a glimpse of what was and what could have been. At times my emotions welled up and it made painting difficult
Close up of The Imp
It was most likely Anastasia's sister, Marie, who took this photograph. Marie was a keen photographer as they all were. But Marie learned how to develop film and print photos as well. No easy matter at that time . In our digital age, very shortly people will forget the mental and even physical intensity film developing and photo printing required .
Now we press buttons, but back then there was chemicals, timing , working in the dark...on and on. The down side of Marie's interest for us today is there are more photos of the others in captivity than of her.
Anastasia and her grandmother, Princess Alice
Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova was the great granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Her grandmother, was Princess Alice, the Queen's second daughter. I found a photo of Princess Alice that goes nicely with the photo I used for Imp's painting
The painting took 8 1/2 months. But far from being bored, I constantly discovered new things in the photo though out that time. I posted earlier about discovering a gold bracelet on her hand ... I just discussed her hand, and since posting my video of the painting on You Tube, I discovered her hat had a triangle of bow at the back of her head. I had missed it completely ..it's shares the tone of the trees...but looking at other photos of her hat, I realized it could be there, then I could see it.
These details swim up or pop out...but it's rare week when one doesn't come forward . Let me just say it's a great thrill seeing a detail that has been overlooked for nearly a century . Invariably they add to the picture....every hidden detail is a gem that suddenly flashes and then one sees it . I know my eyes get a big as Marie's " saucers " at that moment.
I could start it over tomorrow and still find it fascinating....true of every painting really
While I was never bored, I salute and thank those who kept asking after the painting all this time ! I believe I answered these inquiries with the same sentence for months, "I'm finally getting that skirt " It was nice people kept asking! lol One never knows how long a painting will take., each has its own requirements While thankfully her face came though steadily, the skirt was a real challenge of months duration. The hat was very difficult as well. I was painting both til the end , and in the hat's case, beyond!
I take photos of the process to try and understand how I'm able to paint the family as I do... but it's still unexplainable to me, besides "something" happenings in the studio as brush meets canvas and I'm smart enough to see it and keep it It's difficult to state the blessing I feel, as a Romanov enthusiast, to be able to somehow express my emotions in the creation of paintings of this caliber...perhaps only other Romanov fans can understand. It's a dream come true.
Just before I finished the painting , I saw photos of Children's Island at Alexander Palace Park, taken by fellow Romanov enthusiast,and Alexander Palace Forum member, lynn. She took the photo just a few weeks ago and so very likely around the same time of the years as the 1917 photo itself . lynn posted them on Alexander Palace Forum and has kindly allowed me to post one here.
Children's Island
Unless you see a photo, it's hard to believe just how green the grass and blue the sky is there.... almost surreal . So this was hugely helpful as I was about to finish...it certainly informed the colours . Thank you, lynn! Today we know the family from black and white photographs, but they lived in a very technicolour world . Adding that colour back is one of the joys of this work
Anastasia Nikolaevna : the swan 1917, is now installed in my Romanov gallery. She is a commanding presence. What is remarkable is scale wise, she would fit right in to her sister's earlier painting. Now OTMA is complete .
Imp in the gallery
Of course Anastasia has her video, in fact she has two. The main one shows Anastasia though out her life then the progress of the full painting. The 2nd video is a short one showing the development of her face over 8 months. I wish to thank my friend, Helen Azar, for her help with the tittles in the main video. It adds so much!
The music of the main video is from two film scores by the wonderful composer, Rachel Portman : " Lake House" and " One Day "
The music of the shorter video is Thomas Newman's wonderful " Green Fried tomato "
Anastasia Nikolaevna,1917 : The Swan
Anastasia Nikolaevna: Her portrait 2012
My next major painting
The Tsar and Alexis on the Dnieper River 1916
Their faces aren't very clear, I will use other photos to help. An exciting aspect of my art work is bringing clarity where we don't have it otherwise. I am itching to start this painting of father and son on the beach at dusk. I'm so fortunate to have friends who know the uniforms and are eager to help me in that regard. In art, military uniforms are like religious vestments...they have to be right!
This time on the river in 1916, could easily be the happiest of young Alexi's life. His health was fairly good and he was with his beloved father in the military atmosphere he adored. The canvas is 36 X48
July 17th is an important day in the Romanov enthusiast's world. Of course July 17, 1918 was the day that Russia's last royal family and four others with them were killed in the cellar of the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg , Russia.
Ipatiev House itself was torn down in 1977. It was an effort to stem the growing tide of pilgrims seeking to pay homage to the royal family. This was same solution that was tried in 1918 when the family itself was killed, and it had the same useless effect. For on the ruins of the Ipatiev House, a cathedral , called " Church on the Blood "was built and people come from across Russia and the world to pay homage now.
In the early morning of July 17th 1918, a truck carrying the remains of the family and thier four companions, left Ipatiev House . Its destination was Ganina Yama, a 9' deep pit in the Four Brothers mine 15 km north of Ekaterinburg . There the 11 bodies were thrown down into the pit. They were not there long, as the pit proved completely inadequate to hide the corpses.
Most of the remains were buried in a mass grave four miles further away, where the truck, simply got stuck in the mud . The remains lay hidden there for 70 years . Two of the victims were burned separated and those remains were found in 2007
Today , after an all night ceremony, tens of thousands walk in procession from the church following the path the truck took that July morning to the mine pit . This procession grows yearly.
These two events, the truck in 1918 and the processions of today, became one in my mind. In a very real way, the people were following that truck and certainly the truck leads the processions.
So I made a drawing to illustrate this vision and also a video.
After 8 and 1/2 months, I have finished my Anastasia 1917 painting, "the Swan". But I got caught up in completing the July 17th drawing and video in time for today and so have not posted about that. However it's just as well. Because I already found two things I had missed in all that time and need to add them!
I came to my blog to see just when I posted last and was shocked it was in February....surely it was mid March? But no, it was Feb 22 ...in that post I said I hoped to finish my Anastasia painting with in two weeks
ohohoh!!
Art time is not regular time . Often one will say 10 minutes has passed , only to find it's been an hour.
The clock in my studio is set 15 minutes fast just so I have a chance of being timely for another activity.
Part of the attraction of doing art is getting lost in Art time. Paradoxically, we are rarely less or more ourselves during it. The everyday cares and even our ideas about ourselves slip away in artists absorption....
It's a type of sleep or dreaming and time is like wax in the sun during it...quite mutable
So I said two weeks on Feb 22...that was two months ago and I'd still say I'm two weeks from finishing . But since that time and now the painting has gone to another level or several really ....which seems to happen when a major element is added to a painting ...( in this case it was finalizing her hand and foot.) And when that happens , then everything else is up for reassessment as well, since it all has to fit together
The Imp's hand and foot are two hugely important features in this photo and painting. For 7 months I have been trying to create that marvelous line that goes from the Imps face , hand and foot .
The line
It's almost as important as getting her likeness to me...and it's been a battle...well everything but her face and the landscape as been a battle royal. I began this painting in early Oct . Recently while cleaning out my email sent folder , I ran across a mail sent to a friend where I say " I'm finally getting a grip on that skirt" . When asked , I would continue to say the exact same thing for the next 4-5 months !
I have painted that skirt untold times...( It's caught, back and front , by the sharp edge of the tree stump and this causes complex lines all across it ) however it's always better after a painting secession and it needs to be said that while I appear to be painting the same painting of the same photo for 7 months now, it's never the same painting or even the same photo...just yesterday I noticed the Imp was wearing a gold bracelet...how had I missed that? I looked for jewelry! Yesterday the bracelet's reflection in the sun finally caught my eye behind the grass stalks.
The act of painting changes the painting, and one's ever shifting perceptions change the photo. In order to do justice to both, I am lead deeper and deeper into this photo's moment of time, this young woman's eyes and my unexplained, but deep, empathy for her and her family....this is why I urge some creative work on the Romanov enthusiast , whether it be art or writing , because nothing brings one closer to them that getting lost in ART time. One can certainly say it's a delusion...perhaps, I wouldn't know. However I would say the final painting can also cause one to wonder. The three people who have seen her lately in the studio were struck dumb. It's a powerful experience to see the painting already ....particularly for those who know what Anastasia looked like, that's the real test.
Paint on the canvas is never just paint on the canvas...it's a language from the heart and mind of the artist. A language made visual though their brush strokes into a type of emotional hieroglyphs , often perfectly understandable to the viewer on at least the subconscious level... and this understanding, or feeling surprises our regular time every day self often . One is after creating on canvas a world free from its basic, 2-D static nature and have it appear to about to move in the next moment ...One is after a suspension of time.
So I would say I'm two weeks away from posting my Imp...but that could be in Art time or regular time...hard to say . lol
In July I had the privilege to be interviewed by Laura Mabee and was featured on her amazing Romanov site, Frozentears.org This was such an honor! Every Romanov enthusiast knows about Frozentears!
Thank you Laura! You put together such a beautiful page for me too!
Then in Sept 2011, a cultural blog in Russia did a post about my work after I left a link in the comment section of a wonderful post devoted to the family's nursing during WW 1. The photo files are stunning. This is thier post from July 17th
Thanks to my friend Nadine ,a.k.a Voyage of Freedom , for telling me about this amazing blog. You can imagine how thrilling it was they thought enough of my work to feature it.
