Art Postcards

Eric Ravilious was an artist, illustrator and designer specialising in watercolour paintings of the British countryside, most famously of Sussex. Ravilious had a special connection to the area, as he grew up there and studied at the Eastbourne School of Art. He went on to study at the Royal College of Art and later became one of the most popular artists of the 1930s.

Dame Laura knight was an English landscape and figurative painter. Laura studied at Nottingham School of Art in 1900, where she met Harold Knight. After marrying in 1903, they joined an artists' colony at Staithes, Yorkshire, before moving in 1908 to Newlyn, Cornwall. In 1936 she became only the second woman elected to full membership of the Royal Academy. Her large retrospective exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1965 was the first for a woman. In her long career, Knight was among the most successful and popular painters in Britain. Her success in the male-dominated British art establishment paved the way for greater status and recognition for women artists. She was also greatly interested in, and inspired by, marginalised communities and individuals, including Romani people and circus performers.

Tirzah was born in Gillingham, Kent. After finishing school she attended the Eastbourne School of Art from 1925-1928. It was here that she met Eric Ravilious. In 1928 she moved to London and studied at the Central School of Art. Tirzah was a skilled wood engraver; She was commissioned to produce woodcuts for Kynoch Press and the BBC. Tirzah and Eric married in 1930. In 1931 they left London and moved to rural Essex where they started a family. She gave up her art to raise their children and to support Eric with his career. Thankfully Tirzah’s work is now starting to get the recognition it deserves.

Heywood Hardy was a British painter. Born in Chichester, Sussex. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Upon returning to England, Hardy’s work became popular and he received many commissions from the estates of his wealthy patrons. He went on to become a member of The Royal Society of Painters and Etchers, The Royal Institute of Oil Painters, and The Royal Society of Portrait Painters. He also worked as an illustrator for several publications, including The Illustrated London News and The Graphic Magazine. In the last years of his life, Hardy made a controversial shift from sensitive animal subjects to biblical scenes of Christ walking in the Sussex countryside. Today, his works are in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Manchester City Art Gallery, and the Bury Art Museum, among others.