Greeting Card Publisher

John Northcote Nash was the younger brother of surrealist landscape artist Paul Nash. Nash never received any formal art training. However, his elder brother Paul, who had studied at the Slade School of Art, encouraged him to develop his skills. A joint exhibition with Paul in 1913 was successful, and John was invited to become a founder-member of the London Group in 1914. From 1916 to 1918, Nash volunteered with the Artists Rifles in the First World War. At his brother’s recommendation, he became an official war artist. After the war He became a teacher, taking a position at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art in Oxford from 1924 to 1929. In 1929, he bought a summer cottage in Essex, where he would turn his efforts to painting picturesque East Anglian landscapes.

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.

Edward Hopper was born in Nyack, New York. After leaving high school he studied at the New York School of Art. In 1906 he visited Paris and became influenced by the impressionists. In 1910 Hopper returned to New York and in the following years painted some of his most recognisable paintings. In 1923 he married Josephine. Although they lived in New York they spent much of their time and most of their summers in Massachusetts where he painted the architecture and the landscapes in and around Cape Cod.