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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.

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.

Austrian artist Ditz paints house pets and farm animals, often in domestic settings or grouped together. Her distinctive style has evolved over time to include highly detailed, quirky, small-scale images.

Dame Elizabeth Blackadder is a Scottish painter and printmaker. She is the first woman to be elected to both the Royal Scottish Academy and the Royal Academy. She studied at Edinburgh College of Art and then in 1962 began teaching there and continued until her retirement in 1986. Blackadder works in a variety of media such as oil paints, watercolour, drawing and printmaking. She paints portraits and landscapes but her later work contains mainly flowers and her cats. Regular trips abroad, particularly to Japan, helped stimulate her interest in colour and pattern. Her work can be seen at the Tate Gallery, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and has appeared on a series of Royal Mail stamps.