Peggy's Art
She thinks as an artist
Peggy was a person who recognized and practiced art and beauty in every aspect of her life. Colors and shapes and shadows were to Peg the essence of being alive and appreciating that which nature and inspired artists offered to the world. Her love of artistic creation and continuing education led to many avenues of practice from drapery design and window dressing, to brass rubbing in Benelux and Great Britain, to creative writing in Belgium and Switzerland, to picture framing, to Christmas wreath making, to photography, to rosemalling in Switzerland, to watercolor painting, and through it all interior decoration and home design.
Each phase reflected to some extent where we were living and what educational opportunities were possible (preferably with some aspect of international travel involved without the engineer). We will try to show some examples of her works and solicit the comments of those who attended or conducted some of her work and travels.
When we moved to Belgium in 1970 and Peg found that she could not get a work permit to teach at the international school. Peg and other Caterpillar spouses joined the growing international women’s club where Peg worked writing articles and became introduced to Brass Rubbing which was currently en vogue and involved a lot of travel in the Benelux region and of course a Brass Rubbing School in Devon, England followed by exploring the western coast of England. Examples are shown below with some additional explanation.
On our return to Peoria, IL Peg did not return to teaching immediately but worked at JC Penny in their interior decoration department specializing in window treatments up until the time we had Matthew and she specialized in handing down creativity and berry picking to our receptive offspring. I’m sure that Peg and Bonnie Wellman were a dynamic duo in the window treatment business but couldn’t save JC Penny’s..
Peg's evolution as an artist continued through many phases and among them were:
Exposure to the art culture in Peoria resulted in her interest in framing art and how it can improve or reduce the impact and value of a painting. Peg attended a school in Vancouver BC and worked for a framing shop in Peoria Heighrts, then did framing as a photographer in Bayfield and later working for Franei Austin Miller. This exposure led to many schooling opportunities with Franci and Karlyn Holman the other large art star in the area and her development as a watercolor painter with some examples shown below
Brass Rubbing
Many of the royalty of mid evil times are buried in tombs in the cathedrals and monasteries of Europe especially in England and the Benelux countries. Their tombs have brass images of the individuals as covers. An art form in the 1970's was to replicate these images using a special form of large rolls of heavy paper and a special hard crayon to copy the three dimensional brass image as a drawing on the paper.
Great excuse and pastime for the ladies of Brussels to research the location of such tombs and then organizing day or overnight trips to the surrounding areas produce some artwork and see the countryside
Peg and a couple of friends went to a brass rubbing school in Devon England and I drove across the channel and the south of England to retrieve her and explore the SW coast of England from Cornwall to Lands End
The example here was done in the Devon area and the print below reads: Sir Thomas Bullen 1538, Heyer Kent England, Knight of the Order of the Garder, Grandfather of Elizabeth I of England and, father of Ann Beleyn Queen of Henry VIII
In addition to black on white there were many colors of paper and more colors of crayons with gold and silver on black paper being quite popular.
Rosemaling
Norwegian art
After our trip to Norway with Peg’s folks in 1972 Peg had an increased interest in rosemaling painting. According to Wikapedia Rosemåling, or rosemaling, are the names of a traditional form of decorative folk art that originated in Scandinavia. Rosemåling is a style of Scandinavian decorative painting on wood that uses stylized flower ornamentation, predominantly primary and secondary colors, scrollwork, lining and geometric elements, often in flowing patterns. It was not until we moved to Switzerland however when she attended a school in Geneva and produced most of her work. Some of her work she sold at the Christmas Tree Farm and later at the Bayfield Artist Guild but more was given either to friends or to fund raisers. Below are some of the examples which we still have in our home in Bayfield. The next step in Peggy’s evolution as an artist.
This picture is of a table showing rosemaling on all of the elements of the table and the top being very typical for decoration of circular objects.
Peg's Rosemaling
.JPG/:/rt=d:90/cr=t:0%25,l:0%25,w:100%25,h:100%25/rs=w:388,h:194,cg:true)
12" X 18" serving tray used at our home in Bayfield
Desert dish currently hanging on one of the structural beams in our great room.
Decorated waste basket currently containing Peg's ashes on our mantle