I sold my house. It was a nice house, the children grew up in it and they were very happy. But this is my time.. I came here to paint.
I liked this house because it had a conservatory, plenty of light, very bright. It’s very nice..and because it’s rented it means I don’t have the responsibility of maintenance and things like that.
I have lived here for about eight years.
Most of the day I spend in the conservatory.
People will just pop in and have a cup of coffee… and so I stop what I am doing. I don’t mind, because people are more important than my paintings.
The landlord gave me permission to plant the garden so I could put in some nice plants and I have done quite a bit of gardening.
I have a patio and I paint. That’s all.
The house where I grew up was a lovely … a big, big house and old-fashioned.
It had a beautiful drawing room and I had my piano there. It was blitzed during the war and was restored – though not as well as it was before. The ceiling and doors had all been blown in.
In the back garden, my father had a beautiful vegetable garden and in the front my mother had a beautiful flower garden. They were very happy days.
The house was walking distance from my primary school.
It was a really, really, lovely house…. Big dining room, kitchen and off the kitchen there was an air-raid shelter that my father used during the war. Then he used it as a wine cellar.
I had this room decorated but I didn’t bother with the rest.
When I first moved here the house was unfurnished. Then I moved all my rubbish in…I’m very untidy so the space gave me the freedom to do what I want.
There are three bedrooms here – there is plenty of room.
I’m very comfortable.
It’s lovely but I don’t need three bedrooms, but I often have visitors, or my grand-children come to visit.
Really, I don’t need all this space, but I enjoy it….
I bought most of my furniture second hand when I moved here.
I had a big, big sofa but I thought it took up took too much room and so I got a small one, Then I got a little Italian leather one. I just got things that I fancied.
For a long time I had the big dining room table and then I got tired of it and I looked around until I found what I wanted and bought a smaller one. It gave me more space in the room – even though it is spacious.
I had an operation on my knee and it was a great success. Now I have no problem. The stairs were a great help to me. I recommend them to anybody for exercise. You couldn’t have better than stairs!
When I was 61 I studied Fine Art Print at university.
I really wanted to paint and I continue to go to a lot of workshops to try to keep on improving my work.
I work on three paintings at a time.
Because I paint in oils I don’t do much in one day, so I don’t finish it. I leave it to one side and do another one and then I can always come back to them. It’s easy to come back and then you can see your mistakes, and what you can do to it, and how to add to it.
Now have someone who comes to clean once a week – or once every two weeks. But she is not allowed to clean the conservatory because it is too untidy and I wouldn’t give her that work.
This dresser I actually bought new but these are antique plates. That’s an old plate of my dad’s and some of them are from family.
I keep them there as a nice memento….I just like it.
These pictures are very big so someone helped me to put them up.
One is from my grand-daughter, two are from my nephews and the rest are mostly mine.
I regularly go to exhibitions and may buy a few paintings – if they are not too expensive. Sometimes I get tired of them and change things around. I liked them at the time. Some were 36” by 36” and some of them were smaller.
I like prints of course – because I am a printer. But here I don’t have any facilities and that’s why I don’t do much printing. I like to paint.
This is a very, very nice village, I really love it.
Everybody here is very friendly.
I have wonderful neighbours. It’s so nice…you can walk down the street and talk to anybody and it’s a lovely place. There’s just that air of freedom. There’s no religious divide, nothing like that. People are very, very friendly, lovely.
I can’t think of anything negative about the house – except I should keep it tidier.
