Flora Twort
Encyclopedia
Watercolor painting
Watercolor or watercolour , also aquarelle from French, is a painting method. A watercolor is the medium or the resulting artwork in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water-soluble vehicle...
s and pastel
Pastel
Pastel is an art medium in the form of a stick, consisting of pure powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are the same as those used to produce all colored art media, including oil paints; the binder is of a neutral hue and low saturation....
s of the scenes and people of Petersfield
Petersfield, Hampshire
Petersfield is a market town and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is north of Portsmouth, on the A3 road. The town has its own railway station on the Portsmouth Direct Line, the mainline rail link connecting Portsmouth and London. The town is situated on the...
, Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
.
Twort began painting at the age of four, and was educated at the South Hampstead High School
South Hampstead High School
South Hampstead High School is an all-girls independent day school situated in Hampstead, north-west London. The school was founded and is still supported by The Girls' Day School Trust . The school operates over two sites, the Senior school and Junior school which are run as a single unit with...
, London School of Art, the Regent Street Polytechnic
University of Westminster
The University of Westminster is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom. Its origins go back to the foundation of the Royal Polytechnic Institution in 1838, and it was awarded university status in 1992.The university's headquarters and original campus are based on Regent...
and the Slade School of Art. At the end of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
she moved to Petersfield, where she ran a secondhand bookshop at Numbers 1 and 2 The Square, in partnership with two other young women. The shop also sold hand-made jewellery, pottery and textiles and gained a reputation as one of the finest book shops in the South of England.
Her studio was above this shop until 1948, when the three partners decided to give up the shop and Twort moved to a studio in the nearby Church Path. Her work was exhibited in the Royal Academy
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
and other London galleries, and she continued to paint until she was 81.
Her pictures, usually watercolours, typically contain local scenes of Petersfield which are filled with people and animals, with such subjects as The Square on Market Day, or the fair on Petersfield Heath. She also produced drawings in pencil, crayon, charcoal and pastel, including some fine portraits.
Twort was a friend of Nevil Shute
Nevil Shute
Nevil Shute Norway was a popular British-Australian novelist and a successful aeronautical engineer. He used his full name in his engineering career, and 'Nevil Shute' as his pen name, in order to protect his engineering career from any potential negative publicity in connection with his novels.-...
, who in 1925 proposed marriage to her, unsuccessfully, though they remained lifelong friends and she became godmother to his daughter Shirley Anne. For a short period in 1939, Shute and his family lived at The Old Mill at Langstone
Langstone
Langstone is a village near Havant, Hampshire in the south east of England, between Portsmouth and Chichester. It has good railway connections to London, Southampton, Portsmouth and Brighton, from the nearby Havant railway station. There are many large gated detached houses on the main road,...
, which she owned.
On her death she bequeathed her studio cottage and pictures to Hampshire County Council
Hampshire County Council
Hampshire County Council is the county council that governs the majority of the county of Hampshire in England. It provides the upper tier of local government, below which are district councils, and town and parish councils...
. A selection of her pictures is now displayed in her old studios, which have become the
Flora Twort Gallery
Flora Twort Gallery
The Flora Twort Gallery is an art gallery in Petersfield, Hampshire, England, dedicated to the work of Flora Twort.The gallery is located beside St. Peter's Church, just off the town's market square....
; the selection is changed twice per year. Hampshire County Council has also put 600 of her pictures online.
Further reading
- Flora Twort: A Petersfield Artist, Alice Munro-Faure, Hampshire Papers, 1995 (Hampshire County Council Record Series monograph)
External links
- The Flora Twort Gallery
- Flora Twort, images of Petersfield Taro Fair, Hantsweb
- Search the Flora Twort Collection, HantsWeb