Sunday 4 August 2013

Winnie The Pooh's Expotition!

I couldn't believe my luck when my trip to the UK coincided with the most amazingly exciting exhibition of original ink and watercolors from Winnie The Pooh by E.H. Shepard!


To be able to stand up close and see all his paint strokes and ink lines was thrilling.  There were even rough sketches with page numbers scribbled on them to see how they work together in a story.  Something I have been doing for my own adventure into the picture book world.

We were not allowed to take photographs ourselves but this was one of the pieces I saw, copyright E.H. Shepard Trust.

This original was actually for sale, but I would have had to win the Lottery first!
I just love the looseness of his pencil strokes, so inspiring.

I grew up with the Winnie The Pooh Stories, enjoying the wonderful illustrations from old books belonging to my Granny.  As you can imagine, with my love of Bear Making and Illustration Bears appear with fun regularity in my work, how many Bears can you spot in my Shop?  You can even search for Bear in my Etsy Shop to make friends with them all!


Personalised Friendship is Sharing Cake Art Print, available from my Etsy Shop

Favourite Moments Art Prints & Cards from my Etsy Shop


The Exhibition was held in the magnificent Mottisfont Abbey, a Medieval Priory gradually changed into a Country House, and now owned by The National Trust.  Set in beautiful grounds, with clear rivers and ancient trees.  


We've had scorching hot weather as you can see by the lawns!

Maud Russel lived there from 1934-1972 and was a great patron of the arts.  
Just imagine the Parties they had here!



Winnie The Pooh & Friends having a picnic in a very grand setting!

 An amazing wire sculpture in the old stable block!

The perfect home for Winnie The Pooh!

The Exhibition is running until 15th September,  so for any of you in the UK I would highly recommend it!

To just make it all even more perfect for me there is also the National Collection of Old Fashioned Roses, set in a stunning walled Garden!  So fly on by again soon to walk through the gardens with me.
Catherine
x





4 comments:

tlcukjourney said...

Oh for goodness sakes my daughter would have passed out in a heap! She LOVES pooh bear! And the funny thing is, she knew nothing about him until this past Christmas when I bought her a pooh bear stuffed animal, she wanted a "Bear" and I picked him, she's now in love and won't leave home without pooh, and she's 8! I'm going to show her your blog when sh is up out of bed :)
Tammy x

Bumpkin Hill said...

Tammy, I practically passed out in a heap with excitement and I'm all grown up ;) I grew up with the stories from lovely old books belonging to my Granny so I'm just in love with the illustrations. Wishing your daughter lots of happiness with Pooh :) Catherine x

TerriSue said...

My husband had never read many of the children's classics as a boy or had them read to him. When we first got married I sat out to remedy this dreadful oversight. Among some that I read to him were, The Velveteen Rabbit, Alice in Wonderland, The Wind in the Willows, and of course all of the Winnie the Pooh including poems. Just as if he were a child I would change my voice for different characters. Well it paid off, for when we had children, it was Daddy who read them their bedtime story at night and he was very good with voices. When our son was in his two's I bought the Disney Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree. He would sit still long enough for a 22 min. video, but he still wasn't sitting through a chapter in a chapter book. He fell in love with Pooh Bear. By the time he was three he was sitting through a chapter, so we got him the Winnie the Pooh set in the slip case. That was when he discovered Shepard. I had to congratulate him on his taste in my mind. Disney vs. Shepard, it really is a no brainer. He had to have the Shepard look-a-like stuffed animals. When family or friends would buy him Disney ones they were condemned to the top bunk, very back corner. We re-did his room when he was 5. We took him to look at wallpaper books. He enjoyed going through them and had picked out many for consideration that would grow up with him. Then he came upon a book that had Shepard style Winnie the Pooh wallpaper. It didn't matter what we said like, "Will you want this wallpaper in two years when your friends come over to play?" That was the only wallpaper he would choose. As I looked at the collection I found one that was a faint yellow, cream and black stripe. Sporadically through the design the black stripe would be interrupted by a tiny bee. They also had a Winnie the Pooh wide trim. My son wanted the paper covered with Winnie the Poohs. I bargained with him that if we got the bee paper and the Pooh trim if in a couple of years or even longer, he decided that he didn't want Pooh anymore I could easily remove the trim and he would just have striped paper. He finally agreed. He was 9 years old before he gave up the trim. Now my grandson is two and my son can't wait until he is three so that he can give him his own set of Winnie the Pooh.

Bumpkin Hill said...

How very special TerriSue x He had good taste :)