Thoughts on Dame Angela Lansbury…

Angela Lansbury b: 16 October 1925 – d: 11 October 2022

Well, it seems, I am having a couple of months of ‘loss’, having lost two ladies that I have admired for many years in just two months.  Both ladies were British; the first was Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the second was Dame Angela Lansbury.

To commemorate this special lady of stage and screen, I have done a very quick pen drawing of her, as she was in her later life.  She seemingly was a lady who disliked attempts at flattery, so I have drawn her just as she was.  I have added in Mrs Potts and Chip, as I am a bit of a romantic and love Disney movies (I also like gallons of hot tea and teapots too 🙂 ).  I think, she did such a great voice-over for this kindly and caring ceramic teapot in ‘Beauty and the Beast’. This quick drawing/sketch took me just under 90 minutes, as I had a target to get it done before a little magazine interview this afternoon!

As a child, I saw the Walt Disney movie ‘Bedknobs and Broomsticks’, starring Angela Lansbury as the trainee-witch – Miss Eglantine Price (so, I guess, this is an appropriate day to upload this post, it being Hallowe’en) and loved it.  I was singing the song for months…  I was later told, whilst interviewing the manager at Stanley Civic Hall, that ‘Bedknobs and Broomsticks’ has been the most popular movie that they had ever shown at that venue, with queues right around the block and down the street! 

It was many years later, with my oversized drawing board consuming my living-room table, that I had the television programme ‘Murder, She Wrote’ playing in the background as I did my commission work. It was an ideal programme to keep me company, whilst I was being creative, as it wasn’t too bloodthirsty. After many years of drawing, with this programme running every evening in the background, I got to know every line of dialogue, every murder victim, every culprit, plus the screams never made me jump when I was so familiar with all the 264 episodes!

So, I want to thank Dame Angela Lansbury, officially, for being my unofficial companion whist drawing all of those commissions.

I also want to say ‘thank you’ for another special occasion…  In March 2014, I went to see Noel Coward’s ‘Blithe Spirit’, starring the 89-year-old, Miss Lansbury, as the dotty medium Madame Arcati at The Gielgud Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue.  Sitting within spitting distance of her (not that I would do that, of course) I couldn’t believe I was watching Angela Lansbury with my very own eyes!  After the show, my friends wanted to go to the stage door and see the lady herself, but it was so crowded and I had seen her in the show, so I decided to let them wait and see her, and I would head off. 

There was a tiny back street/alley that would take me back to the hotel and I headed off down that dark passage.  Only a few minutes later, a great car came down the alley and I had no choice but to flatten myself to the wall as the car went by, (hoping the wheels would not go over my toes!).  In the back seat, there was no other passenger but Angela Lansbury, who gave me the most dazzling smile and genteel wave as she passed.  The image is ingrained in my memory. 

Thank you, Dame Angela, I am delighted that I DID have my very own private and special moment with you after all – far away from the madding crowds…

Autograph received on the 20th August 2022

The Queen and Paddington Bear…

Since being a little boy, I have always had the greatest admiration for HM Queen Elizabeth II.  This was added to by my love of stamps, on which her face is featured on every British one – (and many other countries too, throughout the Commonwealth).

The Queen has been a source of constancy throughout my whole life, which in this ever-changing world has also been a source of comfort and permanency and strength for me. 

So, as you can imagine, I have loved the last couple of weeks in which Queen Elizabeth’s historic reign of seventy years has been celebrated in the form of a wonderful and uplifting ‘trooping of the colour’, a service of thanksgiving, a star-studded concert and an astounding and very vivacious pageant.  I have loved every minute of the Jubilee celebrations and I have sat in my bunting and flag-festooned house, (enjoying the largest pot of tea) and watched every aspect of it.  Gosh, when the pageant was going through the Mall, I could not believe all of those wonderful outfits and floats – the amount of work that has gone into that amazing piece of history!  Oh, if anyone can tell me where I could get one of those giraffe outfits (the ones with the top hat etc), I would be very grateful 🙂

I could write about this Jubilee for England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, but I will do my best to keep this blog post succinct.  Of course, the highlight for me, apart from the aeroplanes ‘forming’ 70 in the sky (!) was the little scene where Paddington Bear meets the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

I was so touched when I saw this little cameo of the Queen and Paddington; it was so charming and endearing, as well as gentle and humorous.  Being a big fan of both Her Majesty the Queen and teddy bears in general, I could not pass up the opportunity to do a little, gentle illustration, featuring two of my favourite personages, some Union Jack bunting, a stand of marmalade sandwiches, some cups of tea, some musical spoons and an inquisitive (or is he hungry?) Corgi.  I was also encouraged by my students ‘to capture this special moment’ on paper.

A friend who saw this drawing, when I completed it, today, said, “Oh, you must send that to the Queen”.  I am not really sure it’s an illustration ‘fit for a Queen’, but, who knows, I might just post it off to Buckingham Palace…but, one will have to wait and see… Thank you, Ma’am…

Post boxes (in a manner of thinking)…

If there are two things I love and cherish from my childhood it’s writing/posting letters and buying the stamps at the Post Office. My mum encouraged me with this (and it’s all her fault that I have no money because I am addicted to buying vast quantities of stamps!) and it has carried on into my adult life. Subsequently, I enjoy all of the new stamp issues released by the Royal Mail, as well as the range of definitive stamps (the different coloured ones, bearing the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II).

I still write letters frequently to my friends and even once a fortnight to one friend in Carlisle, who writes back the following week. This has continued for over twenty-years. Quite an accomplishment really, in these modern times of computers and e-mail, for those that think that writing letters is ‘a dying art’.

It just so happened that my Dad, Robert, who is a carpenter and joiner, was making several wooden boxes for gifts and asked me if I could do some ‘art’ on them. One required a silhouette of a digger – with the legend ‘Demo Man’ on it and the others required postage stamps. I bought myself some sepia ink, which is guaranteed to be waterproof) to create the images on the wooden surfaces.

Well, I enjoyed doing the digger one, which was well received by Bob – the recipient, but I totally enjoyed doing the ones with the postage stamps depicted on them. I must admit it was a challenge painting Her Majesty’s portrait, as she is one person that I have admired throughout my life – as she is, in my opinion, a marvellous diplomat and head of state. I hope she likes my version of her portrait too. If so, I might even get a Royal commission one day.

I tried to make one of the portraits look like a silhouette done in marquetry (inlaid work made from small pieces of coloured wood or other materials, used for the decoration of furniture), whilst the other stamp portrait I did in the style of the Machin definitive stamps. The grain of the wood slightly changes the look of the images as it runs through them, but this makes it look so much more genuine.  However, doing the copperplate-style scrolls in the corners I have to say wasn’t quite ‘a barrel of laughs‘.

I have dated them as it’s a nice way of remembering the year they were given and it makes these unique storage boxes much more collectable for future generations to enjoy…