Gillian
the Painter
 |
attractions | facilities | location l terms | gillian | ilbordello | millend mitcheldean
To make enquiries or reservations - contact postmaster@recordstruthin.co.uk
The
Life, Times and Work of Gillian Lewitt
Born 25.09.1927 Died 3.09.2004
Gillian Margaret Rogers was born in London on September 25, 1927, the fourth of six children. Her childhood was spent initially at the family home in Shropshire, with spells in boarding schools in Wiltshire, London and Switzerland during the war. When her parents divorced, she went to live with her mother in London, whilst the three older children remained at the family home in Shropshire.
Her mother was an active Quaker and peace campaigner, who was part of an anti-Nazi and underground peace movement, helping Jews escape Austria, via Mexico, to become British residents. Later, Gillian herself became an active Quaker and campaigner, and then the co-founder of the Dyffryn Clwyd Quaker Meeting. During her time with the meeting, she was responsible for many picnics and parties, meetings, committees and children's meetings – writing, conducting and dressing many children's musicals and Christmas shows.
On her 21st birthday, some three years after the end of the Second World War, Gillian bought a Piaggio scooter and rode solo to Italy and back. In love with the country, she returned on a road trip in 1950, leaving behind a small travel journal and diary, which is to be re-travelled by her daughter and partner in 2005.
Gillian had little formal education, having left school early to teach other family members at home in Shropshire. She went to Chelsea Art College, (managing to gain freelance work painting backdrops for Vogue Fashion Shoots) but didn't complete her art studies - instead taking up a cleaning job. This however, wasn't any old cleaning job. In true style, Gillian cleaned the home of internationally acclaimed theatre designer, Tanya Moiseiwitsch. This led to work within the theatre, where she became a scene painter, working variously with Sadler's Wells in London, The Bristol Old Vic and Stratford-on-Avon Theatres.
However, her love of Italy remained, and in the late 1950's, she returned to Italy and settled in Rome. She illustrated some Italian tourist guides, and she taught the Monterssori method of education firstly at an American school for the children of diplomats, then at an international school, and lived 'La Dolce Vita' in Rome for a happy eight years.
She returned to England in the 1960's, to give birth to her daughter, and after spells in Shropshire, Birmingham and Corfu (living in Gerald Durrell's The White House and a small cottage with sheep and goats living on the ground floor) she came to the Vale of Clwyd in 1970. She had always embellished and embroidered, and continued to paint for her own pleasure. She decorated the family home in Llanbedr in characteristic style, cutting individual doves from the bold kitchen wallpaper, and making them fly across a free-hand mural she had painted, when she realized that she was one roll of wall-paper short.
On moving into Ruthin, Gillian took up Calligraphy, which she pursued professionally for some years, undertaking various commissions. She always kept records of her life and art projects, and has left a legacy of diaries, note books, photo albums and journals of her various projects, holiday trips and travels.
In her recent years in Ruthin, Gillian remained inspired and inspiring. She held informal Italian language groups at her home, took part in Spanish, French and Art Classes, was a member of the Quaker meeting and Labour Party, and co-formed the tongue-in-cheek Derek Brockway Appreciation Society. (She must also be one of the very few who took seriously the 1970's brainwave of Esperanto, the international language, and taught herself to a high level). She and her faithful dog Gemma were regular and colourful features of Ruthin - Gillian chatting to her many friends and acquaintances and Gemma waiting faithfully beside her. Early in 2004, Gillian held a spontaneous party to celebrate life - maintaining her constant lust for life and joie de vivre.
Sadly, Gillian died suddenly and un-expectedly in hospital, in September of 2004, 8 weeks prior to her first solo fine art show, and 3 weeks prior to her 77th birthday.
As one of the many friends and family to speak at her funeral said about her - "She died, leaving us wanting an Encore!."
A retrospective art exhibition was held in December 2004 and January 2005 at Ruthin Library, celebrating her creative and varied life, with images from her 1950's book illustrations and gala theatre programmes, her embroidery, her calligraphy, her landscapes and her more recent, experimental art work.
