I attended Bath Academy of Art at Corsham Court, Wiltshire. I was awarded a teaching certificate in art Education and BA in art education, a travelling scholarship to Paris, and a credit from the Open University in Art History. I taught in many education establishments, junior, secondary and private schools, further education, a technical college, and I ran courses in art education – finally teaching in a teacher training college.
During that time I continued to paint work sold in various galleries. I also made wall hangings of different subjects using fabric, stitching and embroidery. I married a fellow student and we frequently worked together; he too continued to exhibit and sell work. We had 3 children who grew up, married and had their own families. We restored 2 houses and created 2 gardens from scratch around them.
The 2nd one was around a French farmhouse, where we were able to extend our planting, and I decided to make a record of these plants. I chose to do this with botanical paintings, exploring special painting techniques. I saw an exhibition of 18th Century Mrs Delaney, who made beautiful botanical pictures of paper flowers on black background paper, which showed them up dramatically. This so impressed me that henceforth I also painted on black paper.
My husband died, and I sold the French house. After some time I returned to working on wall hangings. I started by depicted botanical families with appliqué, stitching and embroidery on black fabric, e.g. nasturtium, clematis, passion flower, rose etc.
I have a book called the Botanical Wall Chart: Art from the Golden Age of Scientific Discovery. These are paintings, by mainly German artists in 19th and 20th Century, of charts depicting the evolution of plants as seen through a microscope. These were used for teaching purposes, as not many microscopes were available to educational establishments. I selected some parts of different charts interpreting different plants as wall hangings on black background fabric.
The Getty Museum in Los Angeles owns a 16th Century book depicting calligraphy. They had a number of copies printed and I have one of them; it is called Mira Calligraphiae Monumenta. These are folios of calligraphy techniques embellished with paintings of nature, flowers, insects, animals, butterflies etc. I have selected some of these from different folios interpreted in the same way, on a black background. I shall continue to explore these 3 sources of inspiration.
For more detailed information, please email me at eshowan@gmail.com.
Exhibitions
Wall Hangings in Municipal Gallery, Stafford
New Metropole gallery, Folkestone
Dover Art School
I worked for a time in interior design specialising in decorated furniture and murals featured in magazines Brides, one edition, Home and Gardens 4 editions, Living 1 edition, Options 1 edition. I Continued to paint and exhibit at:
Chaucer Gallery, Canterbury
Atkinson Gallery, Sandwich
Drew Gallery, Canterbury
One off Gallery, Dover
Philip Maslin Gallery, Canterbury
Everton Summer Art Exhibition, Kent
Group of Seven Gallery, London
Market Street Gallery, Sandwich
Interiors Gallery, Sandwich
Group of Eight, London
Pierson Gallery, Ste Foy La Grande, France
Collectif Artists Anglais Chateau des Izard, Perigueux, France
Open Doors exhibition Chateau, Pitray, France
The Little Gallery, St Emilion, France
10eme Arts au Chateau, Saussignac, France
I have had work in collections in England, Wales, Scotland, France, USA and Australia.
