3 minute read
Lots of Love: Christina
CHRISTINA TREVANION Lots of Love
Christina finds a kindred spirit in a wildlife artist whose life was cut tragically short by a terrorist’s bomb
Above right Mouse Macpherson’s watercolour of a lobster with her trademark signature bottom right
Left Christina and Deirdre ‘Mouse’ Macpherson’s daughter, Louie
Below right Mouse Macpherson at work
As a country girl I have a huge fondness for wildlife art, and my walls at home are covered in depictions of country landscapes and the animals that inhabit it. So it was a joy for me to meet Louie Warburton-Lee, the daughter of the extraordinarily gifted artist, Deirdre ‘Mouse’ Macpherson (1941-1986). The chance purchase of a greetings card with one of Mouse’s wonderful illustrations on it, lead to a wonderful conversation with Louie about her talented mum’s life and work, and I couldn’t resist the opportunity to learn more about an artist who I have long admired.
BEATRIX POTTER
Mouse grew up on her parent’s farm in Suffolk where she developed her life-long fascination with wildlife. She both collected and drew the plants, animals and insects that she found around her on a daily basis, like something straight out of a Beatrix Potter book. Louie said: “Over the years, she would bring home waifs and strays, her pets and patients included: a hare, red squirrel, a chameleon, weasels, owls, kestrels, a peacock (that mainly lived in the house), plus all the normal pets such as cats, dogs and ponies. As such, she built up an innate knowledge of the animals around her.”
Mouse struggled with dyslexia and left school at 15 to attend art classes with Cavendish Morton, an influential local artist who taught her the skills of drawing and painting.
In 1957, she had an oil painting selected to hang in the Royal Academy at the tender age of just 16, making her the youngest artist since Turner to exhibit at the Summer Exhibition. An avid reader, tireless letter writer and fastidious diary keeper, her writing style matched her personality: hectic, busy and sprinkled with amusing sketches. Her signature, whether on paintings, letters or even her cheque book was always a little mouse.
FAMILY TRAGEDY
In May 1986, tragedy struck when Mouse, her husband, Tim, and their youngest daughter, Iona, were killed by a terrorist bomb in Sri Lanka. Mouse was just 45 when she died, leaving behind her two daughters, Louie and Kate, who now feel is the right time to open their mother’s sketch books once again and share them with a wider audience.
As Louie said: “Because her art was so utterly who she was, it has taken us quite a while to come to the decision to release mum’s work, as you can imagine, it has been quite an emotional process to go through.”
It was an absolute joy for me to spend a happy hour flicking through Mouse’s original sketch books. Although she typically painted on commission or sold her works through regular exhibitions, most of the works now released by Louie and Kate are from her encyclopaedic sketchbooks and they remain a tribute to the remarkable and intuitive artist that she was.
Christina Trevanion is managing director and founder of Shropshire’s Trevanion Auctioneers & Valuers as well as a regular face on a number of antiques programmes. To find out more about Mouse Macpherson’s work go to www.wildlifebymouse.com
