PE R SPE CT IVE S
Inspired by Northamptonshire Artists and sisters Mary and Rachel Sumner grew up in Oundle. Now they have come back to the town to stage a joint exhibition which celebrates the flora, fauna and landscape of their childhood home. Words: Fiona Cumberpatch Mary (left) and Rachel Sumner
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he bright-eyed blackbird hopping across the lawn, a herd of sheep rhythmically chewing the grass, or a rabbit poised for flight: these are the common or garden creatures that artist sisters Mary and Rachel Sumner depict in their striking paintings, prints, embroideries and sculptures. Although both sisters now live in Devon, and derive inspiration from their current home, it is their formative years in Northamptonshire which they credit with inspiring a lifelong fascination with nature which underpins their new exhibition at the Dolby Gallery, Oundle, between May 10th and June 1st. “We were brought up in South Road, Oundle, in a stone cottage with a large garden,” says Mary. “My Dad was the local milkman with a town and village round, and as children we were taken out with him. I remember going to Wadenhoe, and to Lilford Hall where he’d drive through the parkland. It suited me living here, with the pleasing limestone architecture and gentle landscape dotted with farms and villages. In those days, the pace of life was slower, too, and we were more ‘free range,’ going off cycling with friends, picnicking down by the river or exploring the locality.” The milk round plays an important part in Rachel’s creative consciousness, too. “I don’t think you ever relate to a landscape in the same way as the one which surrounded you as a child and as a young adult,” she explains. “I certainly feel that way about the landscape of my childhood including Oundle and many of the surrounding villages. I have a mental map of
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Mary Sumner the area informed by this and the fact that most family days out were spent travelling the back roads to visit various churches, monuments or to picnic in the countryside. It was rare for us to travel from A to B without some detour investigating some minor point of architectural interest!” The sisters’ mother, Dorothy, who still lives in Oundle, was a keen gardener, and would show her children the plants she grew, teaching them the names. At their grandparents’ home in Wansford, they explored gravel pits fringed with willows, and rich in bird and animal life. “My work celebrates nature, exploring the interplay of man and animals in the landscape,” says Rachel. “Hopefully that is done with an eye for some of the small pleasures of daily life, an appreciation of beauty and a dash of humour.” There is a lightness of touch in Mary’s work, too. “I think my work is optimistic,” says Mary. “I am aware of the threats to our landscape, of course, and I feel so ineffectual, but I try not to let it affect what I do.”
Together and apart In the past, Mary and Rachel worked together, collaborating on a series of successful paintings on silk. “We also ran courses for some National Trust establishments, worked on public and private commissions, as well as being part of an artists’ cooperative in Taunton,” says Rachel. “Those experiences gave us the insight and confidence to want to move on and develop our separate artistic interests.” For Rachel, who now lives near Bideford, this has manifested itself in the use of found objects and textiles in her work. “Most of my time is spent in making finely detailed and embroidered fabric collages as well as assemblages from driftwood and other finds. I also do some mixed media paper collages and lino prints.” A period of ill health in 2004 gave Mary a new direction. “When you’re ill, you have to sort out what you really want and I decided this was the time to start painting. My focus came and I knew that this was what I really wanted to do.”
NENE VALLEY LIVING MAY 2013
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