Seeing the light Jerome achieved his ambition to be a fully professional artist a decade ago
A vase of flowers comes to life when captured in oil by Jerome
street scenes and reflections in a Venetian canal, Liz captures images and scenes in her mind’s eye, collating and refining them so they slowly emerge into a ‘memory of place’. “There is rarely a literal translation of the observed scene in my work,” she says. She’s passionate about history, whether recording the silence and resonance of ancient landscapes or delving into the lives of the people who once lived in them. The archaeological finds at Must Farm near Whittlesey, which are offering an unprecedented insight into life in the late Bronze Age, captured her imagination and details from discoveries there have been translated into fascinating collages. When we met, Liz was researching material for an upcoming exhibition in the Visitor Centre at Peterborough Cathedral, enjoying exploring the cathedral’s long history and heritage, which she will translate in her very personal style. “The places I record all have memories,” she says. “I craft these mementoes in repeated slow stitching, hand and machine embroidery, folding in ‘shibori’ style and adding embellishments to indicate collected or discovered objects. Design, composition and narrative are all very important to me.”
Liz’s interpretation of Millais’ Ophelia, commissioned for a summer exhibition
TEACHING CAREERS
With his Anglo-French parentage, Jerome was expected to have a career in languages, but his interest was in art and after school both he and Liz headed for art colleges in London. Liz graduated with a degree in fine art (painting), Jerome in fine art painting and printmaking, and together they went on to gain teaching qualifications in art and design in Birmingham. “It seems hard to imagine now, but in the mid-seventies there were a hundred applications for every vacant teaching position,” Liz remembers. “Getting a job wasn’t easy at that time, so I was delighted when I was offered a post at John Mansfield School in Peterborough.” By the time she retired from teaching in 2008, Liz had risen to be Head of Art and Design at Arthur Mellows Village College. Jerome spent his first three years in Peterborough as Craft Centre Manager at The Cresset, heading up the art studio and screenprinting workshop there, before settling into teaching at Ken Stimpson School in Werrington, where he became Head of Art in the early 1980s. His career then took an unexpected turn. “I became involved with the development of SATS at Middlesex Polytechnic and subsequently became an advisory teacher for Cambridgeshire. The IT skills I developed while on secondment were in demand when I returned to Ken Stimpson and I was appointed Head of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) there.” Art, however, was always his great love and he continued to paint and exhibit both nationally and locally, with the ambition to turn fully professional – a goal he achieved 10 years ago. The garage at their home may have been transformed into a framing workshop – he frames his own and Liz’s work – but that doesn’t indicate a lack of interest in cars. Far from it! Jerome lovingly restores ‘future classic” cars, his current pride and joy being a maroon Morris Minor rebuilt to display standard in classic car exhibitions. He is also a musician, playing saxophone in popular local bands. Skilled in garment construction and pattern cutting, Liz has produced individual costumes for local schools, theatre and dance companies and her interpretation of Millais’ Ophelia, commissioned for a summer exhibition at Art in the Heart last year, was a talking point among visitors. Liz’s mother was a talented dressmaker, her grandmother a tailoress who did hand couture work for court circles, but it’s the long childhood walks across Dartmoor with her godmother that she remembers most. “She instilled a love of the landscape in me, the joy of cloud watching and making discoveries. We always came back with a precious ‘find’.” • See work by Liz Hunt, Lynne Collins and Faye Gagel-Panchal in the mixed media Exquisite Heritage–Cathedral exhibition at the Peterborough Cathedral Visitor Centre, PE1 1XS from 1 to 31 October. www.peterborough-cathedral.org.uk
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NENE LIVING OCTOBER 2017
Unique finds at Must Farm proved that the spinners and weavers of the Bronze Age chose nettles as one of their fibre plants. Liz says such similarity to her activities in creating textiles throughout her teaching days inspired this embroidered and braided piece of work