This pandemic, I have immersed myself in arts. Mostly drawing, coloring with colored pencils and watercolor. I recently re-watched Miss Potter (2006) movie starring Renee Zellweger, and I have seen a classic movie about her life, "Beatrix: The Early Life of Beatrix Potter", starring Helena Bonham Carter as Beatrix Potter. I am also enjoying watching the old classic cartoon, "The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends". I also bought a few Beatrix Potter/Peter Rabbit memorabilias online. But I did not splurge much, because my husband is telling me to be careful in spending money especially during this time of pandemic. I am presently enjoying re-creating Beatrix Potter's characters like Peter Rabbit and the mice from the "Tailor of Gloucester".
Though Beatrix Potter's stories are written mainly for children, it is also entertaining for us adults. Her stories are not boring, and the message from her stories is not really shallow. I also love her artworks. From her book by Elizabeth Buchan. We can see at an early age she showed her potential, she draws animals like insects, caterpillars etc. in a detailed way and she draws them very well.
The book that I bought is only the lone one available. I was blessed because its price was already marked down. The book is hardcover, and the pages were all very good, it is glossy and it contains photos. So its not boring at all to read. I was able to finish it for 2 days.
Beatrix and her brother Bertram loved to draw and paint, they have many sketches of their pets ranging from rabbits, mice, frogs lizards and bats. What I like about her is that she followed her heart, and not anyone when it comes to pursuing what she wants in her life. The first artwork that I did was Peter Rabbit which Beatrix Potter was really known for. She is considered as a mycologist (someone who works with fungi), in her young adult years she met and collaborated with Charles Macintosh, a musician and also known as a "Pertshire Naturalist". You can see Beatrix Potter's beautiful and detailed works as per the advice of Sir Macintosh who encouraged her to make her drawings even more detailed. Thus, she began using watercolors. Her work was rejected by the Linnean society (which was obviously a sexist). In those days, women didn't go to school, Beatrix was tutored by a governess. During her time formal education was inaccessible for women. Perth museum and art gallery has a collection of her works. If she wasn't rejected, we wouldn't have "Peter Rabbit" today. So look for the silver lining in everything.
The man who helped her and was instrumental for her success, Norman Warren was also her first love, and became engaged but unfortunately no wedding happened because Norman got sick and died. She later on got married to a lawyer named William Heelis. Beatrix has no children. She lived on happily in her old age together with her husband in a farm she bought.
Her best known books for the children's were tales of "The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends", are 23 all in all. Her unpublished book, "The Tale of Kitty in Boots", with illustrations by Quentin Blake was a bestseller again, and was published on September 1, 2016, to mark her 150th anniversary of her birth. She wrote 10 other books which includes a coloring book, painting books and an almanac. In 1936, Beatrix flatly declined Walt Disney's offer to make an animation of Peter Rabbit. So critics were saying that the modern adaptation by Sony of her character Peter Rabbit wouldn't make Beatrix happy, and she would disagree with it. It is not because she was possessive of her works but because she has a clear idea in her head what her characters should be like. I have seen the latest Peter Rabbit film from Sony, and I can see that Peter was portrayed as a somewhat notorious bad rabbit there, which shouldn't be.
I like to imitate and copy her artworks, it is a sort of relaxation therapy for me, especially this pandemic and as my date of delivery nears (expecting my little angel to come out of this world in November!) I bought a few of her books so I can tell my baby about her and her stories. If you want a very good documentary about Beatrix Potter, I suggest you watch, Timeline World Histories Documentaries - Who Was the Real Beatrix Potter hosted by Dame Patricia Routledge. I also bought Beatrix Potter memorabilias (book and cd, plush toys Peter Rabbit and Jemima Puddle duck, cellphone case and mug). I also have an old dvd movie of Miss Potter starring Renee Zellweger.
The British people are really artistic and talented. Once I was hooked with the works of Jane Austen, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien. I also like Paddington, very brilliant creator Michael Bond. What about you, who is the artist that you look up to? Let's do art, and make our world more colorful and lovable!
(This is a repost from my other blog: pilgrimsmelody.blogspot.com )
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