Rena Gardiner: Artist and Printmaker

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From then on, Rena had enough confidence and skill to work on her own, and she rarely collaborated again. Her next project was the previously mentioned Dorset trilogy, and by now she was so busy with her printing work that she decided that she had to give up her teaching post at BSG. She had outgrown her cottage in Wareham, which was far too small to cope with a printing press and all the paraphernalia that went with it, so she moved to a cottage in Tarrant Monkton which Joy had spotted in the Echo. She adored it, and the last thirty years of her life were spent at The Thatch Cottage, a name which would adorn every book she was to produce from now on. To be precise, little seems to be factually known, for there are plenty of tales and taradiddles about the tower. All that Historic England has to say about the grade II* listed building is that it is ‘probably late 18th century’, which seems about right, but does rather destroy the first oft-told tale in which the ‘family watched the Armada sail up the channel’ from the top of the tower in 1588. Rena Gardiner’s view of the tower from the gorgeous graphic guidebook she produced in 1973. Originally written, drawn, lithographed and bound for friends in 1960 in an edition of only 30, ‘Portrait of Dorset: The South-east’ by the printmaker, author and artist Rena Gardiner is just-published in a brand new edition by Design For Today. Read an excerpt below. The tower’s internal steps were missing when the property passed to the National Trust, but a new wooden staircase was installed so you can climb up and enjoy the view for yourself. There’s more on Cothele here https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/cornwall/cotehele March, daily Fine Foundation Gallery, Durlston Country Park, Swanage, 01929 424443, www.durlston.co.uk

The publication of Rena Gardiner: Artist and Printmaker, which includes an exhaustive list of her books, leaflets, cards and prints, has shone a light – albeit belatedly – on this most unsung of Dorset art figures and yet even now she remains something of an enigma. How pleasing. ◗That she chose to make her living so remotely, and as her biographers Julian Francis and Martin Andrews have pointed out, that she was so uninterested in publicity, meant that her sudden death in 1999 at the age of seventy, was practically unmarked. To this one might add that she was a woman, in an age of the (male) artist as star. In 1960 she produced her first book on Dorset: Portrait of Dorset, drawing directly on to the lithographic plates, and experimenting with texture. She applied colour instinctively as the plates were being printed – no two books were the same. She produced 30 numbered copies. With the publication of this celebration of Rena Gardiner’s work, we hope to draw attention to her considerable contribution to lithographic illustration whilst simultaneously shining a light on the broader aspects of her legacy as an artist – her paintings, pastels and linocut prints. None of this has been published before. Much of it was thought to have been lost after the sale of her estate and clearance of her studio following her death in 1999. Thankfully, during the research for this book a considerable body of her work was discovered in private hands and the archives of the National Trust at Cotehele in Cornwall. Its inclusion only serves to underline her achievement. Rena Gardiner was born on 4 April 1929 in Epsom Surrey. She attended a local grammar school, and showed a talent for the visual arts. On leaving she enrolled at Kingston College of Art, and there, along with drawing and printing classes, she also learnt book binding and typography – skills that were to hold her in good stead later on. After this initial course she studied for a further two years on the National Diploma specialising in book illustration. It was on this course that she was introduced to lithography a printing process that was to become a passion for the rest of her life.

Each book would have taken her about two years to complete from start to finish,’ explains Julian Francis, co-author with Martin Andrews of Rena Gardiner: Artist and Printmaker (Little Toller Books). ‘She loved doing the research and wrote the text herself, as well as the drawings, the printing, collating all the paper, which was a huge undertaking, and then printing the books by hand. She would sometimes call on a few friends to help, but she was doing print runs of 10,000 to 15,000 for some of them, it was physically very demanding.’ Rena Gardiner’s utterly charming guidebook to Cotehele, first published by the National Trust in 1973, describes the ‘Prospect Tower’ as looking like a church tower from a distance whereas, she continues, it is ‘nothing more than a folly’. Nothing more than a folly??? This casual comment can be forgiven when one sees her distinctive and delightful illustrations – she was clearly a fan of the landmark. Gardiner’s text describes another alleged function of the tower: that it was used to signal between Cotehele and Maker church on the Mount Edgcumbe estate (which is feasible – the two towers have sight of each other). Those guidebooks, there are about 40 in all, have been collected by enthusiasts such as Julian for many years, but since the publication of the book – already into its second print – things have started to change. Rena Gardiner’s work rarely comes up at public auction so a sale this summer in Crewkerne attracted a great deal of attention. The solitary nature of much of Rena’s work suggests she was very comfortable in her own company and although she drew on trusted friends to help her complete her books she wasn’t one for parties or big social occasions. That said, in 1981, following the publication of a second book about St George’s Chapel at Windsor, she was invited by HM The Queen to attend the Garter Ceremony.

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The publication of Rena Gardiner: Artist and Printmaker, which includes an exhaustive list of her books, leaflets, cards and prints, has shone a light – albeit belatedly – on this most unsung of Dorset art figures and yet even now she remains something of an enigma. How pleasing. The books were her main source of income after she gave up teaching so to that extent they were a commercial operation – incredibly time consuming as it was, that was how she made her living. But she was a terrifically talented artist in several media and if anything the time the books took to produce probably prevented her from exploring her art in other ways. Her reputation continues to grow, with several exhibitions in recent years, particularly at National Trust properties. Further reading The primary technique she used was autolithography. This is a process when the drawing is taken from the original sketches and transferred on to clear film and then on to a metal plate. Rena did not work from a completed drawing. She used her judgement to build on the layers of hand mixed colour.

She was probably best known for the many guidebooks she made, and her largest client was the National Trust, but she also produced many lithographs and linocuts of buildings and landscapes from all over the country and of her travels in Europe. As a boy of eleven in 1963, I first encountered the work of Rena Gardiner when, passionate about the world of knights and castles, I bought her guide to Corfe Castle – excited and inspired by the colour and imagination of her illustrations which contrasted so much with the dull text and grey boring halftones of most guidebooks of the time. I became a keen collector of her books, and years later, in August 1993, I went to visit Rena Gardiner in her home and workshop in Tarrant Monkton and spent the day with her, recording a first-hand account of her printing techniques, artistic influences, her experiences at art school and her teaching career, and taking photographs of her at work. Much of the biographical and technical detail in the following text is taken from the tape recordings made on that day and therefore reflect her own words. She was kind and welcoming, always keen to talk about her books, surprised but delighted by my interest and attention; modest about her achievements but strong in her passion and belief in her work. Inheriting her father’s love of technical drawing and anything mechanical at the age of 17 she went to study graphics and illustration at Kingston School of Art. Recently, we have been exploring the work of Dame Elisabeth Frink, as part of our project to catalogue the Frink collection held at Dorset History Centre. However, Frink’s is not the only collection of artistic material we hold…Cotehele stands just on the Cornwall side of the river Tamar that forms the boundary with Devon. The estate was the ancient seat of the Edgcumbes, but by the 18th century it was a secondary residence, with the family preferring nearby Mount Edgcumbe, overlooking Plymouth Sound. On high ground above the house at Cotehele stands this solitary three-sided tower, of which little seems to be known. No inscriptions give even a hint of its history. Originally hand-printed and bound for friends in an edition of just 30, Rena Gardiner’s ‘Portrait of Dorset’ has recently been reissued by Design For Today. It is rightly considered to be her masterpiece, writes Jon Woolcott. Rena Gardiner was born in Epsom, where her father was an electrical engineer but also a skilled technical artist. In 1946 she enrolled at nearby Kingston School of Art to study graphics. During her time there she took the opportunity to visit as many exhibitions as she could and found herself inspired not by traditional art forms such as painting and etching but by much more modern artists and their techniques.She discovered the works of Edmund Bawden, John Piper and Eric Ravilious all of whom practiced lithography. She also discovered Kenneth Clark’s project Recording Britain and works by then unfashionable early landscape artists such as John Sell Cotman and Thomas Girtin. From the mid- 1950s through to the 1980s, Gardiner produced some of the most imaginative and lively lithographs and books. Initially her books were self-published, but then The National Trust commissioned her to produce guidebooks to some of their properties. This allowed her to become a full time illustrator and artist in later life. In the main her subject matter was topographical and she had an absorbing interest in architecture and, above all Dorset.