Inspiration from Tasha Tudor’s Illustrations and Creative Work

I have always found Tasha Tudor and her work to be a great inspiration. She was an extremely talented illustrator, a writer, and loved working with her hands. She enjoyed gardening, growing flax, spinning, weaving, basket making, sewing; she had numerous creative outlets that she excelled at. Tasha Tudor was born in 1915 in Boston, Massachusetts. She was the daughter or a naval architect and a portrait painter. She took to gardening at a very young age and enjoyed the simpler things in life like milking her cow. She didn’t show much interest in becoming “a debutante and coming out into Boston society.” “I was teased in school because I was so connected with the past, wore old-fashioned dresses, and wouldn’t cut my hair. ” (1)

In 1938 Tudor married and started a family. She published and illustrated her first book, Pumpkin Moonshine in 1938 also. She and her husband, along with two children lived in Webster, New Hampshire, where the couple had bought an old farm. In 1942 Tudor began designing greeting cards for Herbert Duller, Inc. By 1943 a watercolor she had done was on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1944 she illustrated and released a book called Mother Goose. The success of this book allowed her and her husband to buy a farm that had an old homestead upon its grounds, from 1789. Tasha had two more children after moving there, in total two boys and two girls.

Tudor’s illustrations often were filled with pictures from her life; her own children, flowers and plants that she lovingly grew and her pets. She really enjoyed Christmas and Valentine’s Day and passed this enthusiasm on to her children. She also loved to put on marionette shows while her children were young.  This brought in extra spending money and was fun for the entire family.

Her son, Thomas, went abroad for school and when he returned he brought home a corgi dog which became very attached to Tasha. She went on to adopt up to twelve corgis dogs and even created a story called “Corgiville Fair”, which was published and a huge success in 1971.  By 1972 she was eager to move to Vermont and purchase a smaller home than the larger home she had raised her children in. Her marriage had ended in 1961 and a second brief marriage was also behind her. She bought some land in southeastern Vermont that had secluded acreage and some forested areas. Her son Seth built her a home based on another home she liked, owned by friends, that was a Cape Cod style farmhouse from 1750. He also built her a barn for her many animals and a staging area for marionette shows. She cut back on her illustration work the year she moved, but later on, she continued to work until her early eighties. Tasha illustrated nearly a hundred books in her lifetime.

Tasha continued her love for gardening in her Vermont home. The pictures of her home show a landscape filled with daffodils, lettuce poppies, dame’s rockets, roses, and many other flowers.  Her home was filled with antiques and precious pieces passed down through her family for many years. In Vermont, she raised goats instead of cows and enjoyed having her grandchildren come to visit and dress up in her vintage clothing. She died in 2008 in Marlboro, Vermont. Her daughters, Bethany Tudor, and Efner Holmes, also became successful illustrators and writers.

The last twenty years of her life she became well known worldwide and her books were translated into many languages. There are numerous books written about her life and work. If you would like to find out more I recommend viewing the Tudor family website. I have the books Tasha Tudor’s Heirloom Crafts and The Private World of Tasha Tudor. I really enjoy sitting and reading these books, as well as the inspiration I derive from seeing all the beautiful pictures. There is a museum in Brattleboro, Vermont that is dedicated to her life’s work and they have various events and show the PBS documentaries about Tasha’s life.

tasha tudor

Tasha Tudor inspiration

Tasha Tudor Christmas

“My antique clothing collection is a great folly of mine. The majority are from the 1830’s, but I have examples from every style and decade from 1770 to 1870. It is very common for a friend who tries on one of my old dresses to feel transported to another time. It gives a different perspective on life.” (2)

tasha tudor

(1)  pg. 20 The Private World of Tasha Tudor

(2) pg.66 The Private World of Tasha Tudor

All photos from Flickr, except the last three which were taken from my book. The photographer is Richard brown for those photos. All written material by Marilyn Lavender. © Marilyn Lavender, 2016.  “All rights reserved.”

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The Artistry of Melanie Steinway

I first found out about Melanie Steinway’s art through Emily Owens, my daughter. Melanie grew up in Boulder, Colorado, where it is an everyday experience to see animals roaming about, since the town itself is at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Melanie obviously developed a love for animals and nature. Her art is an expression of that love.

Melanie graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2012, with a BFA in Illustration. Much of her art is done with woodburning (pyrography) and mixed media. The animals she draws vary from deer to African wild dogs, hyenas, foxes, fish, whales, and rams. It is a total variety and I like how she exaggerates horns on the animals, sometimes draping leaves on the horns, and often the pieces have a mystical sense of fantasy intertwined. She gets the wood for the pyrography from sawmills, or she gets scraps from furniture makers.

Melanie also does pyrography on instruments. I have posted two pictures of guitars she has done. “Stag Twins” is her first acoustic guitar, a Fender, which she has had since she was sixteen. “Deer Skull” is an old acoustic guitar owned by a friend’s father. Fender also sends some guitars to Melanie for woodburning, so you may be able to find her work where Fender guitars are sold.

Currently Melanie lives in Denver, Colorado, and works as a tattoo artist at Urban Element Tattoo. She is often commissioned to do private designs for tattoos. She also plays music in her indie rock band Tyto Alba. Even the name of the band comes from nature. Tyto Alba is the scientific name for barn owls. (1)This is a link to her band’s music: http://tytoalbamusic.com/.

All the photos of Melanie’s art here link to her website. There she has links to her Facebook page, Instagram, Tumblr, and Etsy shop. If you live in the Denver area you may be able to hire her for commissioned work.

I hope you enjoyed this brief exploration of Melanie’s work.

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“The Antlers” -woodburning, wood stain, media media on pine.

 

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“The Birds”- woodburning, wood stain, mixed media on pine.

 

“I Am Surrender”- woodburning, wood stain, mixed media on pine

 

“Quetzalcoatl”- woodburning, paint on pine.

 

“Fox Spirit”- woodburning, acrylic gouache paint on poplar.

 

Melanie Steinway woodburning insturments

“Stag Twins Guitar”- woodburning, paint, pearl.

 

"Deer Skull Guitar" Woodburning and paint.

“Deer Skull Guitar” Woodburning and paint.

 

“Gemsbok”-pen and colored pencil on paper

 

“Owl Tattoo Design”-pen and marker on paper

 

“Running Blindly”- ballpoint pen and Photoshop

 

Melanie Steinway

Melanie Steinway (Photo by Emily Owens)

 

Melanie Steinway (Photo by Emily Owens)

Melanie Steinway (Photo by Emily Owens)

 

(1) http://tytoalbamusic.com/

 

All written material by Marilyn Lavender. © Marilyn Lavender, 2015.  “All rights reserved.”

Photos by Melanie Steinway of her work.  Photos of Melanie Steinway by Emily Owens.

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