My great granny Emily was somewhat of an artist. Don’t get me wrong she isn’t famous, but she was rather talented. My grandpa’s home in Onrus was always a special place to visit because in each room and nearly every wall there was a painting of his mom’s and each had a story to go with it.
Grandpa passed away in 2010 and in the process of clearning out his house there was an sharing out of his art. My parents took a fair number of pieces and my mom has created a gorgeous feature wall in her lounge. So I thought it would be a great opportunity to showcase some of her work. I absolutely adore the painting of St Pauls in London, which was if I remember a graduation gift for my Grandpa. I need to dedicate a post to the painting I have from Granny Emily – it was my Grandpa’s 21st birthday present and is a painting of UCT which my grandpa, dad and I all attended. I really think that having something like this in your home makes it even more special. I love owning a piece of my history!
Clockwise from left to right – St Pauls on the left, top right is a painting from their home in Cala in the Eastern Cape (where my Gramps learnt to speak Xhosa), flowers and proteas that Granny loved to paint and the bottom right is her old sketchbook that my mom had framed.
♥ Tans
Photographs Eat Play Luv © (please request permission before using)
Those are really beautiful Tania! She was indeed VERY talented.
Hi, my name is Cynthia and my great grandparents also lived in Cala. They were Sarah and Edwin Cooper. Relatives were Fradgley and Wade. What was your ggparents surname ? I would love to know more about life in Cala those days and am hopeing that you could maybe fill me in. By the way, your grandmother was a really good artist. I hope you have more of her works. The one scene with the mountains also reminds me of the district. regards
Hi Cynthia – wow this is very cool. My great granny was rather talented! My great granny was Emily Stephenson (nee McTurk). She was my grandpa Charles’s mother and was married to Rev. Thomas Stephenson. She wrote two books and plenty of childrens stories. My dad has written a bit about Cala here – hope this helps!
You need to post her painting of UCT when there was just an open field for miles between Pinelands and the university – grandpa’s 21st birthday presi
Hi, Wow this is really awesome, I found amongst my fathers papers his confirmation certificate signed by a rev Thomas Stephenson and also a letter which I think was written by E. Stephenson to my father when he was in hospital. If you let me know your email address I post you pictures of these. It’s great to think that my father actually saw the manse and maybe also climbed the tree!
Cynthia that is amazing! What a great find, I’ve just popped you an email. That is so very cool. Thank you for making contact x