Giants of Aldworth, The Mighty Vulcana and The Queen of Beauty...
Gosh, it's been a while. I'm happy to say though that after months of squinting at lots of Ye Olde Medieval sources and writing all about the things I learned, my book on fifteenth-century women has been sent off to the publisher! Yay! Which means I can now go back to spending time figuring out where Reading’s lost castle is or how to swear in Tudor.
History
Over on the blog I’ve already been busy with some new posts. I wrote up my visit to the Giants of Aldworth (they’re Medieval effigies, not actual real-life giants in case you were wondering) and did some research into the de la Beche family that are buried there. I also wrote up my visit to King John’s tomb in Worcester Cathedral last year with these 10 facts about the tomb. Did you know that John was exhumed by curious Georgians in 1797 who measured how tall he would have been in life?
I also wrote a post about Jane Georgiana Seymour, a court beauty during the reign of Victoria. She later became Duchess of Somerset. Jane presided over a tournament held at Eglinton Castle in 1839 as The Queen of Beauty, although Queen Victoria thought the whole affair an ‘absurdity’. You can read more about her here.
Tudor fan? Come and marvel at these 10 everyday items from Tudor life. You’ve got to love walking into museums and gazing through the glass at sparkly jewels and coronets but an old worn leather shoe or a spoon someone used to scoop up their dinner five hundred years ago always gets me. I think it’s because they form a more direct and intimate link to our ancestors.
There are also a couple of posts too about inspiring women from history. There’s Lady Mary Bankes, who defended Corfe Castle from a siege in 1643 during the English Civil War. And Claire Miles from the blog Hisdoryan wrote a guest post for us all about Vulcana, a Victorian weightlifter, athlete and performer. You can have a read all about her story and her legacy here.
I’m also planning a couple of historic trips, I’ll keep you posted!
Sketching
The end of last year was busy with commissions, a Christmas market and writing, of course, so I didn’t get much drawing in. But I did sketch the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith where I went to a concert in January. I’ve also taken a portrait course and I’m working on a commission of a seventeenth-century building right now which is completely beautiful and I’m loving it. Stay tuned on my Instagram Sketcherjoey where I’ll share more sketches as I go. I just can’t wait for the weather to warm up so I can go out sketching in person again (cold weather freezes fingers). I’m also teaching two workshops with Made By Tamalia - one on painting wood slice decorations and another house portrait workshop later in the year.
Thanks for bearing with me while I was busy. As always, you can find me on Facebook, Instagram or over on the blog. If there’s anything in particular you’d like to see me cover or investigate on the blog, or if you know of any good potential historic sketching sites then let me know! Stay safe and see you in April! x