by Rebecca | Oct 4, 2018 | Uncategorized
Well I certainly never expected to be printing a scarf in my Elva chase but it is mini projects like this that make the overall chase such fun; I never know quite what I’ll be doing or investigating next. All it takes is a flick through Elva’s paperwork and something...
by Rebecca | Oct 4, 2018 | Uncategorized
29TH September 1908; the weather was unusually warm for the time of year and I can’t help but imagine my great grandmother, Clara Blacker, hot, bothered and exhausted by her contractions, probably sick from chloroform, desperately willing Elva’s birth to be over....
by Rebecca | Jun 19, 2018 | Uncategorized
Owing to the chosen profession of my Great Grandfather, William Blacker, I am fortunate to own a substantial collection of photographs of Elva during her childhood. As the only girl, and second of three children born to professional photographers, William and Clara,...
by Rebecca | Jun 18, 2018 | Uncategorized
Not all artists can boast of a legacy as historically important as Elva and although not an official War Artist, she used her spare time as a Motor Transport Driver (MTD) in the WAAF at Biggin Hill to sketch and paint hundreds of service personnel and scenes around...
by Rebecca | Jun 15, 2018 | Uncategorized
There’s no two ways about it. If alive today, Elva would make a fascinating case study for those in the field of birth order psychology. As the second of three children and also the only girl, her position in the Blacker family led to a life time of emotional...
by Rebecca | Jun 13, 2018 | Uncategorized
The lock is stiff but my fathers’ thick fingers make light work of our entry. It is spring, 1984 and at six-and-a-half I have never knowingly been to this house before, but for the moment at least, a not quite tangible sense of familiarity and peace contradicts the...
