A Busy House

Felicity in her studio at her Northbourne home in Bournemouth

Still enjoying a busy life at 60, Bournemouth Art Club’s Chairman, Felicity House talks to Rosanna Cole about the battle between work life and down time.

There is a slight chaos to Felicity House’s home. Be careful where you tread. Piled around are paintings waiting for exhibitions, paintings that have come back and paintings that are waiting to be hung again. ‘I keep meaning to put them up,’ she says gesturing towards the strings that hang limp down the walls. As we continue through the house she picks things up and places them elsewhere. A conveyer belt of chaos.

She moves a pile of papers to allow me to sit on the sofa, but generally her living room looks less of the storage hold as the rest of the house does. Her own paintings are hung en masse in the quietly modern room. The only giveaway that this is an artist’s house is a price written in small pencil on the walls next to each painting; the remnants from when Felicity opens her house to the public during Dorset Art Week. With a smile she explains her husband Eric is a great support ‘He will talk to people and let them in if I am busy with others, then I will cook him a nice dinner’. As the chairman of Bournemouth Art Club, a teacher and a full time artist, House’s life has little room for anything else.

House travels frequently. ‘I love travelling; it inspires my artwork. ‘You see things with a fresh eye – you’re childlike.’ From looking at her work from a recent trip to India it is clear that she gets a buzz from a new place. In one pastel of two sitting musicians she uses strong, expressive lines, which bestows rhythm and movement. ‘I loved that they weren’t going to be there forever – you have to go fast.’

All of her work seems to have this sense of urgency, perhaps attributed to her demanding lifestyle. ‘I like still lives that have something that is going to change, it gives an energy to the work.’

‘I do wish I was less busy,’ she admits before pausing, ‘but I have always been a bit of an emergency painter.’ Not all the work for her upcoming exhibition is finished, yet this is a legacy from her spurt as an illustrator. If she has a deadline, she will go for it.

Pastel, her chosen medium, is the perfect compliment to her busyness. ‘Pastel is so fast and immediate,’ she explains, ‘and it is so closely related to drawing.’ Drawing has always been an important part of Felicity’s work. As a post-war child, House needed to be resourceful. Paper was a rarity, and she remembers opening out jam tart cartons to draw on the back. She also drew on the wall behind the curtains. ‘It was a marvellous surface,’ she remembers, ‘although mother was furious when she changed the curtains.’

House feels that she benefited from the great status put on art education after the war. ‘It wasn’t a time where children are praised like they are now. I obviously felt my talents had been recognised.’ Born in Kent, the 16-year-old House ventured to the London art galleries after her Saturday job. She pauses before admitting, ‘I suppose I was a bit of a nerd really.’

It’s hard to imagine Felicity as a nerd. Now a very art-chic woman, styled white hair with thoughtfully placed silver bracelets and co-ordinating scarves. Although the strong lines around her face tell a different story, she seems to have a youth about her.

After finishing school she was discouraged to continue with something so flighty as art. ‘There weren’t the graphics careers that there are now,’ she observes, and so House followed her teaching interest by studying for a Batchelor of Education Honours at Bristol.

House incorporated a lot of art into her lessons during her time as a teacher before leaving her position in 2000. ‘I didn’t like that you couldn’t be a creative individual anymore’ she says. A move to Bournemouth allowed her to study for a HNC in Fine Art at the Arts Institute. After establishing herself as an artist, she began teaching at West Dean College. ‘An element of teaching is still very much in me,’ she declares, ‘it’s a lovely place to share my skills.’ Felicity, with her small frame whizzes round her Monday night drawing class, checking that all her students have the right arm shape or that there are no leanings figures. After the session one student says, ‘Felicity is a very inspirational teacher - I have been coming for three years and have learnt a lot from her.’

At a gathering of the Bournemouth Art Club for a talk from a major local artist, House, as Chairman, addresses the crowd. She admits this is the part of the job she dislikes, yet, appears confident, her nose wrinkling as she makes a few jokes. ‘I have to organise exhibitions, think about the club’s future and make sure everyone’s happy – it’s a very busy job,’ she tells me afterwards. ‘But being at artist is lonely. I meet people through the club who are striving just as I am – we support each other.’

Back at home. ‘I try and tick the jobs off,’ she says flicking past lists and appointments in her two diaries, ‘but I usually end up moving things from day to day.’ Does she have time for anything else? It seems even her spare time feeds her artistic passion as family trips to the ballet result in a book of quick sketches of dancers and when travelling she always has a painting in mind.

Her 2011 diary is already pretty packed. No hopes of rest yet for this busy House.