Sails in the Sunset

I believe this picture to be at least 100 years old and is obviously, therefore, not one of mine. It was painted by my mother – Mrs Violet Alexandra Harris – and I first saw it when I was little boy. It was hanging in my Auntie Dorrie’s lounge where it remained for many years. My mother had given it to her as a wedding present and she obviously valued it highly. She and her husband, Len, were caretakers at the time of Ralli Hall in Hove.

But time marches on, with the final death of my mother in 1970 while my aunt had become an old woman and I realised that, after her demise, the picture might be lost to me forever. So I asked her if I might have it, and she kindly agreed.

As a footnote,  my mother was obviously a talented artist – although she’d never had any training. I knew she had done other pictures before I was born but they were lost to me forever. I think that after I was born, the onerous tasks of looking after me and keeping the family shop prevented her from pursuing her talent. Strangely, however, she never talked to me about her art but I know she must have originally done a lot of work - from the well-used paint boxes I later discovered in the family chest of drawers. And, I might add, that any talent I possess comes directly from her.

Approx 1920

Watercolour ?