Keeping it in the family

When it comes to artistic talent, the family of Norman Thelwell-known for his cartoons of rotund ponies and rural life-have it in spades, as Octavia Pollock discovers in the centenary year of the artist's birth

- Octavia Pollock

THE document drawers in David Thelwell’s Hampshire home are full to bursting with his father’s sketches, oil paintings and finished cartoons, even when many are being exhibited. Such is the legacy of Norman Thelwell, beloved for indignant children on hairy ponies, prescient pollution satire and affectionate jibes at the pomposity of rural society. Yet his artistic skill is not commemorated only in countless books and prints, but in the work of the rest of his family, his late wife, Rhona, his son, David, daughter, Penny, and granddaughter Kate.

It was in Nottingham in the late 1940s that Norman and Rhona attended the same even- ing art class. Rhona recorded in her diary ‘met a nice soldier at the bus stop’ and they were married in 1949. Both children emphasise their mother’s talent as a painter of flowers, landscapes and portraits; David brings down an oil of his father in his study that is instantly recognisable. As befitted the time, Rhona’s art took a back seat to Norman’s success, although that suc- cess was in large part due to her steadfast support. ‘Dad never retired, so she was never free,’ notes Penny. ‘She was wonderful, a great mother, and he couldn’t have done it without her. She had a studio and would snatch a couple of hours to paint, but then it would be time to cook dinner.’ There is no hint of resentment, however, and the marriage was a happy one, the family taking campervan holidays and painting watercolours. Norman and Rhona now lie together at St Andrew’s Church in Timsbury, Hampshire, next to Heron’s Mead, the home they created together and lived in for 35 years.