Emma Darlington (nee Taplin) 1851 - 1914,
We only have one painting by Frances Darlington's mother but it is apparent from letters that she did more. "A Scene in Cumberland" is not dated but signed "Emma Taplin". It is apparent that Emma's talent was somewhat suppressed, as her daughters drew up a contract of encouragement, charging her to continue her artistic practise in 1905.
It is likely that Emma's determination for her daughter to utilise her talents helped ensure that Frances was able to attend Sculpture and Drawing classes at the Slade School of Art between 1897 and 1900.
My Grandmother, who was Emma's Grand Daughter, pursued her creativity in tapestry and embroidery, but had also painted and taught me to paint when I was a child. I therefore took the logical step of copying the watercolour as closely as I could with wools bought from charity shops, (which were another favourite pastime of my grandmother). Initially I scanned the image into the computer to pixelate it, but decided, instead to process the image in my brain, so that I was the interface, and was pixellating my Great, Great Grandmother's work by hand. The process felt more like drawing or painting with wool, than tapestry.
The process is long and time consuming, like so many other traditional ladies pastimes. It struck me that in days gone by, embroidery that took months would then be used as a table cloth or binding, a decorative piece that although took hours and hours of work could never reach the lofty eschelons of 'high art'. I decided therefore, as a statement in sympathy with this injustice, to bind one edition of the pop up book with this piece of tapestry that is taking such a long time to complete. It is the centre piece to the body of work, but it will be nothing more than an incidental book cover.
I have covered other editions of the book with inkjet prints of the same image, but taken directly from the computer. These are inevitably digitized and therefore pixellated.