About Marlene

Marlene was born in 1939, three weeks before the outbreak of the Second World War. She was born in Exeter and has spent her life living in the West Country. She first married in 1959, and had three boys. Her passion, aside from her family, became amateur dramatics. She performed in pantomimes, and many other shows: one of the highlights was singing the leading role in Bizet’s ‘Carmen’. She met the love of her life while doing a show, and later married Richard Gardner: they had a son together. Later in life She suffered a stroke, and suddenly found, after a time of recovery, she could paint and write poems. She continues to live near Exeter with her youngest son and his family.

Introduction

As a poet and a painter, and throughout her life, she has always felt there has been another presence that sometimes would guide her, or talk to her through difficult moments in her life. She often felt that this voice could be her Grandmother. This voice always eased her anguish. Doing her poetry and painting she has continued to feel, real or not, that she has been guided to write words and make brush-strokes.

After the stroke it came as quite a surprise that she could paint or write at all, as she has never had any formal training as an artist or a poet. These works of creativity seemed to appear out of no where, as if from the ether and then suddenly exist on the page or the canvas.

Her paintings often evoke a deep emotional connection from the viewer to the images that appear on the canvas. Her love of the Isle of Skye, as well as the beauty of other seascapes, landscapes and forests shine though her brush-strokes. She has been privileged to have exhibited a number paintings in Devon.

Her poems are similar in the way they evoke strong feelings in the reader; her innate sense of humour and stage-craft often make the poems quite dramatic, sometimes filled with comedy and at other moments tragedy. She has on a number occasions given dramatic readings of her poems to raise money for various charities.