Benedict & Tessa Rubbra
From Lacey Green History
click Families for other local families.
click Speen Pottery for report by Miles Marshall
Biography as known by Joan West.
Benedict Rubbra
I first met Benedict Rubbra and his wife Tessa at an exhibition of his paintings in Valley Cottage, Highwood Bottom.
His parents were Edmund Rubbra, the famous composer, and Antoinette, a pianist and violinist, who lived in Valley Cottage, where Benedict was born in 1938.
Benedict had always loved painting and was a professional artist by the time he married Tessa in 1960. They were now the ones to live in Valley Cottage.
Benedict built an annex to the cottage as a studio and gallery and there he held an exhibition every two years.
He painted some paintings of the local area which were to me full of emotional feeling. However he told me that although he loved doing those, his "bread and butter" came from painting portraits, of which he listed many famous people of the day.
Tessa Rubbra. Tessa Rubbra had a pottery workshop, known as Speen Pottery. She liked the things that she made to be useful.
Moved to Devon. In 2001 the family moved to Devon. There Tessa's work was recommended by one outlet thus "Tessa Rubbra's pottery realises elegant shapes with distinctive colour combinations in a gorgeous variety of unique designs". (Put 'artist' in Search for other creators)