Yesterday I went to a matinee performance of the play 'Alison's House' by American born playwright Susan Glaspell. It was shown at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond.

It was one of more beautifully performed and crafted plays I have seen in a long time.

'Eighteen years since Alison Stanhope, the country's foremost poet died, now the house she worked and lived in must be sold. However, the house holds secrets, raising questions for her surviving family. Namely, is it right for the family to protect itself and its past, or does Alison belong to everyone'?

Inspired by the life and work of Emily Dickinson, the play won playwright Susan Glaspell the 1930 Pulitzer Prize.

Set on the last day of the nineteenth century, I feel that the play captured an American quality and spirit which we tend not to acknowledge or even be aware of at the beginning of the 21st century.

Having been married into an east coast family, I was fortunate to know some much older American women who had the kind of spirit and tenacity shown by the women in the play, and the playwright, Susan Glaspell.

Susan Glaspell, 1876-1948, along with her husband George Cram Cook, playwright and director were founding members of the 'Provincetown Players', an amateur group of writers and artists who at the beginning of the 20th century wanted to create a company committed to producing new plays by exclusively American playwrights. Among others, Eugene O'Neill was part of this exciting group of young artists.

Most of them lived in Greenwhich Village New York, and spent their summers in Povincetown, Massachusetts, which sits at the extreme tip of Cape Cod. A wonderful area to visit.

Given that this was such an American play, and I came away with the good feelings that I have when I think of this era in america and particularly the women with their amazing pioneer spirit, today I will show two very American paintings.

I painted these in the United States twenty years ago. Part of a large series of work, they featured objects which symbolise my life in America at that time.

This is a detail of a very large oil on canvas. All the objects, including the very old spinning wheel, were either owned by me, or other people who I knew. Quilts, a continuing theme in this series, symbolise a time in American when the early settler's values were still in tact.

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Another large canvas encompassing gifts given to me by American friends.

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Well it's doing what they said it would do today, which means here in London we have much needed rain, with wind....a great day for staying home and relaxing.

A Bientot