FLORENTIN-LEE, Gilia

1941 - ?

As Gilia Leather, she was born at Henley, Oxfordshire in January 1941, daughter of John William Leather (11 July 1905-8 October 1972), an advertising sales representative, and his wife Hilary J. née Say (born 10 October 1914), who married at Henley in 1938 and in 1939, were living at 31 Churchview Court, Churchview Road, Twickenham, Middlesex. Gilia was educated at St Helens, Abingdon, Oxfordshire and studied at the Oxford School of Art. She married at Abingdon in 1964, James M. McMenemy, an advertising executive, and are the parents of London-based children’s author and book illustrator Sarah McMenemy (born 1965). Gilia married secondly at Islington in 1974, Charles R. Raw and, following a period of dealing in rare and antiquarian books, in 1991 Gilia resumed her painting career. She married her third husband at Westminster, London in 1996, Gabriel Lionel Florentin-Lee and now paints under the name of Gilia Florentin-Lee. She works in oils and her paintings explore and express the shade, mood and atmosphere of the East Anglian countryside and she has exhibited in East Anglian including Judy Hines Gallery, now the Hatfield Hines Gallery, at Holt, Norfolk and Church Street Gallery, Saffron Walden, Essex. Gilia lived and worked from New House Old Rectory Grounds, The Street, Falkenham, near Ipswich from where she showed regularly at Art on the Prom, Felixstowe, Suffolk but now works from Wenhaston Lodge, Narrow Way, Halesworth, Suffolk.

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Works by This Artist