She entered the hotel suite like a ship in full sail. A ship well-fitted-out and heading purposely toward a destination. Anna Drake is no stranger to media interviews but, as she tucked strands of her thick white hair neatly behind her ears, the impression is given that she has more interesting places to be.
Question: Mrs. Drake, are you pleased with the critical response to this gallery exhibit? Does it do justice to his talent?
Of course! My husband’s work has always garnered a good response from art critics. What mattered most to him, of course, were his own internal criteria.
I am not an art expert but I was privy to his opinions and I feel he is represented well in this retrospective show.
Question: Some from the artistic community have suggested the current exhibit of later work surpasses even the extraordinary pen and ink sketches of the Wiltshire Series. What is your own opinion?
Wiltshire was certainly a departure from his original formal oil portraits but I remember seeing remarkable intuitive paintings in his tiny studio in London.
Question: That studio is something of a place of pilgrimage now. Do aspiring artists arrive at your door also?
It happens occasionally. I have considered moving but I live in a gated community with good friends nearby and I would hate to relinquish my happy memories there.
I am often travelling to my house in Scotland or to visit family in various parts of the world. I do get requests to show people the paintings Lawren did for our home when we first moved there. Only a few of these requests have ever been honoured.
Most people are respectful of private property.
Question: Speaking of privacy; the famous portrait he did for your home near Oban has never been on public view. Why is that?
The painting some have called ‘Three Women’, is the one that brought Lawren Drake into my life. It is incredibly personal to me. I would not consider moving it from its original position for any reason.
In a way, it encompasses my life with Lawren; a blending of past, present and future. I treasure it beyond any price that could be offered for its purchase or exhibition.
Question: As someone who knew him better than anyone else, to what do you ascribe his incredible success?
Lawren Drake was an empath. He had the ability to see inside a person’s soul and transfer that awareness to paint and canvas. His subjects recognized elements of their inner lives no one else knew, even although they had very little conversation with the artist. It is a skill few can command but many can admire when they study his work.
Question: Art historians have been fascinated with the arcane symbols that appear in most of his work. They say this harks back to a much earlier style of art.
Can you explain the shield with the two stars that frequently occurs in his work after your marriage?
It is a tribute to Lawren’s distant ancestor, Sir Francis Drake, who navigated between the two poles in his explorations of the world. You might say his own artistic explorations mirrored those of his forefathers, some of whom were also painters.
He used to use a small painting of a duck with a brush in its mouth to signify his name. As he became more famous, the family shield seemed more appropriate.
I still have the sign from his studio with that quaint duck. I rather like it.
Question: I can see you miss him terribly. Do you wish your time together had been longer?
Time is relative, my dear, as you will discover when you are older.
I miss him every day but he would not want me to mourn. I comfort myself by remembering how vital and vibrant our years together were. How could I be sad about that?
Most couples never know the kind of love we shared. The number of years we spent together is irrelevant.
This last question was infringing on personal space. Anna Drake had been known to leave an interview abruptly when questions were too intimate.
I thanked her sincerely for her time and generosity and for all the help she had given me over the years.
I have gained a good reputation as a writer and journalist. Interviews are my specialty yet it was clear to me that I had been given insights that were not available to anyone other than family members. But then, Anna Drake had encouraged my writing ambitions ever since I was a child.
We hugged as she said goodbye. There was a reception to attend in her husband’s honour. Nothing else would tempt her to walk into the spotlight again.
As she waved from the doorway, I caught a glimpse of the engraved silver band on the third finger of her left hand. My grandfather had told me its twin was buried with her husband after the aneurism that took his life so unexpectedly.
It seemed a sad conclusion to an epic love story, and yet, no one could deny the success of their married life, however brief.
Lawren Drake often spoke of how Anna’s love had awakened a talent in him that had lain dormant for most of his artistic, and his personal life.
No woman could ask for a better tribute.
Excerpted Special to The Telegraph by Ashley Stanton.
The complete text of this interview can be obtained on the newspaper’s web site.
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The Prime Time Series continues in Return to Oban: Anna’s Next Chapter, book 7.