Inside the seaside flat of Lucian Freud’s muse Sue Tilley

From modelling for the famous artist to painting by the sea, former benefits supervisor Sue Tilley has found her mojo in St Leonards

Sue Tilley’s flat in St Leonards-on-Sea is five minutes from everywhere. Five minutes from the beach, five minutes from the station, five minutes from the parade of secondhand shops where, 18 months ago, having shrugged off her London furniture and flat after her second visit to the town, she bought a whole new life. She celebrated her 60th birthday a week after moving in; the party with her new neighbours went on until 6am. “I’m not one for living in the past,” she says, sitting back on her lipstick-red sofa. “I like moving on.”

Tilley might have moved on, but her image, her body, remains, for the rest of us, quite fixed. Fixed in the large nude portraits painted by Lucian Freud throughout the 1990s, including Benefits Supervisor Sleeping which, when Roman Abramovich paid £17.2m for it in 2008, became the most expensive painting by a living artist. Tilley was introduced to Freud by her friend, the late performance artist Leigh Bowery – in her charcoal-walled bedroom hangs Freud’s portrait of him, cheaply printed on to canvas.

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Beginner in the garden? Four top tips

Baffled by Latin names, tried planting things and watched them die? You may be in need of newbie wisdom

I am getting to that age now where my mates – the same ones who have made fun of me since high school for being into gardening – are suddenly full of questions as they timidly get into growing things themselves. As I have spent most of my summer sharing my top four tips for newbies with all of them, I thought maybe you also might find them useful, too. So here we go:

When my botanical friends meet up in the pub, guess what we talk about? The plants we have killed

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Counting beans

It’s late summer, the house is full of beans and it’s time to look forward – and back

Beans means late summer; tall structures teeming with fruit. They mean my mother patiently hand-slicing runner beans into her colander for our weekend lunch.

Beans mean my mother patiently hand-slicing runner beans into her colander for our weekend lunch

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Inside the seaside flat of Lucian Freud’s muse Sue Tilley

From modelling for the famous artist to painting by the sea, former benefits supervisor Sue Tilley has found her mojo in St Leonards

Sue Tilley’s flat in St Leonards-on-Sea is five minutes from everywhere. Five minutes from the beach, five minutes from the station, five minutes from the parade of secondhand shops where, 18 months ago, having shrugged off her London furniture and flat after her second visit to the town, she bought a whole new life. She celebrated her 60th birthday a week after moving in; the party with her new neighbours went on until 6am. “I’m not one for living in the past,” she says, sitting back on her lipstick-red sofa. “I like moving on.”

Tilley might have moved on, but her image, her body, remains, for the rest of us, quite fixed. Fixed in the large nude portraits painted by Lucian Freud throughout the 1990s, including Benefits Supervisor Sleeping which, when Roman Abramovich paid £17.2m for it in 2008, became the most expensive painting by a living artist. Tilley was introduced to Freud by her friend, the late performance artist Leigh Bowery – in her charcoal-walled bedroom hangs Freud’s portrait of him, cheaply printed on to canvas.

Continue reading...

from Home And Garden | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2OPEYlD
via IFTTT

Beginner in the garden? Four top tips

Baffled by Latin names, tried planting things and watched them die? You may be in need of newbie wisdom

I am getting to that age now where my mates – the same ones who have made fun of me since high school for being into gardening – are suddenly full of questions as they timidly get into growing things themselves. As I have spent most of my summer sharing my top four tips for newbies with all of them, I thought maybe you also might find them useful, too. So here we go:

When my botanical friends meet up in the pub, guess what we talk about? The plants we have killed

Continue reading...

from Home And Garden | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2ONau3r
via IFTTT

Counting beans

It’s late summer, the house is full of beans and it’s time to look forward – and back

Beans means late summer; tall structures teeming with fruit. They mean my mother patiently hand-slicing runner beans into her colander for our weekend lunch.

Beans mean my mother patiently hand-slicing runner beans into her colander for our weekend lunch

Continue reading...

from Home And Garden | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2nNwHTF
via IFTTT

William Miller: how I failed to get away from my famous father https://t.co/I3RHljkl1P Solicitors & Estate Agents In One Just £899 + vat .. https://t.co/GmjoJxU3bM

William Miller: how I failed to get away from my famous father https://t.co/I3RHljkl1P Solicitors & Estate Agents In One Just £899 + vat .. https://t.co/GmjoJxU3bM (via Twitter http://twitter.com/conveyandmove/status/1030981812150042624)