Rita is probably best known as the artist who ‘created a face’ for Robert Hooke (1635-1703), regarded as one of the greatest English scientists. His work was overshadowed by that of Sir Isaac Newton. Much mystery surrounds the conflicts which existed between Hooke and Newton and ‘gossip’ suggests that Newton would have burnt any portraits if they did exist.
Rita’s interest in Hooke first started after reading an article in The Daily Telegraph by Oxford academic, Dr Allan Chapman on the tercentenary of Robert Hooke’s death.
“He was saying how awful it was that he had been swept under the carpet and he didn’t have any memorials in London where he worked for nearly 40 years. I started to research him and I was absolutely appalled by the way he’d been treated. I looked on the internet and there were various images of him which looked like they’d come out of a cartoon or Harry Potter film and the poor man was made out to be a sort of monster and yet he did so much for this country.”
Using almost scientific descriptions of him written by his colleagues enabled Rita to create her first portrait and has now created many which she makes available for all to see.
“I put my work on wikimedia to make pictures free to everyone. It’s great to give it away and its opened lots of doors for me. People ask me how much my exhibition is worth and I say ‘60 years of my life’. I’m also making a video with commentary for people who are disabled as there is unfortunately no access for them to the exhibition.”
The OU names many of its buildings after key scientist or academics and the Science Faculty resides in a building named after Robert Hooke. One of Rita's portraits currently hangs there.
Despite having published two books on art/crafts and lettering, 23 books on nutrition/health/special cookery for people with special needs and three books as co-author, Rita still describes herself as someone who “goes with the flow.”
For those who aspire to be artists Rita gives the following advice:
“I think if you are going to do anything creative like writing or arts in particular it’s a very good idea to have a second string to your bow because there will be times when you are bottom of the ladder and you need to be able to turn your hand to something else to earn a living. And secondly don’t give up!”
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