Rhoda Partridge

Shirley Tart meets artist Rhoda Partridge.

One morning, Rhoda Partridge stood on her pretty patio in Presteigne and looked upwards, way above the banks of garden flowers.

For those who understand such things, the sky was “working” and Rhoda thought something along the lines of “oh god, I’ll have to go and fly this afternoon”.

In almost 30 years of flying gliders, her response would have always been excitement, a bit of a thrill and the urge to get out there, soar upwards and “slip those surly bands of earth”.

Now, she instantly recognised she was seeing it all as a bit of a chore instead.

And that was the end of Rhoda’s gliding career. She was about 72, had been in her 40s when she fell in love with gliding and is now within a whisker of her 90th birthday. Though, she was actually in the air again recently when she was taken on a spin from the Long Mynd during celebrations to mark the Midland Gliding Club’s 75th anniversary.

However, her major focus at the moment is the solo art exhibition she is staging over the next month with work which draws rave reviews and compliments wherever it is seen.

But this is going backwards. Rhoda Partridge was married young, had her five children between the ages of 20 and 30 and lived happily in the family’s farming community in South Wales. In her own colourful words: “I didn’t think I could do anything else, so I would breed instead.”

Once the offspring were grown, at the age of 41 their extraordinary mother decided to go in for a little extra adventure – she became a glider pilot.

She says cheerfully: “I had fallen in love with flying gliders. My darling man wasn’t going to give me a sub from the housekeeping to pay for it, he thought I’d kill myself. So I had to find another way. I thought of pottery, which seemed a good idea, did a five-day course and it was a great success.”

Successful enough to help fund her gliding habit as it happens and to the great relief of late husband Graham, she survived.

Rhoda still has some pottery on display at her Presteigne home, but nowadays, far more art paintings. Once the skylarking stopped, she moved in a different direction and took up art. At which, not surprisingly, she also became very good indeed. Now, she is hosting her second solo art exhibition – the first was at the age of 87 – at the Bleddfa Centre near Knighton.

Some of those exhibits were hanging and others were in her studio when I called to see Rhoda and escort her down the charming main street to the Hat Box for lunch.

She says: “Stopping flying was the end of the great love affair. I was suddenly seeing it as something I ought to do rather than was passionate about.”

Trusts

It seems the British Gliding Association trusts members to know when it’s time to call it a day.

So time for a well-earned rest? Not for Rhoda Partridge. Nowadays, she will sometimes lie down and meditate in the afternoon, but back then she nipped off and got a place at art college.

With a chuckle, she says: “I have done this extraordinary thing of living my life back to front. When I had my children, I couldn’t do any of the exciting things others were doing so thought ‘oh well, I’ll breed then.’ When I should have been a student, I was breeding. When I should have been doing nothing much, I was at art college.”

In between times she took to the skies and guesses she has made thousands of flights. She also took the women’s altitude record flying from Aboyne near Balmoral, reaching 22,000 feet and having to take on oxygen. Rhoda had gone up to try to break the record and says disarmingly: “I was quite good at that time and even if I didn’t have all the technical knowledge I was good at the ‘seat of the pants’ stuff.”

We are bound to ask whether during her flying days she’d had  scary moments, near misses? With a dismissive shrug, she says: “Of course, you are bound to. But that’s what the training is all for, isn’t it?”

And despite husband Graham’s early fears, Rhoda didn’t so much as injure herself. Though he, meanwhile, stood for Parliament a few times. Did he get in: “God, no! I told him if he ever did, I’d divorce him.”

And here the incredible Rhoda Partridge still is – breaking new ground, enthusiastically embracing new beginnings, planning the party for the launch of her art exhibition and while her reminisces  are greatly entertaining, she locks in to the secret of active life and is always looking forwards.

Now, her second major solo art exhibition marks the beginning of her 10th decade and all the family are gathering to celebrate with her. The retrospective at the Old School Room Gallery in the Bleddfa Centre, near Knighton, will be officially opened by sons Piers and Marco.

Rhoda’s work includes lovely floral paintings, striking images of the strangest birds and bold knights painted on wooden blocks.

And at the heart of this wonderful story, a 90-years-old inspiration. What a life, what a lady!

• Rhoda Partridge’s Retrospective exhibition at Bleddfa Centre, near Knighton, runs from September 6 to October 10. Check opening times at www.bleddfacentre.com or call 01547 550377.