Elaine Short obituary

"My friend Elaine Short, who has died aged 89, was an artist, potter, teacher and Francophile. She was also a skilled and talented weaver. When I met her in the 1990s she showed me some of her beautiful tapestries, many of them inspired by the Sussex countryside. Her work was exhibited in galleries including Hastings Art Forum, where she was an active member, and her tapestry techniques were much admired."

"After leaving school she worked at the Bon Marche department store in Brixton and then as a librarian in Lambeth. Elaine later became a primary school teacher. She married Gustave Simonon, whose Belgian father had come to Britain as a refugee during the first world war, when she was 19. They had two sons, Paul, who became a member of the Clash, and Nicholas, also a musician, but later divorced."

"Elaine met the writer, composer and musicologist Michael Short in the mid-1960s. In 1966 the couple spent a year in Italy, where Michael took up a musical scholarship. They married in 1974. With Michael she found many opportunities to express her creativity and love of the French language and the couple enjoyed trips to Europe, particularly France. As enthusiastic members of the Anglo-French Society in Hastings, they gave occasional presentations in the language they both loved."

Elaine Short was an artist, potter, teacher, weaver and Francophile born in Nice and raised in the UK after the outbreak of the second world war. She created tapestries inspired by the Sussex countryside and exhibited in local galleries including Hastings Art Forum. She worked at Bon Marche and as a Lambeth librarian before becoming a primary school teacher. She married Gustave Simonon at 19 and had two sons, Paul and Nicholas, later divorced. She later married Michael Short, collaborated on publications with illustrations, and regularly sketched local views as material for weaving and painting.

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