painter, china painter, potter and art teacher, was born on 1 April 1888 in Adelaide, daughter of John Le Cornu, a gardener, and Emma, née Cole. The family moved to Western Australia in 1896 and lived in Guildford until 1905 when they moved to the country. Seventeen-year-old Flora remained in town, to study and earn her living giving art lessons. Thus began a career as an artist and teacher spanning more than sixty years. She painted in oils on canvas, in watercolours on paper and on china and clay. She was WA’s first studio potter.
Flora commenced her studies in 1903 at the Perth Technical Art School under James W.R. Linton and John Edgar. She proved an outstanding student and was soon enrolled in a five-year Associateship in Art. Her subjects included freehand, model, cast, life, antique and light and shade drawing, plus still-life painting and design. She achieved first-class results, winning scholarships that paid her fees. Her 'art exhibits’ formed part of the School’s contribution to the Perth Women’s Work exhibition of 1907 forwarded to the national exhibition in Melbourne. Select examples of Landells work were then sent to the 1908 Franco-British Exhibition in London, where they were awarded a Grand Prix and a Diploma of Honour.
In 1908 Flora set up art classes at the Midlands Junction Technical School, which she continued until 1930 when social pressures during the Depression forced her to resign. In 1909-49 she taught art at the Methodist Ladies’ College. She joined the WA Society of Arts in 1904 and exhibited regularly with it, winning the open competition and the Hackett prize for drawing in 1906. She held a number of solo exhibitions, the last at Pastoral House in 1960.
In 1913 Flora Le Cornu married Reginald Landells, an engineer and industrial chemist who worked as a Health Department inspector. They lived at 34 Tenth Avenue, Maylands, where in 1925 she set up the Maylands School of Art and later (with Reg’s help) a pottery. In about 1927 she established the Landells Studio Pottery, making handbuilt work and learning to throw pottery from the Royal Doulton-trained potter, Frederick Piercy, owner of the Westralian Pottery Company, about 1929. Clay was dug from local pits. Reg prepared the clay, made all the glazes and built much of the equipment. During World War II they catered for shortages of domestic ware. Reg died in 1960 and the pottery was closed. Flora then held her final exhibition of pottery, but she continued china painting almost up to her death. She did much to encourage an interest in pottery in Perth. A role model for younger potters, she was in demand as a speaker, teacher and maker.
- Writers:
- Erickson, Dorothy
- Date written:
- 1995
- Last updated:
- 2011
