Ewa Wnek Webb

I met Ewa through my Mum who had been a long time friend. When I was young, Ewa, Mike and children visited us, though we lived far from London. I particularly remember being fascinated by how full of life Ewa was, her sparkling personality and admiring her amazing talent. When I stayed in Teddington for a few days as an adult I remember being surrounded by warmth and being welcomed as one of the family by Ewa and her Mum Pani Bronia. I was overawed by Ewa’s creativity and spirit which filled the house. Ewa introduced me to the magical Charleston and seeing some of her exhibitions and her magnificent use of colour also encouraged me to paint. Ewa and Mike’s presence at my wedding in 2004 was so special. The guests were treated to a selection of her work and we have the most wonderful gift - a vibrant painting of the Californian coast to remember her by on our mantlepiece. It brightens up every day for us. Ewa’s illness must have been very hard to bear for you all - Mike, Emma, Jacek and Dominik, partners and children. I am thinking of you all at the loss of such a wonderful wife, mum and grandmother.

I was introduced to Ewa in 1965 by my late husband, Dennis Ranston. They were both students at the Regent Street Polytechnic School of Art and the London School of Printing, and later they both taught at the Croydon College of Art. I spent many hours listening to stories about those days, but my favourite was the time Ewa was commissioned to paint a mural for a Spanish restaurant in Leicester Square and Dennis helped her with the installation. They worked hard and expected a decent reimbursement, but the stingy proprietor paid them far less than they deserved. Ewa and Dennis got their own back by helping themselves to the contents of his fridge and bar, and having a feast in the empty restaurant.

I was both saddened and shocked to hear of Ewa's passing, because she sent me several photographs of Dennis taken at the London College of Printing with her condolences after he passed in June this year. But she never mentioned her own suffering. I in turn, now send this silhouette of Ewa, taken by Dennis at the College in 1963.

After Dennis and I left London for Jamaica in 1970, we kept in touch, and Ewa and I were amused that we both chose the name Emma for our daughters. We always looked forward to seeing Ewa, Mike and family on our London visits, viewing her latest works and sharing the love and care she poured into her family and home.
With heartfelt sympathy,
Jackie Ranston,

Auntie Ewa and I were separated by a distance for the longest time, but I specifically remember the Christmas cards she would always send us with her painting of some landscape. Always beautiful watercolours, always stunning and I couldn’t wait for when we’d get one every year. I’d look at them all the time. She truly did what she was put on this Earth to do - be an incredible artist with a big heart and sharing her talent and vision.



When I moved to the UK I stayed with Ewa and Mickey for a couple of weeks, a truly magical time. Ewa showed me her studio of wonders, paint and unfinished masterpieces everywhere. She had that magical energy that radiated from her, that positivity and friendliness, and it showed in her art as well. Something I will never forget about her.

Years later we met again, in London, when she was exhibiting at the Polish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith. Her paintings were amazing as ever, inspired, beautiful. She hasn’t changed one bit, still that special person we all knew. 



She is and will be dearly missed, but I feel lucky to have had her in my life. A very special soul who touched so many lives.

I also wanted to share some more recent photos, from when I visited Ewa and Mickey in France, and one from when they visited me in London around the same time.

We were always very close with Ewa, despite the distance, she was surely my closes cousin. We would often talk on the phone for hours, remembering our mothers who have always been as close friends as we were. We'd talk about our own children and grandchildren, and how great they all are.

In my last conversation with Ewa, she told me she was writing a book and we also exchanged some photos of the grandchildren we were always talking about. She sent me photos of Archie, Dylan, Callum and Anna and I sent back photos of my Nadia and Janek.

I will miss these conversations dearly.

Ewa pained a portrait of me when I was around 14 years old and visited her in England. I was not very happy that I had to sit still for such a long time and I feel like she captured that emotion in my face.

I also wanted to share some photos I found, of young Ewa, posing and painting as usual, and also one from Mickey and her's wedding, they look so great together.

Auntie Ewa met our Dad, Greg in English lessons in the early 1960s. Dad considered Ewa as family - he respected her talent and they shared a similar Polish history. Mum and Dad asked Ewa to be my Godmother in 1971 - photo attached. We have very fond memories of our time spent with Ewa, Mike and the family when we were children. We feel blessed that we got to spend a lovely day with Ewa and the family earlier this year and our thoughts are with you all at this sad time - much love Anna and Ellie

I'll always remember Ewa as a warm and lovely person. I met her and Mike in France, through Burgundy Friends, and although I didn't see much of her, I always looked forward to any get-togethers when she would be there. I remember the warm and friendly hospitality that she and Mike offered, and was very sorry when they returned to the UK, as I knew I would probably not see either of them again. I wish I had more memories, and some photos, to share, but those memories I do have remain vivid. The world will be a little less vibrant without her.

Ewa will remain in my memory as a warm and exceptional person. I especially fondly recall my first stay in London in the early seventies, when I lived with and was hosted by the whole Family. At that time, I had the opportunity to get to know Ewa better, and I was impressed by her great talent. We also met briefly in October 1993, when I flew with my little son Marcin on a promotional Concorde flight from Warsaw to London. During that visit, we were once again welcomed with open arms.
But we also had the chance to meet in Gdańsk at my mother’s home, as Ewa and Miki visited Poland from time to time. These were always pleasant visits, filled with interesting conversations and family memories. I also remember well Ewa’s stay in Cologne, where we lived temporarily. My wife and I hosted her when she and a friend came to the city for a trade fair.
Ewa was a very colourful person, full of humour and curiosity about the world. She had a gift for attracting people to her. Together with Miki, they formed a wonderful, loving, and supportive marriage, with hearts open to family (even to someone as distant as myself), friends, and a wide circle of other people. It is hard to believe that we will not meet again.
Mike, Emma, Jacek and Dominik, I’m thinking of you in this difficult time and I'm very sorry that we will not be able to take part in the funeral broadcast because we are traveling around Oman.
We share your pain and sorrow. Please accept our heartfelt condolences on the loss of your wife and mother.
May her soul rest in peace.

Tomasz (Tomek) Maciejewski and the family, Gdańsk, Poland

"Let us hurry to love people, they depart so quickly..."
Father Jan Twardowski

Although Ewa was only a distant cousin of mine, but at the same time she was a very close person because our families (the Wnęks and the Myjaks on my mother’s side) shared, and still share, warm bonds reaching back to the times before World War II. Since I was a little girl when Ewa left Poland, I didn't really get to know her until 1976, when I came to England for the first time and initially stayed with her in Teddington, on King Edward's Grove. I immediately felt at home there. Ewa, Mike, Auntie Bronia, and the kids welcomed me with open arms, and I had the impression that I had known them for a long time.
The summer of that year was exceptional. Hot and dry, it earned the nickname "the summer of the century." You were allowed to take a bath with the tub filled only halfway; and washing cars and watering gardens was forbidden. And Ewa had such lovely flowers in her garden and worried they would wither. So when it was completely dark and no one could see us, we would sneak out of the house with cups of water in our hands and secretly water the thirstiest ones. Our little conspiracy…
It was also there that I saw her paintings for the first time. I fell in love with one of them, depicting a braid of interwoven onions. When Ewa noticed it she said ” If you like this painting so much, you can take it. It's yours.” But neither that year nor during the next few visits to England was I able to pack it and take it with me to Poland. I only brought it back after more than 30 years, when my husband Jan and I visited Ewa and Mike in Aluze. Then Ewa pulled it out from among the others and said, “Here are your onions. This time you came by car, so you can finally take them.” It was such a touching and unexpecting surprise. All these years she remembered and kept this painting for me. And her smile as she handed it to me, so warm, a bit impish, lighting up her whole face.
We visited Aluze twice, and each time was unforgettable. Ewa’s (and Mike’s) extraordinary hospitality and warmth made us settle into their home like birds in a nest. We remember those long, interesting conversations, and the opportunity to experience her art… We also had the opportunity to celebrate their milestone wedding anniversary, eating boeuf bourguignon and drinking red Burgundy wine in the Auberge Le Peit Blanc. Ewa and Mike, two people, yet to us they were one, because they seemed so deeply connected.
We would visit them; they would visit us. The time spent together in Gdańsk, wandering around the Kashubia region, or taking a trip to the Hel Peninsula is fondly etched in our memories. And in 2015 we had the pleasure of representing Ewa at the opening of the Emigration Museum in Gdynia. She had been invited because she had contributed her own memories to the collection, memories related to her family’s fate, her final departure from Poland, and joining her father in England. Unfortunately, she was unable to come to the ceremony herself.
These are only small fragments of memories. But Ewa is with us every day in our home through her paintings, which we received from her and which delight our eyes with their colours. She had a wonderful personality. Intelligent, brilliant, talented. Full of humour, direct, and warm. That made us, my late mother, my husband Jan, my brother Tomek, and myself, feel so good in her company. But what we will remember most is her smile. And it's hard to accept that we won't see that smile again.

Dear Mike, I tried to translate this excerpt from a poem by the Polish poet Maria Jasnorzewska-Pawlikowska into English for you. I think it might capture how you feel after losing Ewa:
“When one had luck that rarely comes:
someone’s body and the whole earth,
and all that remains is a photograph,
that - that is very little…”

Joanna (Asia) Maciejewska-Stańczak and Jan Stańczak, Gdańsk, Poland

In the 1990s, some friends and I visited Ewa and Mike's home in Teddington whilst we were studying at university with their son Jacek.

Later, after uni I occasionally visited with my family and we were fortunate to stay twice in their lovely house in Aluze while traveling to the south of France. We have fond memories of breakfasts on the terrace overlooking the vineyard, enjoying local giant almond croissants that Ewa had sent Mike out for. And lunch drinking amazing Crémant de Bourgogne from their friend’s vineyard.

It was always lovely to see Ewa’s cherished paintings of all her children hung proudly about both houses, reflecting her love and pride for her family.

I first met Ewa when I moved into King Edward’s Grove with my 2 young daughters in 1976. Eva immediately welcomed me to her weekly coffee morning with neighbours. A community was formed for our families. Eva was a good artist friend and when she moved to France we visited her with our mutual friend Sally.
I will always remember her warmth and kindness and am lucky to have several of her paintings to remember her by. Love to all the family, Maggie and family xx

We moved into King Edward's Grove in 1970. Our daughter, Esther was born in September and Emma arrived in, I believe, November. We soon got to know each other and I can remember Esther and Emma side by side in their bouncy cradles on our kitchen table.
It was very educational for us to be living so close to an artist and Ewa's home was full of life and colour - and very Polish. I attach a drawing of Esther and me that she made when she was getting back into practice after Emma was born. Although it is twenty years since we left King Edward's Grove I have a strong sense of the pleasure we had in knowing Ewa and Mike and their children for more than thirty years. We have two of Ewa's paintings so her talent and vigour is still with us every day.

I met Ewa in 1959 through a mutual friend, when we both came to England with our mothers to join fathers from whom we had been separated by the 2nd World War. I got a very warm welcome at her parents’ home in Chiswick. I didn’t know then, that it would be the beginning of a lifelong friendship. I always admired Ewa’s optimism, joy of life, energy and her enormous artistic talent. Ewa’s beautiful paintings reflect those qualities.

Looking at and admiring her art in our home and at exhibitions, has enriched our life enormously. Jurek and I appreciated her unquenchable high spirits and zest for life. We were very saddened to hear the news about Ewa’s illness and shocked by her departure into eternity soon after.

I can’t believe you are gone but through your art you are still with us, dear Friend.

You will forever be remembered by me as the most creative, artistic and warm woman I have ever met. You made me welcome in your home as a teenager when I first met Emma and I will never forget how beautiful your home was which was filled with the most amazing art. I remember the massive drawing of Dom with his skateboard that you painted which hung in your hallway in Teddington. Your home was full of love. You really did inspire me to pursue and appreciate art without even knowing it. Deep down I cemented my passion for art, artists and wanting to be creative myself from witnessing how amazingly talented you are and secretly visiting your art studio in the attic. 30 years on, this time in Farnham, it was wonderful to meet you again and it felt like time had stood still. You had not changed at all and was still the same beautiful, elegant and uniquely individual woman I had met in my childhood.

We were unbelievably saddened when Mike advised us of the passing of Ewa. We knew she was unwell and had been for some time but the news still came as a great shock to us.
We met Ewa when the Webbs moved to the small village of Aluze in Burgundy France in the early 2000.
We made good friends with her when we all went to French classes to improve our French. Ewa was not a good learner of French and she made that very clear to all of her friends.
Ewa had so many wonderful characteristics that it was easy to see why she was so popular.
She called a spade a spade and we admired her for that great attribute. Ewa loved cooking and she was an excellent chef especially of her native Polish food. We had some brilliant meals with Ewa and of course Mike.
Probably Ewa's greatest attribute as we could see it was her ability to create some superb artwork. She mastered the paint brush with such skill and she was so proud every time she was accepted for an exhibition in towns or villages near to her own Aluze.
Ewa's art gallery in Aluze was a masterpiece in itself but when you added all of her artwork it was just magical and so unique.
We really appreciated Ewa keeping in contact with us when we left France. Her text messages together with her many photos of her beloved garden and of her family just inspired us and we will miss those greatly.
Finally Ewa adored, loved and respected her family for every minute that we knew her. We know that that love and respect was reciprocated by her family.
We will miss Ewa greatly and may she rest in peace.
Sorry we could not be with you to celebrate her life.
With all our love
Norah and Barry

I have some lovely memories of times spent with Ewa, one that comes to mind is my ´hen lunch’ where Ewa arrived crowned with a blue wig, unforgettable.
We also have several of her lovely paintings.
We feel blessed to have known her and she has a special place in our hearts.

Celebrating Easter Last Year

Mama loved this Jacket from San Fransisco. Christmas 2024

Mama celebrating her last birthday doing something she loved the most, 'dressing up' for a murder mystery dinner party. The whole family was together to share a really special and fun day. (she was in character in these photos 😀)