Echeveria Etc

Echeveria

After repeated requests and months of waiting we finally received some new work from Susan Ashworth. Good things are worth waiting for. These are rare, slow-grown paintings. I like the way their beautifully painted surfaces contrast with the crude wooden boards they’re painted on. They seem like rescued fragments of old wall paintings. Continue reading “Echeveria Etc”

Frames of reference

A Rowley Red Apple

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A few years ago Lizzie planted an apple tree in the yard at The Rowley Gallery. She would never pick the apples too soon, but always waited patiently until they fell into her open palm. This year, since our tree-of-heaven has gone, the apple tree has come out of the shadows and been quicker to offer its fruits. They’re crisp and juicy with a flavour of melon and raw potato. But what they lack in taste they make up for in appearance and now Karen has captured all their beauty in this delicious watercolour.

Frames of reference

Venation

venation-1

Hanna Tuulikki’s beautiful gestural images from her Dawyck visit speak of the correspondence between humans and trees, long celebrated in folklore and myth.

I found these wonderfully eloquent photographs at Walking With Poets via Hanna Tuulikki’s Diary.
I hope she won’t mind if I share them here. Continue reading “Venation”

Frames of reference

Vote Fanny!

coadgbursary_Fanny_Shorter_Passion_Pair_Blue_cushions
Fanny Shorter has been shortlisted for a design bursary, courtesy of award-winning blog Confessions of a Design Geek. She is one of five contenders for this prestigious award but she needs your vote to win. Please cast your vote at coadg bursary :: the 2014 shortlist and vote wisely but please vote now! Time is running out. Voting closes at 23:59 Wednesday 27th November 2013. Spread the word!

Frames of reference

Hallelujah Carla!

To celebrate Carla Bley‘s appearance tonight at the Wigmore Hall as part of the London Jazz Festival here’s a recording from 30 years ago when the LJF was known as the Camden Jazz Festival. The Lord Is Listenin’ To Ya, Hallelujah! was written as a tongue-in-cheek gospel showcase for Gary Valente’s gloriously raucous trombone. This performance was at the Roundhouse and I was in the audience that night with a big smile on my face. I’d been a huge fan ever since I first heard Escalator Over The Hill as a teenager and wanted to run away from home to join Carla’s circus. Praise the Lord for Carla Bley!

Frames of reference

I AMsterdam

i amsterdam

We took a half-term weekend break to Amsterdam. It seemed like the city was being relaunched and rebranded/rembrandted. The Rijksmuseum reopened in April following an unprecedented 10 year renovation, the Stedelijk Museum reopened last year after a 9 year refurbishment, and 2013 marks 400 years since construction began on the city’s iconic canals. Continue reading “I AMsterdam”

Frames of reference

Ana

A lovely film by Myles O’Reilly of Reiseger/Fraanje/Sylla performing in the music department of Ludwig Beck in Munich. I’ve known Ernst Reijseger’s versatile cello improvising for many years, with Trio Clusone, Uri Caine, Tenore e Cuncordu de Orosei and Werner Herzog. Sometimes he plucks, sometimes he bows and sometimes he picks it up and strums it like a guitar. But this trio is new to me; heartfelt collaborations and inventions, full of surprises. They’re playing tonight, November 16, at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the same bill as the Arild Andersen Quintet. Continue reading “Ana”

Frames of reference