Rowley Gallery Blog
A beautiful short film shot on Super-8 and painstakingly woven together by Adam Scovell. He was inspired by Robert Macfarlane, Stanley Donwood, Dan Richards and their book Holloway. I first stumbled into it here and I find it hard to leave. Adam has written a great piece about his film here. It’s mesmerising.
Nunney Castle near Frome, Somerset comes close to perfection. Here water laps a small rectangular island, out of which rises a tall, ruined castle with four cylindrical towers. Continue reading “Nunney”
The Ship at Levington last April, newly refurbished and reopened just a couple of months earlier, it was a good place for lunch before a walk along the north shore of the River Orwell. Continue reading “Levington”
A series of postcards produced by Common Ground to accompany England In Particular, ‘a celebration of the common place, the local, the vernacular and the distinctive’. Continue reading “14 Postcards”
No trip to Barcelona is complete without an excursion to Montserrat. It had been recommended many times so finally we got the train from Plaça d’Espanya. The ticket price included a transfer onto the rack railway at Monistrol de Montserrat for the steep climb up the mountain. Continue reading “Montserrat”
A favourite clip from Louis Malle’s 1958 debut movie, Ascenseur Pour L’Échafaud, starring Jeanne Moreau with a wonderful improvised soundtrack by Miles Davis.
Davis was booked to perform at the Club Saint-Germain in Paris for November 1957. Jean-Paul Rappeneau, a jazz fan and Louis Malle’s assistant at the time introduced him to Malle, and Davis agreed to record the music after attending a private screening. On December 4, he brought his four sidemen to the recording studio without having had them prepare anything. Davis only gave the musicians a few rudimentary harmonic sequences he had assembled in his hotel room, and, once the plot was explained, the band improvised without any precomposed theme, while edited loops of the musically relevant film sequences were projected in the background. www.discogs.com
I have to admit I’ve not yet seen the film (though I did once see Jeanne Moreau looking in our gallery window) but I’ve listened to the soundtrack countless times. I bought the LP years ago after reading a recommendation by Richard Williams and I agree with him that it’s one of Miles Davis’s best.
A lovely King Penguin book from 1955, donated to The Rowley Gallery library by Evelyn Hallewell. The colour plates are by Peter Shepheard and the book was a bargain at 5/-.
As well as being a beautiful picture book ‘Woodland Birds’ will lead many out to watch for themselves the inhabitants of our woods and forests. Continue reading “Woodland Birds”
A couple of years ago this embroidered purse arrived in the post, a surprise gift from a benevolent customer. I was not sure what to keep in it, or whether I should just frame it, so it’s been waiting in a corner of my workshop. I saw it again recently and decided to discover where it came from. Continue reading “Into The Woods”
It was a bright crisp morning in April, the next Sunday after Easter. Aeroplanes were drawing maps all the way from London down to Sussex. It was a constant distraction, I needed to make frequent stops to check the sky. No wonder I avoid sat-nav. Continue reading “Ditchling Beacon”