hamer the framer

Scullery

Soon after I first arrived at The Rowley Gallery, maybe in 1988, I took advantage of the opportunity to use the shop window. I started making small drawings specifically to sell to benevolent passers-by. I began with a sheet of paper which I carefully tore and cut into pieces, each piece was worked on separately, lines inscribed/impressed into the paper, rubbed with layer upon layer of wax crayon, shaved with a Stanley knife blade then reassembled as a single sheet again. Continue reading “Scullery”

Signs Of Chillida

Last time we visited Lottie in Toledo she showed us this sculpture by Eduardo Chillida, hidden away beneath the city walls and previously overlooked. It’s called Lugar de Encuentros V (Meeting Place V); it’s like an open hand, positioned low to the ground, immediately inviting, waiting to hold you. I instinctively wanted to climb inside but I had to wait my turn, others were already in its embrace. Continue reading “Signs Of Chillida”

Kew Gardens

On the Spring Bank Holiday weekend, aka Whitsun Bank Holiday or maybe even Whitsuntide, we went down to Kew. It was a slow journey. There was a UEFA Cup Final at Wembley that evening and a Premiership Rugby Final at Twickenham that afternoon, there were roadworks in Ealing and there was a continuous traffic jam around the North Circular. There was a long queue to Kew. By the time we arrived I was stir crazy. Once inside the gates I was snap happy. The resulting photostream begins with eucalyptus, smooth-skinned and animal-like with aromatic blade-shaped leaves. Continue reading “Kew Gardens”

Grand Union @ Wilton’s

The world’s oldest surviving music hall can still – just – be found…No theatrical facade: just a door set into a peeling wall.

It did take some finding but that’s part of the fun. Once found it’s a place for many happy returns. Wilton’s Music Hall is a fragile survivor, in need of restoration but not too much; it’s shabby chic is a big part of it’s charm. Perhaps stabilisation rather than restoration. Continue reading “Grand Union @ Wilton’s”

Flickr: Holloway

Herewith a message from Robert Macfarlane:

I’ve come to realise, in the eight years since I first wrote about holloways, that many people share my fascination with these sunken lanes, which have been harrowed down into the landscape by the passage of feet and rainwater (and sometimes 4x4s…). People have sent me photographs of the holloways they know, the paintings and sketches they have made of them, maps with their locations indicated, or the stories, memories and folklore they associate with them. Continue reading “Flickr: Holloway”

Open Studios

Continue reading “Open Studios”

A Life In Colour

Andrew Walton reminded me of Margaret Mellis when he wrote Schwittering. It prompted me to go looking for more. I found this film about her at Culture Unplugged. I also found a letter she sent me in 1996 (in a junk-mail envelope – she liked to recycle) inviting me to the Bede Gallery in Jarrow for an exhibition of her own constructions and of collages by her late husband, Francis Davison. His work gets a brief mention in the film at 49:25. For another mention please also see Postcard From Southwold. Margaret Mellis died aged 95 in 2009, one year after this film was completed.

Artists’ Voices

Every so often Jonathan Christie brings us a few new pictures. Never too many and never too often so consequently each new arrival is always eagerly anticipated. This time he brought Ghost House, a painting of a stone cottage so thickly covered with whitewash it appeared to glow in the dark. It also happens to be on Strumble Head, like Paul Finn’s earlier lithograph. Continue reading “Artists’ Voices”

Jonathan Gibbs @ The Rowley Gallery

We’re making an example of Jonathan Gibbs. The Rowley Gallery don’t do one person exhibitions, but since he just sent us an irresistible selection of paintings, and because he was the first artist we turned to when we began to exhibit pictures, we are doing the next best thing to a one person show and we’re making a featured display of his work. Please join us for the private view on June 11th from 6.30pm at The Rowley Gallery, 115 Kensington Church Street, London, W8 7LN. Continue reading “Jonathan Gibbs @ The Rowley Gallery”

From Saffron Walden

This walk begins where In Epping Forest ended. Butlers Retreat turned out to be the perfect place for breakfast, with possibly the best coffee in Essex. It kick started our trip up to Saffron Walden. Along the way we passed huge fields of cultivated rapeseed and roadside banks of wild cowslips, a yellow landscape that was once purple with crocus grown for their precious saffron. Continue reading “From Saffron Walden”