Rowley Gallery Blog
This is a letters patent, so called from the Latin verb pateo, to lie open, exposed, accessible. The originator’s seal was attached pendent from the document, so that it did not have to be broken in order for the document to be read. Letters patent are a form of open or public proclamation, though what they proclaim is not always patently obvious. Continue reading “Signed, Sealed & Framed”
Rembrandt returned to Hampstead Heath last November, back home again to Kenwood House after a holiday whilst the decorators were in. Self Portrait With Two Circles travelled to New York, Houston, Milwaukee, Seattle and Arkansas whilst Kenwood House was closed for over a year for maintenance work. I always like to call in to say hello whenever we’re passing so it was good to catch up. Continue reading “Return To Hampstead Heath”
David Wiseman brought us a couple of vibrant and dynamic new paintings and an invitation to +100 The London Group Today where he is also exhibiting. It’s a centenary celebration by present day members of the London Group. Continue reading “+100”
200 years ago Jane Austen wrote a masterpiece. About four years ago I read it. Since then I have become a devoted Austen fan. Her books have inspired my most successful series of prints. For a poor foreigner like me, reading the novels is like munching a delicious cake made with words. I couldn’t help it but to carve on lino the images she put in my imagination with her amazing dexterity in the use of the English language. Continue reading “Pride & Prejudice”
Myddleton House was named after Hugh Myddleton who built the New River, an aqueduct carrying fresh water into London. Over the years its course has changed but originally in 1613 it flowed through here, beneath these iron railings marking an earlier bridge. Continue reading “New River, Blue River”
This is the Street of Wheels in L’Isle sur la Sorgue, Provence, France. The town once had seventy waterwheels, all powered by the Sorgue river, driving mills for grinding grain, making paper and weaving silk. Nowadays the river turns fourteen vestigial wheels driving the tourist circuit around the town. We came here on holiday and stayed in the house on the right by the street lamp. Continue reading “Rue Des Roues”
Hatfield Park in Hertfordshire (not to be confused with its namesake Hatfield Forest in Essex) is home to an extraordinary number of venerable old oak trees, many of them believed to be over 1200 years old. A walk around the park might be described as a tour of the Stations of the Oak. Continue reading “Elizabethan Oaks”
I was delighted this week to have been elected to The London Group, one of the oldest standing artist led organizations in the world and this year celebrating its 100th anniversary. The present membership is around 90 and new members are elected only after being proposed by an existing member and presenting their current work and previous artistic achievement to a committee. Continue reading “The London Group”
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”
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.