Rowley Gallery Blog
Christopher Corr sent us these photographs from America. They show a wonderful collection of mostly wooden vernacular buildings at the Hancock Shaker Village in Massachusetts. The Shakers began building a community here in the 1780s and continued up until the 1960s. They considered this their utopia and named it The City of Peace. Many of their buildings are still preserved here. Some have been lost and some have been re-erected here from other Shaker settlements. Continue reading “Utopia”
Yesterday Christopher Corr made the draw for the Rowley Raffle, enthusiastically accompanied by Kai on accordion. The winning ticket was ceremoniously drawn from Kai’s all purpose salty dog sailing & running hat, and the winner is… Continue reading “Rowley Raffle”
This is The Oarsman’s and Angler’s Map of the River Thames from its Source to London Bridge. It comes rolled in a tube and at one inch to one mile it is 2.5 metres long. It was engraved by E G Ravenstein and first published in 1893. This edition has an introduction by Richard Way, specialist bookseller from Henley on Thames:
…. The Thames flows roughly north west to south east but Ravenstein cleverly elongated this dimension by ironing out the river’s NE SW meanderings. The river is thus contained within an artificial boundary 5 miles wide. The map however retains a true scale along its length. If Ravenstein had represented a geographical reality at this scale the map would be shorter but 4 times wider. Ravenstein presumably selected London Bridge as the end point of the map because it was the last bridge on the river. Tower Bridge opened the year after the map was published.
It would be a difficult piece to frame and an awkward piece to hang. I thought it might be best presented here. Continue reading “Messing About On The River (3)”
She was not always in the best of health, all those cigarettes, all that rum. But it’s still a shock that she’s gone. Her voice made you feel close to her. Here’s a reminder of how beautiful she could be.
A not to be missed film telling the story of an Amy Winehouse performance before an audience of 85 in a little church in Ireland in 2006, to be broadcast next Monday, July 23rd at 10pm on BBC4 – Arena.
The Basilica of San Francesco in Arrezo, Tuscany, a late medieval church dedicated to St Francis of Assisi. In the chancel, the Cappella Maggiore, is one of the masterpieces of the Italian Early Renaissance. The walls are covered with a sequence of frescoes by Piero della Francesca depicting episodes from The Legend of The True Cross. Behind the suspended crucifix, at the lower right of the window is The Vision of Constantine, an image which has haunted Patti Smith for years. Continue reading “Constantine’s Dream”
Marc the electrician came to see us, to fix the lighting and to bring us these delicious eggs from his garden in Thornton Heath where he keeps Cotswold Legbars, French Copper Neck Marans, a large speckled hen and a black tailed Colombian. Continue reading “Chick, Chick, Chick, Chick, Chicken”
After listening to his records for the past 45 years, I finally got to see Taj Mahal play live last week at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. I don’t know what took me so long but it was worth the wait. He’s just so full of music. One moment you could swear you’re listening to Howling Wolf, then Mississippi John Hurt and even at times Otis Redding. He’s a voice of resurrection. He gave us rocking bar-room electric blues and gently swaying acoustic country blues with touches of scat singing, reggae, calypso, Celtic flavoured banjo picking and a beautiful surprise duet with Baaba Maal. And also Fishing Blues.
Here’s Kai running the Plymouth Hoe 10 last year. A ten mile run around Plymouth Hoe, the highlight being this jaunty jig as she came by where her niece Molly was waiting to cheer her on. Kai will be running the British 10K London Run on Sunday 8th July and she’s promised a little hornpipe as she crosses the finishing line. See her page on the JustGiving website here.