Rowley Gallery Blog
I’d read of a huge tree, a monumental cedar of Lebanon, that grows just outside the walls of the town of Barga in northern Italy. It was born in 1814 and transplanted here in 1836 where it became adopted as a symbol of Giovine Italia (Young Italy) and Italian unification. Continue reading “Barga & Beyond”
In early December I got the opportunity to travel across Andalucia from my home on the Costa Tropical near Granada to Bolonia, on the Costa de la Luz. Continue reading “Journey From Granada To The Costa De La Luz”
We’d read about a giant oak tree, Quercione (big oak), north of Montecarlo in the province of Lucca, in a village called San Martino in Colle. It sounded magical and intriguing but also a little confusing.
Where the hill of Monte Carlo declines in the north slope below the village of San Martino in Colle, there is the “Quercione of Carrara.” This is a monumental oak (Quercus pubescens), whose age exceeds 500 years, the height of 14 meters, the circumference of the shaft 4 meters and the opening of branches more than 30 meters. The surrounding lawn is charming place and meeting place for romantic encounters. On this tree are passed down legends of witches in her hair would keep, in the nights of full moon, their Sabbath. It is said, also, that this is the oak tree where the cat and the fox hanged puppet Pinocchio: Collodi, in fact, is a stone’s throw away. The place is always accessible and is definitely worth a photo. Continue reading “Quercione”
Last summer, on the 10th of August, we made our first visit to Florence. We drove there without satnav and without a hitch, the roads were clear, no hold-ups and we left the car with a parking attendant in a super-efficient underground car park. It was all going surprisingly smoothly, until we hit the streets and joined the procession of pilgrims to the birthplace of the Renaissance. Continue reading “Florence At First Sight”
Surprisingly, for all the Irish blood coursing through my veins I have never visited before, so this year I set out with my hardy friend Tom, an Irishman himself, to put that right. Our ten days split into two big chunks: Kerry, Dingle and the Skelligs and then Connemara. Continue reading “Chasing Rainbows And Missing Islands In West Ireland”
I’ve been listening to Nashville Obsolete, the new album by Dave Rawlings Machine. It begins with The Weekend and it’s accompanying video documents a weekend roadtrip by Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch from Nashville to California. It got me looking around for more. Continue reading “The Weekend”
This summer we decided to drive to the south of France. My brother Anthony and his wife, who hails from Nice, my wife Criselda and I took two cars down to Gattières, a village perched overlooking the River Var, in the Alpes Maritimes. Catching the earliest Eurotunnel from Folkestone allowed for a leisurely drive through Northern France, Picardy and the Champagne region. We were heading for an overnight stay in Corps near the pilgrimage site of Our Lady of La Salette in the Alps, before continuing our drive on the Rue Napoleon through Grasse and on to Gattières. Continue reading “Le Jardin des Fleurs de Poterie”
Susie Freeman & Liz Lee: What Once Was Imagined
This summer I visited São Paulo to install a new work at Oscar Niemeyer’s OCA pavilion in Ibirapuera Park. The exhibition INVENTO is best described as a science museum designed by artists. Created by matching significant scientific advances from the past 150 years with artists whose work acts as a response to each invention, I used thousands of medicines in packets to make a giant Amazon mantilla which illustrates the development of pharmaceuticals from plants to pills.
The exhibition runs until October 4th after which we hope to mount What Once Was Imagined in a venue closer to home. Continue reading “What Once Was Imagined”
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”
Last summer, travelling through France, I wish I could remember where this was, the first of many half-timbered buildings encountered en route. I love this style of vernacular architecture. They seem so obviously hand-made, constructed from local materials, a natural part of the landscape. More analogue than digital, I started to think of them almost as organic sculptures. Continue reading “Half-Timbered”