On a recent trip to Suffolk, driving up the coast from Orford, we took a detour through Saxmundham hoping I might find a fleece. The weather had turned cooler and we were planning a circular walk from Dunwich. Saxmundham was fleeceless but Sue had spotted some paintings in the window of a frame shop. They were vibrant accomplished paintings of cows heads staring directly back at us. Like a face to face encounter, capturing all the animal’s character and vitality with a few sure brushstrokes.
Days later, back in London, the memory persisted and after a phone call to Emma K Framing we eventually tracked down the artist. Jelly Green is not yet twenty. From the age of sixteen she has attended classes with Maggi Hambling and developed a confident style seemingly beyond her years. Seeing her paintings again when she brought them to The Rowley Gallery I was surprised at their modest size. They have such a strong presence that I’d remembered them as much bigger. You can see her work here on our website and from the 9th to the 14th of December in Herd and Field at the Peter Pears Gallery, Aldeburgh.
Here’s a song for Jelly –
Imani Coppola’s Legend Of A Cowgirl.
Another memorable discovery that weekend was The King’s Head at Laxfield, aka The Low House, after it’s location below the churchyard. An ancient thatched inn with several tiny snugs, one with high-backed settles around the fireplace, and without a bar, but dispensing delicious Adnams beer in the tap room where it is drawn straight from the barrels. Twenty years ago the pub’s future was uncertain, until villagers formed a consortium to buy it. Any tenant had to agree to no fruit machines, no piped music, no pool table, no cigarette machine, no fried food, no modern bar. In 2001 Adnams took over and these terms are still complied with.
