Rowley Gallery Blog
In Cambridge to visit the recently opened Heong Gallery, a former stable block in the grounds of Downing College, transformed by architects Caruso St John into an elegant space for the display of modern and contemporary art. Continue reading “Generation Painting”
When we arrived in Tuscany the weather was quite wet and cool for the time of year, but for such a spectacular walk we waited for the weather to clear so the visuals would be at their peak. Sometimes finding the start of a walk can be the hardest part, we set off from Colle di Val d’Elsa on a disused railway line that has been turned into a cycling route to the splendidly named Poggibonsi. We did a left, walking through glorious wheat fields (see above) the fields are green/yellow at the moment interspersed with poppies but will turn a fantastic golden yellow come the summer. Really quite something to see but way too hot for serious walking of any distance. Continue reading “Walk To San Gimignano”
A Walk In The Woods
There’s a lovely and surprising exhibition by Jelly Green at the Alde Valley Spring Festival, and there’s not a single cow in sight! She’s abandoned her usual subject matter and gone for a walk in the woods, and lost herself in the green and tangled delights of the trees, and found herself there. Continue reading “A Walk In The Woods”
Couldn’t resist a little excursion locally to photograph blossom trees in all their finery. And an appropriate haiku:
Gazing at the cherry blossoms
The bone in my neck
Gets painful.
(Nishiyama Soin, 1605-1682) Continue reading “Blue Sky Blossom”
I was born just after WW2. My parents had moved to Noke when they married in the early 1940s. We lived in a tiny cottage, totally lacking modern amenities. No electricity, water from the well and an earth loo in ‘The Elm Barn’, a shed with a grand name, all set in a third of an acre of orchard. An artist’s retreat from the hurly burly of war torn London. This was my world. Apple trees to climb, a stream to splash in, and a duck pond beyond the gate where my brother and I sailed catamaran boats whittled from elder sticks. Continue reading “Otmoor”
Just some of the lovely blossom that has appeared recently. This is pink cherry blossom Continue reading “An April Garden”
Musée des Civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée
MuCEM was opened in 2013 as part of the Marseille Capital of European Culture celebrations. The museum is dedicated completely and totally to the Mediterranean, to its history, civilisations and its culture. It’s all about the life that has developed out of the Mediterranean from its earliest histories to the tensions and conflicts of our own time. Continue reading “MuCEM”
As a birthday treat Sue took me for a walk on the Dengie Peninsula on the far eastern shore of Essex. She had her eyes on the horizon. We arrived via Burnham-on-Crouch, a pretty Georgian estuary town but with the saddest fish & chips and a clown to scare the children. His car was parked next to ours. We made our escape towards Southminster, but we got ensnared by the Burnham Loop where we revolved time and again around the endless fenlands (afeared lest we contract Dengie Fever from the mosquito-infested swamps) until finally we saw the error of our ways (a misplaced signpost) and we were at last expelled to Tillingham and ultimately onwards to Bradwell-on-Sea. Continue reading “To The Horizon”
This is the old mill at Candalla in the hills above Camaiore in northern Tuscany. I think it’s possible to rent it as a holiday home, but it’s perhaps not the most peaceful retreat. The pool attracts lots of visitors in summer, all of them keen to jump in and cool off. Continue reading “Candalla”
Hambledon Hill
Out of the Wood is an exhibition of wood engravings by Howard Phipps at The Art Stable, Child Okeford, Dorset from 16 April until 7 May 2016. The gallery is situated in the courtyard of Gold Hill Organic Farm, next to the farm shop, and looks out towards the iron age hill fort of Hambledon Hill.