It’s almost 30 years since John Hubbard visited New Harmony, a small town in Indiana, USA, established in 1825 as a model community by the Welsh utopian thinker and social reformer Robert Owen. John was invited by Jane Blaffer Owen, New Harmony resident and the wife of Robert Owen’s third great grandson. Continue reading “From The Poet’s House”
Juicy Lucy
A tune for Mother’s Day from Medeski, Scofield, Martin & Wood.
This sweet video was directed by Billy Martin; he’s the drummer in the band –
The video for ‘Juicy Lucy’ features my mom, who is a former Radio City Rockette. At 81 years old, she’s still a phenomenal dancer. I’ve wanted to feature my mom somehow for a long time. She put tap shoes on me at a very young age and got me into rhythm.
Connect
Once a term Holland Park School ask us to frame the cover of their school magazine. Most recently it featured a photo of Antony Gormley to mark the arrival of a specially commissioned sculpture on the school roof. This was a great surprise, and a nice coincidence, just as I was drafting the previous post about his exhibition last year in Florence. Continue reading “Connect”
Forte Di Belvedere
Palazzo Pitti & Forte Belvedere, one of a series of paintings of Medici villas by the Flemish artist Giusto Utens from 1599. The fort was built nine years earlier, on the highest hill of the Boboli Gardens to protect and watch over and keep an eagle-eye on the city of Florence down below. Continue reading “Forte Di Belvedere”
Another Look At Florence
One visit to Florence was not enough, we had to come back for a second round. A third and a fourth would have been good, this place is inexhaustible, but sadly we didn’t have time so we needed to be selective. Top of the list was the Uffizi but not until we’d had an extremely indulgent breakfast at Rivoire in Piazza della Signoria, a great place to watch our fellow tourists. Continue reading “Another Look At Florence”
Albatross
Beatrice Forshall working on a picture of an albatross surrounded by plastic debris she’s collected from the beach; a salutary warning against the the proliferation of throwaway plastic in our modern-day world. It’s an image made in response to Midway: A Message From The Gyre, a film that shows the toxic consequences of too much discarded plastic in the seas. Continue reading “Albatross”
#ShowTheLove
A short film for Valentine’s Day. And for every day.
The Climate Coalition / Show The Love / World Wide Fund for Nature
Barga & Beyond
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 Venice
Palazzo Dona
In Venice I revisit views that I have drawn or painted before and feel more free to take liberties with, like Palazzo Dona in Campo S. Maria Formosa or the big palaces across from San Vio near Accademia. But there is nothing quite like a first ‘go’ at a newly discovered subject – last summer it was a view across the Grand Canal from Calle Giustinian, discovered near a sumptuous Sean Scully exhibition, and the little Oratorio in Campo Sant Angelo which I must have by-passed countless times but which I suddenly saw in a new light as I made my hot way home for lunch.
What a seductress – La Serenissima – I just can’t stay away! Continue reading “In Venice”
A January Garden
Frost laden spiderwebs
I think this is a Tomorrow’s World April Fool’s hoax and they’re made out of string… Continue reading “A January Garden”