Frames of Reference

Ascenseur Pour L’Échafaud

A favourite clip from Louis Malle’s 1958 debut movie, Ascenseur Pour L’Échafaud, starring Jeanne Moreau with a wonderful improvised soundtrack by Miles Davis.

Davis was booked to perform at the Club Saint-Germain in Paris for November 1957. Jean-Paul Rappeneau, a jazz fan and Louis Malle’s assistant at the time introduced him to Malle, and Davis agreed to record the music after attending a private screening. On December 4, he brought his four sidemen to the recording studio without having had them prepare anything. Davis only gave the musicians a few rudimentary harmonic sequences he had assembled in his hotel room, and, once the plot was explained, the band improvised without any precomposed theme, while edited loops of the musically relevant film sequences were projected in the background. www.discogs.com

I have to admit I’ve not yet seen the film (though I did once see Jeanne Moreau looking in our gallery window) but I’ve listened to the soundtrack countless times. I bought the LP years ago after reading a recommendation by Richard Williams and I agree with him that it’s one of Miles Davis’s best.

Done

This is Frazey Ford playing in the street with friends and neighbours in East Vancouver. They look like they raided the dressing up box but they sound like they mean business. I love it. It’s my new favourite. I found it here and there’s more with the same band here and with a different band here.

100 Cups

Long ago I made cups, real ones out of porcelain to be exact. And now I don’t do that anymore. Instead, I often paint pictures of cups. It began innocently enough, as a path for transposing the ceramic cups that had always inspired my pottery into paintings. This simple idea launched an obsession and soon my desire to paint cups got a little bit out of hand. Because I had so many different ideas, I began numbering them in an effort to hold it all together. Continue reading “100 Cups”

Woodland Birds

A lovely King Penguin book from 1955, donated to The Rowley Gallery library by Evelyn Hallewell. The colour plates are by Peter Shepheard and the book was a bargain at 5/-.

As well as being a beautiful picture book ‘Woodland Birds’ will lead many out to watch for themselves the inhabitants of our woods and forests. Continue reading “Woodland Birds”

Into The Woods

A couple of years ago this embroidered purse arrived in the post, a surprise gift from a benevolent customer. I was not sure what to keep in it, or whether I should just frame it, so it’s been waiting in a corner of my workshop. I saw it again recently and decided to discover where it came from. Continue reading “Into The Woods”

Annabel Keatley At Galería Cartel

My solo show at the Galería Cartel, Granada, which continues until the 11th June, has given me the opportunity to develop my work in the studio and make the transition to working on a large scale again after a gap of nearly 10 years. Continue reading “Annabel Keatley At Galería Cartel”

Ditchling Beacon

It was a bright crisp morning in April, the next Sunday after Easter. Aeroplanes were drawing maps all the way from London down to Sussex. It was a constant distraction, I needed to make frequent stops to check the sky. No wonder I avoid sat-nav. Continue reading “Ditchling Beacon”

Père Castor

As a small boy Père Castor’s Wild Animal Books were a magical introduction to nature, along with Beatrix Potter’s stories. The series of eight books first published in France in the late 1930s were brought out in English just post war. Continue reading “Père Castor”

Das Meisterstück

Das Meisterstück (The Masterpiece) is an exhibition of large format photographs of painters’ palettes by Matthias Schaller at the Refectory, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, May 8-June 7. Maybe he saw our earlier blog post, Palettes! This one is JMW Turner and it’s impossible not to see resemblances between it and his paintings. Like looking at a dog and its owner. Continue reading “Das Meisterstück”

Double Figures

A small attempt to combine my love of Eduardo Chillida drawings, Magdalene Odundo ceramics and Cycladic figurines in a series of two-part works, culminating in this piece – Figure 8. Continue reading “Double Figures”