Rowley Gallery Blog
The William Morris Gallery is at Water House in Lloyd Park, Forest Road, Walthamstow. William Morris was fourteen when his family moved here in 1848. They had downsized from Woodford Hall where William’s playground had been Epping Forest. At Water House he played in the grounds, particularly the moated island where he imagined there be dragons. Continue reading “William Morris Gallery”
First there was this Christmas card from a painting by Mick Moon, made with oil paint & string on board and called simply Tree. Then I heard the three Staveley-Taylor sisters (aka The Staves) singing Winter Trees:
Continue reading “Winter Trees”
The Hedge Warbler or Dunnock
Printed from the boxwood block engraved by Thomas Bewick for his
History of British Birds, 1797
Continue reading “Bewick’s Nature Print”
When these children in Paraguay were given the opportunity to learn music there were more students than instruments. Cateura is Paraguay’s biggest landfill with a resourceful tradition of recycling. It seemed only appropriate to make musical instruments from waste materials. Scrap was transformed into violin, cello, double-bass, flute, saxophone, guitar and The Recycled Orchestra was born.
‘MERZsonata is a homage to Kurt Schwitters’ sound-text masterpiece, the Ursonate…Every sound…has a biographical connection to Schwitters (for example, he wrote a sneezing poem, and he used to bark like a dog each night during his time in the Hutchinson Square Internment Camp on the Isle of Man during the Second World War)…Like the materials of a Schwitters collage, each element is both itself and part of something new.’ – Christopher Fox, 1999. Continue reading “MERZsonata”
We just got word that Jonathan Gibbs is exhibiting his wood engravings alongside Brendan Hansbro at The Rectory Gallery on Fournier Street behind Christ Church, Spitalfields. Continue reading “Wood Engravings”
I stepped out at lunchtime to buy a sandwich and found a John Constable in the street. I was stopped in my tracks by this painting in our neighbour’s window on Kensington Church Street. Such an unexpected and wonderful and privileged encounter; why are there not queues of spectators on the pavement? See it now whilst you still can before it disappears. Continue reading “A Local Constable”
This procession is at the British Library but we took a circuitous route to find it. We started out for old times’ sake from the Brunswick Centre. Sue used to share a nearby flat, the Gate Bloomsbury (now renamed Renoir) was our local cinema and later Coram’s Fields was always a favourite place to bring the girls, but not today. Continue reading “To Mughal India”
Christopher Corr has made a series of prints of water for The Nightingale Project, to be displayed at The Woodland Centre, an adult mental health unit at Hillingdon Hospital. He just sent us these images, no words, they speak for themselves, a river of pictures. Continue reading “Corr By The River”
Andrew Walton recently called in to see us on a visit to London from Oxford, and he kindly allowed me to scan his sketchbook. It is filled with a surprising cast of characters hinting at an intriguing automatic narrative. After a closer look I found …I am not sure why I write these things especially as I’m still clueless as to why I make all these drawings of people… Continue reading “Company”