Rowley Gallery Blog
Last October Howard Phipps wrote about Eggardon for Frames Of Reference, and he sent me a postcard from the nearby church of St Basil in Toller Fratrum, noting on the back that John Piper was keen on the font. It is either late Saxon or early Norman, with crudely carved figures on a limestone carousel and such an endearing image I wished he could have used it in his Eggardon post. Continue reading “A Talkative Font”
Howard Phipps phoned to say he’s exhibiting his wood engravings at Sladers Yard in Dorset, alongside Julian Bailey, Angela Charles, Stewart Jones, Alex Lowery, Simon Quadrat and Alfred Stockham. It looks like an interesting show. More information here.
The four landscape paintings on exhibition at The Rowley Gallery were committed to 200gsm acid-free paper using artist’s watercolours and gouache from the peaks of Eggardon Hill and Pilsdon Pen in north west Dorset. Pilsdon is Dorset’s highest hill, and closely associated with the legend of the screaming skull at Bettiscombe Manor, down there in the Marshwood Vale. For many years the skull in question was believed to be that of an African servant girl of the 18th century. Under recent analysis it was proved to be the skull of a young girl of the late Neolithic, circa 4,000 BC. This is close to the vintage of the ancient shaped hills and sacred landscapes of Dorset – stone circles, burrows, tumps, burial sites, excarnation sites, and later fashioned as fortresses raised against the worsening weather and tribal pomp of the Iron Age. All are studded with human, animal and ritual remains in their steep, deeply dug chalk banks. Continue reading “From Eggardon Hill & Pilsdon Pen”
During the last few years I have become increasingly interested in certain distinctive downland hills such as Melbury Beacon, and hill forts such as Hambledon Hill and Winkelbury Hillfort. These either in Dorset or Wiltshire where the short turf on the chalk helps in defining their underlying structure, and where these hills often rise quite steeply from their surrounding valleys. I am also interested in the way artists often get involved with a subject over time, as I frequently return to a theme again and again. Witness Paul Nash for instance and his preoccupation with the two hills at Wittenham Clumps. Continue reading “Eggardon”
One of the many highlights of our recent trip to Cornwall was one that I took with me. Just a couple of days before we left London I received a copy of Holloway, a book by Robert Macfarlane, Stanley Donwood & Dan Richards. I kept it unopened in its Jiffy bag with Dan’s handwritten label and best wishes until we arrived, so that it became a part of our holiday. Inside, when I finally opened it, was a beautifully printed and illustrated book that told of the search for an ancient Dorset holloway, previously visited by Macfarlane with Roger Deakin. They were looking for the hide where the hero of Geoffrey Household’s novel Rogue Male went to ground. I’m not sure which I knew first, Household’s book or the film with Peter O’Toole. The abiding feeling was not so much of threat but of the safe harbour to be found beneath trees. Continue reading “Holloway”
The figure on the horse is George III riding away from Weymouth. The story goes that during a stay in the early 1800s he promised to give the town a substantial amount of money, so much that they carved a dedication in the local church with his name and a blank space for the exact amount, and gave a promise to carve a likeness on the hills rising behind the town. Unfortunately, he left leaving nothing. The locals were so angry they carved £000 after his name in the church and did indeed complete a likeness on the hills, but made it so he was riding away from the town (back to London).
Liz Somerville / The Rowley Gallery
There is something addictive about the Dorset coastline, I just can’t get enough. It always surprises me with its twists and turns and steep promontories. Continue reading “To Old Harry”
On Sunday I went down to Roche Court near Salisbury to see John Hubbard’s Paintings From The 1960s. They are beautiful atmospheric condensations on canvas and paper, displayed in a small light filled gallery in a corner of a garden overwhelmed with sculpture. This tranquil space is a refuge and standing before Rocky Woodland especially I was in a green shade reminded of the undercliff at Lyme Regis. There’s a lot to see. But I was not allowed to photograph it. So I will make do with some we framed earlier, for another exhibition, but one I now discover has just finished! Continue reading “Dorset Landscapes”
A group of paintings by John Hubbard made during the 1960s will be exhibited at the New Art Centre near Salisbury, from 4 February until 15 April. His work from this time, though based on landscape, was essentialy dealing with atmosphere and the movement of light, rather than any specific feature of the landscape. He quotes Turner’s words, saying he was trying to consider “every part as receiving and emitting rays to every surrounding surface”. Continue reading “Paintings From The 1960s”