John Constable – Frames of Reference

A Head In The Clouds: A Year Of Looking Upwards

A blogpost by Robert Bruce:

It is a year since lockdown and during the whole period I have found it helpful to look upwards to the skies. It soothes and calms. It reminds us that the world goes on, mostly beyond our control. From our small roof terrace in Maida Vale and, when allowed, from elsewhere, this has been a year when clouds, mostly free from the vapour trails of aircraft, have become towering and tumbling symbols of freedom. But first: A wave of farewell to the old world we knew before lockdown. Now look upwards from the roof terrace. Continue reading “A Head In The Clouds: A Year Of Looking Upwards”

Garden & Countryside

Sometimes a garden can be the best room in the house, a great place to spend time with friends and family, to walk together and share its beauty, to be diverted and distracted, to pass the time and forget ourselves. We can wander off and make discoveries, tell tales, find reflections and common ground. Continue reading “Garden & Countryside”

Manningtree

Manningtree was another daytrip destination in the early 1980s. We came on the train with our bikes from Liverpool Street to explore the country lanes around Dedham and Flatford, but we didn’t see much of Manningtree apart from the station. It was the gateway to Constable country. Continue reading “Manningtree”

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”

The Sky At Snape

SNAP HQ, a cor-ten steel shed at Snape Maltings, nerve centre of the SNAP visual arts programme for this year’s Aldeburgh Festival, directing our gaze towards the great Suffolk sky. Continue reading “The Sky At Snape”

Flatford Mill

We started at East Bergholt, birthplace of John Constable whose father owned Flatford Mill, and where his first studio still stands, now a domestic residence but commemorated with a plaque. Continue reading “Flatford Mill”

A Local Constable

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”