Mary Kuper is presently exhibiting a series of prints and illustrations, inspired by the ever changing meanings of words, at the Free Word Centre in Clerkenwell.
Word Origins
Tag: London
Hardy Ash?
Last Sunday I went back to St Pancras Old Church for the first time since April (A Walk From King’s Cross) to see how the Hardy Tree was getting on. It is not a particularly grand tree, nor is it ancient but it is probably London’s most significant ash tree. With all the hysteria in the press I wondered if I would find signs here of ash dieback. Is this tree able to withstand the coming plague or is it doomed and this site to become a memorial to fraxinus excelsior? Continue reading “Hardy Ash?”
Kite Paintings
Last Saturday, as a break from Christmas shopping and to escape the hectic West End crowds, I found a few moments of calm at the Gimpel Fils gallery amongst these wonderful Richard Smith paintings. The exhibition is called Kite Paintings and includes a group of rarely seen works from the 1970s, with canvas stretched on aluminium poles, recalling tents and sails as well as kites. Continue reading “Kite Paintings”
Cockpit Arts Christmas Open
Fanny Shorter emailed to say she’s taking part in the open studios event at Cockpit Arts in Holborn. It looks like a great place for Christmas shopping. More information here.
Keats Leaves
A walk on Hampstead Heath and the amazement of finding myself suddenly in the middle of another autumn produced the new series of prints. Actually it is not a new series. The new prints became part of the Regency series. After all these years I still find surprising the way prints create themselves almost without my help. Continue reading “Keats Leaves”
Corr Blimey!
I love this picture. It reminds me of a ‘fayr feeld ful of folk’ from Piers Plowman. Christopher Corr made it for a client from London now living in Washington. The brief was to paint the view from Parliament Hill with all London’s landmark buildings plus Gospel Oak lido and running track. He cleverly reversed the viewpoint so we’re looking back down on this earthly paradise. Click on the image to enlarge it and explore it in detail. The painting measures 106 x 74 cms. Continue reading “Corr Blimey!”
A London Panorama
This is Claes Visscher’s Panorama of London in 1616. Click on the image to enlarge. It is a rare hand-coloured Victorian facsimile of the original engraving and is over two metres long. It is shown here courtesy of Peter Harrington Rare Books. I discovered it via Peter Berthoud.
Battersea Power Station
Christopher Corr painted this picture for Dominic. Unfortunately whenever he looks at it Dominic feels sick. Hopefully he’ll get over it, or at least down the side of it. He is planning to throw himself off the top of it on Sunday. Please offer your support and words of encouragement here.
The Trees Of Aldgate
They seem to be mostly larch. This intricate timber frame construction is made from 17 cubic metres of larch. It stands on a traffic island by St Botolph’s church at the start of the A11, the road from London to Norwich, and it marks the place where the Aldgate once stood. Continue reading “The Trees Of Aldgate”
Bridges & Towpaths
Three Mills is just off the A12 (aka the East Cross Route or the Blackwall Tunnel Northern Approach) an unforgiving stretch of urban motorway that flies over east London with little regard for what lies below. We’ve driven past countless times, most often en route to Brighton, but never noticed. The focus was always straight ahead or checking the mirrors or watching for speed cameras or perhaps just occasionally, Look there’s the Fire Station. There was never any reason to stop, in fact it’s quite difficult to do so and it took a few attempts, but eventually we arrived at the Tesco car park. Continue reading “Bridges & Towpaths”