NOVEMBER 2004
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Take the JR train to Tokyo arriving at Tokyo Station Hotel just after 1. We can't check in yet though they do take our luggage so after a couple of wrong journeys (courtesy of the National Geographic guide book) but are eventually helped by a very nice Japanese man who sees that we are not getting far with the policemen (the poor men must wonder what we are jabbering on about. He speaks beautiful English and has been in London twice and to Stoke on Trent, where he dealt with Wedgwood - his business was in tableware, which seemed rather relevant after our trip to the ceramics factory yesterday. he actually walks with us to the right station and writes down both the destination station's name and the name of the Stock Exchange in Japanese so that we will be able to get help if we are lost again. A lot of Japanese people have made conversation with us and even more so here in Tokyo, which makes us feel rather inadequate with our limited Japanese.
Stock Exchange housed in large, modern building but am very disappointed when I discover that the trading floor is no longer a mass of waving arms bidding excitedly on stocks. Instead it's very quiet with mostly young men sat at computer screens in a sort of four pronged carousel shape with a neon board flickering the changing prices. The only room where you can see the tension, or release of, is the smoking room of the cafe where they are all dragging very hard on their cigarettes. But it is all quite space ageish. I think Blade Runner was supposed to have been inspired by this area.
We walk to the Bridgestone Museum of Art (based in the headquarters of this tyre manufacturer) to see both it's permanent collection. Some beautiful Picassos, a wonderful de Chirico and a very sensitive Modigliani portrait. the current exhibition is by a Chinese artist who has spent most of his life in France, Zao Wou-ki. An amazingly varied collection of ancient artefacts from Syrian head from the 24th century BC which has echoes of Picasso through Egyptian, Greek and Roman sculpture.
Rise at 4.47am. Wash and dress very quickly as we are going to Tsukiji fish market. Trains haven't started running yet so take a taxi to the main gate. The young man at hotel reception last night, whose father works there, warns us to be very careful of all the trucks and lorries and slippery pavements. He's right, it's hazardous trying to get through. But we make it into the enormous auction hanger where he'd said (and so did the guide book) we wouldn't be allowed. I try to be discrete, especially to start with, but became bolder and nobody stopped me. It's very exciting seeing the auctioneers ring their bells standing only eighteen inches higher on their small wooden stools, than the bidders. It's very fast with rather wonderful hand movements a bit like Noh theatre or tic-tac men at the races. The bidders examine the row upon row upon row of huge Tunas, white with a frosting of ice. The bidders have small scythe like hooks that they lift a flap near the tail are up with, often shining a torch in and rubbing the oils between their fingers. each of these vast fish has a number painted in red on its side and after the sale a man comes round with yellow stickers, presumably with the name of the purchaser. there are usually three or four auctions happening at the same time as the auctioneers move through the hall and receding rows of fish - the others are whisked away on hand carts or little open trucks with cylinder type engines which the driver stands behind; they manoeuvre these at great speed through the narrow alleys of the wholesale market to the appropriate stall or lorry. It's amazing to observe the rapidity with which they are then cut into portions and individual steaks, sometimes with band saws and other times with cleavers and very long sharp blades. This is the biggest fish market in the world and every possible sea creature seems to be displayed there or swimming around in tanks. It's frenetic with activity, restauranteurs and store owners carrying baskets. Moving onto the outskirts of the market there are related stores, some selling the knives and tools of the trade, others have already pre-packaged smaller fish and seaweed etc. Then there are the sushi bars where it's wonderful to sit whist they prepare the most amazing array of different fish with their rice fillings or seaweed wrappings. Not looking like the pre-packaged varieties in English supermarkets. They are beautifully arranged and added individually as they were made on palm leaves. Ours was accompanied with bowls of soup containing mussels in their shells and a big handleless mug of green tea. It's very filling and generous in proportion but I manage to eat all mine - even more than Richard!
A wonderful experience and marvellous subject matter for paintings.
In the afternoon we walk through the Imperial Palace Park and get a good shot of it over the bridge reflecting in the moat. This too was built by Tokugawa and has a similar stone construction looming out of the moat, this one full of water with swans serenely gliding upon it's surface. We do the long walk round via the National Theatre to collect our tickets for the Noh and Kabuki performances but are somewhat dismayed to find that the Bunraku performance that we were hoping to see on Saturday is in fact in Osaka.
Then to the Tokyo Craft Museum where we enjoy items from its permanent collection and a special exhibition of contemporary glass, ceramics and textiles. It's getting pretty late by the time we reach it's sister Museum the Tokyo Museum of Modern Art. Some beautiful paintings from the 1900s to 1950. Again a very nice Fujita and some beautiful Japanese portraits, very evocative of their era. Interesting to compare with their Western contemporaries.
Wednesday 3.11.04 National Culture Day
It's bright and sunny when we set off for Asakusa on the subway; only one change . There's a monk on the corner of the entrance to the temple who is surprised that British people would know about mendicant monks who own nothing and raise the money to live on from the generosity of passers by. He is actually Korean and has two degrees from American universities. he gives us a brief resumee of Buddhism saying that many monks have wives or concubines but he has neither. Asks which has most substance, our personal name, our physical body or our soul. the name is only relevant when you exist, the body will perish and turn into earth but the soul will go on for eternity.
We then quickly move through the passageway of little stalls running up to the temple. As we pass one of the side passageways the drum starts to beat and there assembled is the procession of very small and older children in their beautiful costumes for the festival. Tiny little boys with painted faces and blue and white costumes. A young man about 16 leads the white herons, stopping at intervals to twist and turn both his body and the long golden baton. Then the beautiful white herons, girls of about 12, would open their wings and turn in an enchanting rhythmic dance before closing them and returning to a head nodding, long necks bending and beaks pointing towards the ground, walk. It's quite magical and towards the end of he procession a group of men, perhaps monks, process before an ancient cart with a sweeping pointed roof, full of the musicians dressed in white with gold head dresses. The cart is also propelled and supported by white robed men in golden head-dresses. We feel pleased and privileged to be here for this festival on National Culture Day.
It's then back to the Subway via the mendicant monk (who is not of the same sect as those of the Asakusa-kannon) to travel to the National Theatre at Hanzomon. We've only missed the first half hour of this four and a half hour Kabuki production [ starting half past midday ] of Kanete Kiku Yanagisawa Sodo (Upstarts and Pretenders: The shogun's favourite Yanagisawa and a Merchant's downfall). We did see a kabuki performance at another theatre in Tokyo in 2001, which was also beautiful, but this one is spectacular with it's turning sets on the traditional wide stage and glowing costumes. Kabuki is so quintessentially Japanese, [ very unlike Western theatre] ; with a passage to the stage running through the audience so the players often start their acts or journey within the audience who shout out to encourage the various characters. The play includes a double suicide (mother and son) quite a lot of fighting, poison plots, an exquisite dance duet in the dark with a large round orange moon, the two main protagonists move like puppets on strings, the murder of the Shogun by his wife in a thunderstorm and a spectacular seascape finale with jousting, acrobatics, tumbling and brilliant colour.
When we get back to the hotel there's a message from Eiji, who had phoned at 10.30 this morning - after we had left for Asakusa. he is confirming our meeting for dinner tomorrow night. they are very kindly coming all the way from Fukushima. It will be wonderful to see them. The last time was in 2001 when we were here for my exhibition at the Morohashi Museum of Modern Art, which he said had over 6 million visitors.
We go to 'Sumo City' to look at the stadium and museum. Unfortunately the season doesn't start until 5th December but there's a lot of information to be gleaned from the history and supporting museum collection and being able to see inside the arena. they are also showing a video with the current sumo heroes. the woman who serves us when we buy a copy of the dvd tells us that one of the sumos on the video is particular popular because of the humour he brings to his bouts.
As we wander out into the sunshine we come across a beautiful garden that is open to the public. Again the combination of water, trees, shrubs and beautiful large stones that have been placed to enhance and contrast with the natural beauty of the site. As we leave this we see a temple and on closer investigation find that it is dedicated to those who lost their lives in the terrible earthquake and fire that hit Tokyo and particularly this area in 1923. Later it also became a memorial to those who perished in the 1945 Tokyo air raids. Seeing these photographs and paintings makes us realise how futile war is and how many innocents lost their lives. But how it's wonderful spirit of unity, enterprise and rebirth, turned it into a country that superseded the West in technology and growth. Quite remarkable for a people who have suffered not only at the hands of other nations but also from natural disasters. On the same site a beautiful modern memorial built to house the names of the lives lost in the air raids. Totally modern in design but somehow in perfect harmony with the temple. We then discover a museum on the same site, very quiet and full of fading black and white photographs again recording Tokyo before and after the terrible earthquake. Lots of large and smaller paintings of the city. The atmosphere within it is both sombre and tranquil; it houses many artefacts distorted by the quake and the 40 hour fire that followed in it's wake. Glass bottles squashed and misshapen by the intensity of the heat, the skeleton of a car that was, printing presses having lost their turning arms, a buckled bicycle, much looking rather like contemporary sculpture. but these are rather more profound than a Cornelia Parker where she has contrived the destruction or malformation of her works. Again very moving, particularly as an earthquake struck the north west of Japan during this visit.
On to the Tokyo-Edo Museum where we are able to see reconstructions of the Kabuki theatre, the famous wooden Nihonbashi bridge and other old Edo buildings and areas.
We don't do quite as well on the train back as we are on the JR and thought it had said Tokyo but it's travelling further away from it. Manage to get back just in time to change for dinner with Eiji, Meg and their delightful little daughter Kano the most exquisite child. They take us to dinner at the Japanese restaurant in the Imperial Hotel, originally designed by Frank Lloyd Wright; they had actually had their wedding here. It's a wonderful meal, every part of it beautifully arranged and perfect in it's presentation and timing. It is just so good to see them again and meet little Kano who at almost three already speaks quite a lot of English and did a very nice drawing of me with yellow hair. Eiji mentions that they would like to do another exhibition of my work at the Morohashi Museum of modern Art next next year, which is a very exciting prospect.
Subway to Ikebukuro which the national geographic Guide says would be called 'sin city' if the Japanese had a concept of sin. It's full of pachinko parlours and amusement arcades. But we're here to visit the Amulux building, a metallic blue cylindrical skyscraper. A Toyota showroom where people can take simulated test drives, get in and out of the numerous gleaming models that are frequently polished by girls with feather dusters and blue beret like hats and outfits. There are endless models with seating capacity for varying numbers, some almost as big as mini buses. Richard reckons you could carry quite a few paintings in one of these! Interesting again they show the capacity for wheelchair users. Floor after floor that you travel up to on narrow glass sided open topped escalators, all very space age and light. Music on each floor varies. On the top floor where the MJ range that are twice as expensive as anything else there is a Yamaha automatic grand piano. The highlight for me was seeing the beautiful red and white Lego full-size model of an open topped sports Toyota. I did pose the question to Richard which he thought would be the most expensive and time consuming to construct, the real thing or the Lego version - he wasn't sure either.
On the way back to the subway we go into a manga shop and pick up some more of these comic strip books but also pleased to find three boxes full of American DC comics; buy quite a lot these also as they are second hand and have obviously been read here by the Japanese. Interestingly they are cheaper than in the specialist collector shops in the UK.
As we travel on the subway towards the National Theatre Richard is looking at a leaflet he had picked up at the Amulux about Kabuki (in English) and notices there is a performance on the 5th, so we begin to worry that the tickets we have might be for the play we had seen on Wednesday and sure enough they are. A lot of to-ing and fro-ing of different girls from the front desk to back offices but they are insistent that they won't do a refund even though the last girl to come out agrees that it is their mistake. We stand our ground and say that it is obvious that we wouldn't book to see the same play twice within three days and that in the UK if we had turned up in advance of the performance and the mistake was on their part they would refund it to my American Express card. There are people still coming in to buy tickets for this performance. The seats were quite expensive and eventually another, larger for a Japanese girls, comes out and manages to refund the money to my card - and the senior girl hopes that we will come back to the theatre to visit again. Unfortunately the next Noh production is been on Wednesday next week so like bunraku and sumo we are slightly out of season.
Decide that as we can't see high culture (Noh theatre) we'll look at low culture in the form of a karaoke bar. We are told that Big Echo in the district behind the station, is the place to go. But we are rather disappointed to find that the Big Echoes (there are several of them) are made up of various sized cubicles or rooms that you go into individually or in smaller or larger groups - not a bar where I can observe Japanese salary men getting up to give renditions of 'My Way' as they used to be when they started. It's now big business and people can go away with a CD to impress their friends and family with. Apparently it has cut down the number of drunken businessmen considerably. It's an interesting area, full of groups of dark suited businessmen, collars undone and ties askew. Not sure whether some of the women on the corners, who seem to be mumbling words to the passing men are ladies of the night.
Take the train to Kamakaru, an even more ancient capital than Nara or Kyoto south west of Tokyo on the coast. This is wonderfully unsophisticated by comparison, has the feeling of a coastal town. We get out at the stop before, to do the hike from temple to temple, including Kencho-ji with it's beautiful Zen gardens founded by émigrés from China in the 1253. the garden, with it's pond in the shape of the character for 'mind' is the oldest Zen garden in Japan. It feels a bit like a pilgrimage with so many Japanese on the route. The third temple we visit is the 'divorce temple' Tokei-ji where women used to make their way to and if they stayed there for a period of time they could automatically become divorced from their husbands. Up until that time it was only men who were able to divorce their wives. Beautiful garden again, still with flowers in bloom.
After the divorce temple it's a visit to the red faced King of Hell who with his twelve assistants glare at us angrily, warning us to mend our ways lest he decides we should spend even longer with him.
When we reach Kamakuru we take another train to Hase to see the giant Buddha who looms above the crowd and is the second largest cast sculpture in the world. The wooden building that housed him was swept away by a tidal wave in the 1730s; it must have been enormous as we are some way from the sea. Again in 1923 in the terrible earthquake he moved two feet. So he has truly withstood the ravages of time and the elements and still sits cross legged supreme and serene. Then on to the last temple of the day dedicated to Kannon. Beautiful nine metre high, carved in camphor wood she is the tallest wooden sculpture in the world. Gleaming gold in the candlelight.
The two train journeys back are both really packed. It's a Saturday and the Japanese are out en masse to visit their temples. They travel from all over Japan on these pilgrimages. It all had a very nice atmosphere.
Book out of the hotel 9.30am to take the hour long train journey to Narita airport. A good thing we reserved tickets as there are people standing. I'm sitting directly opposite a Japanese man who's reading his newspaper by folding it into four, a particular way the Japanese have certainly of reading newspapers on trains. So I discretely do some drawings in my sketch book; of course he keeps changing position so I end up with three or four. I not sure if he is aware of me doing this but as he stops reading and folds the paper up I suspect so and am rather pleased that he leaves the paper behind as it's one more for the collection that we have been making whilst there.
The flight delayed by an hour although quite remarkably we still arrive in London Heathrow at the scheduled time. It seems strange having another mock night time sleep on the flight although some people do watch videos I prefer to try and assimilate the knowledge and visual imagery I have accumulated whilst here laying there in the 'bubble', beginning to visualise ideas for the paintings.
When we arrive back there is of course an enormous amount of mail and telephone messages to plough through. And as we come through the door a call from Nigel asking if Richard could take him to the railway station tomorrow as he hasn't been able to get a taxi big enough for his electric wheelchair and ramps.
Call from Professor Ken who wonders if we got shaken up in Japan with the vibrations of the earthquake, which we discuss; he tells me that there was a big one in New Zealand in the 30s and later he can remember feeling tremors as a schoolboy.
It always takes a bit of time to get the studio organised again especially now I have the five Japanese paintings to do as well. I was really pleased that Tim, one of our neighbours who is a carpenter, has managed to make up the five frames whilst we were away. The wood, 100 metres of the Italian poplar that we had had turned had been delivered about 8pm the night before we left. Too long to go in our new shed, it's been lying through my old studio and the front room. So Eddy our builder had given Tim the key to take the wood as he needed it. It's the first time Tim has made frames for us so am very pleased as also have John making the more complex constructions like the altar piece triptych and corrugated pieces. We'd had stretchers made to measure by Cornelissen's, which were also delivered whilst we were away ; so R was able to make a start late last night stretching and priming the first two so that I am able to make beginnings whilst imagery and ideas are still fresh in my mind. Although I am working on the bar during the day, still moving the figures slightly up and down to get the right scale and perspective.
My dear friend and neighbour Rose has been busy on our behalf too. Not only has she taken my Mum shopping each week and kept the studio house and house lit and aired but she's also collected all the papers from Friday 5th November with the American election results for a newspaper painting, although I have to admit that I was very disappointed that Bush did so well as he seems to think it's given him a mandate to continue the war in Iraq with even more ferocity. Big assault by American troops on Felujah today. He and Blair will never back down now and are creating even more loss of life, particularly innocent women and children! and breeding more animosity!
Still making initial start on one of the Japanese canvases, then transfer efforts to previous commission. It's nce to be back in the studio though also spend some time reading up on geiko and maiko of Kyoto.
Call from the Bridgeman Art Library to see if I would give permission for possible use of one of my paintings at the ITV comedy awards.
have been invited by the Cheltenham Group to select works for the exhibition at Gloucester City Museum & Art Gallery. Unfortunately am so busy that have declined. Also because I find it a very difficult thing to do; it's so arbitrary and I am not really tough enough to throw out works that obviously represent a huge amount of effort and emotion on behalf of the artist. When I was on the Royal West of England Academy selection and hanging committee last year I found it very difficult; but others (often those who had taught) were a lot more decisive.
Working on the bar. It always takes me a bit of time to relate to the figures on the canvas when I've been separated from them by distance and time.
Now reading Geisha by Lesley Downer (a Chinese Canadian who lived in Japan for many years). For a word that is overlaid with so much exotic imagery, it's interesting to know that it actually means 'art person' and refers to the fact that they are highly trained in the Japanese arts particularly music, dance, performance, tea ceremony, flower arranging, calligraphy and conversation.
Lee rang from New York about the commission for Elsie Adler; I've said it will probably go our Friday or the beginning of next week when the crate is finished.
It's Remembrance Day with the two minutes silence to recall all those who died in battles through the last century and this. Seems sad that those who gave their lives in the first two world wars felt that they had fought the wars to end all wars. Particularly sad that we are still adding to those enormous lists even though the numbers are smaller in these days of technological advances; including the most recent, the members of The Black Watch.
Good day on the bar painting; the figures are now developing personalities, having reworked them. I'm gradually moving towards the back in receding scale.
Spend some time around about midnight looking back over the catalogue for The Beautiful Women of Kyoto exhibition at the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art. It's interesting to recognise some of the techniques they use that are so evocative of all that is Japanese in the making of these paintings; the lovely way that the black of the hair graduates and softly fades at the outer edges and the use of flat colour emphasising the exquisite shape more than a concern with form. This technique is also used in the woodblock prints where the colour is brushed onto each block.
Phone call from Jane Alvarez re the Seven Ages of Man project. Apparently the whole development has grown in concept and the mosaic may now be on a different wall but she says that it's still on track. I think this is oft the way of public commissions, that it's also very political with various bodies and departments wanting an input or say. It must be very difficult for the organisers who have to listen and try to encompass all points of view.
E mail from Caroline re the bar painting to see if it's still on schedule and whether Richard has been able to do a layout for the inside of the card. I'm still making changes to parts of the painting; have made the background tables and figures a little larger and lowered the main protagonist again.
Phone call in the evening from a woman who'd collared me at the end of the meeting at the Art Gallery & Museum in September. Apparently four of the artists' groups in Cheltenham are hoping they might be able to lease an exhibition space at another new development in Cheltenham. They are setting themselves up as an artist led trust and are looking for a 'name' to give weight. I do explain that I don't know that mine would have any clout with the powers that be and that as a patron of the National Star College any effort in fund or profile raising has to be for them. Although she asks if she can keep me informed of their developments which I agree to as I do try my best to encourage all groups, especially when they are trying ot help themselves.
Beautiful bright sunny day; seems rather a shame it's not been like this during the week for our builders Eddy and Les, it's been cold and grey and often damp for them. They are still working at ground level on the foundations; the Building Inspector had made extra stipulations - extra deep and extra strong - as corrugated metal had been found under the ground behind where the garage had been. We suspect it was the previous owner burying it there when he dismantled his old garage to build a new one. But Eddy and Les seem to be happy with their progress and have rounded off a couple of their days cooking supper for each other. On Wednesday they had liver, bacon and bubble & squeak accompanied by the saki we brought back for them. It's wonderful to think their average age is 70 and yet they're still strong and withstand the weather though they probably finish at about 3 to half past most days when the temperature begins to drop, having starting at 9 am.
Good day in the studio on the bar painting. I call it day but actually it's finishing at 1am as usual after which we go for our walk accompanied for part of the way by our beautiful pale ginger companion. She's now taken to climbing every possible post to sit upon to be stroked so that she's more at our level. She really enjoys eye to eye contact. The Geisha book is fascinating we are now covering the Tayu and Heian period of their history
I must have made good progress on the Bar as when Richard and Rose from next door carry in three of the paintings they have been guarding whilst we've been away, Rose comments on how much has happened on it since we have been back.
Reverend Ian Calder calls in the morning; Richard had bumped into him briefly in Tescos so I think he's come to see the triptych which now gleams white with gesso as R has primed it for me. We also discuss the terrible state of the situation in Iraq and the Middle East; like me he feels energies should have gone to solving that problem. Although since the death of Yassar Arafat last week Bush and Blair are at last talking about the possibility of making a Palestinian state and settlement.
Elsie Adler's painting sets off for New York in it's crate when Federal Express collect it during the afternoon.
Bar tables gradually filling up with people.
Now working on the actual bar in the Bar painting.
Phone call from Rick Rumrell who's currently in London from St Augustine. He's coming down on Saturday on the train. It will be great to see him as it must be about a year since we last met.
Phone call from Michelle Blondel in Paris during the morning; she's very excited at the moment as they have just found a new gallery near Mussee Picasso in the Marais.
Caroline has sent back the preferred layout for the interior of the card on which the bar painting will be reproduced. We have set a provisional date for them to come and see the painting of next weekend. R also puts out the second of the square newspaper painting commissions and I make a start in the early hours.
John arrives later in the day whilst I'm sitting at my easel, painting the rhythmic shapes of a row of bottles. He's brought a corrugated piece he's been constructing and the frame and board for Lee's commission. I tell him the Revd Ian came in on Monday and liked the look of the triptych. I'm going to do a dedication to John's late wife Margaret (a wonderful lady who was the school nurse but sadly killed in a car crash last year) and paint a little vignette.
Work on bar until 11.30 pm when enjoy looking at some of the photographs of various places on the Japanese trip. There's a wonderful shot of Jizo-Bosatsu in the garden of the temple Kamakura Hasedera surrounded by thousands of tiny Jizo figurines. All looking the same, rather like an Anthony Gormley except that these would have been very much earlier. They are comforters of the souls of unfortunate unborn children. This temple is particularly famous for housing the sacred statue of the goddess Kannon. She was carved by the sculptor Tokudo-Shonin in 721, one of a pair from the same camphor tree. Whilst the other stayed in Nara, this one was cast into to the sea to bring mercy to the people wherever she landed. In this instance it was Kamakura, sixteen years later. Likewise in Asakusa where the temple was likewise dedicated to Kannon after a tiny Kannon was hooked out of the river by two fishermen. She is often depicted with smaller heads emerging out of the top of her main head and sometimes with many arms also, a goddess of mercy and compassion.
It's a bright sunny day and Eddy and Les our builders, make good progress after being off during yesterdays rain. We replant the bed at the entrance to the studio garden which had become barren after the replanting of the horse chestnut tree from the garden of 39. The builders were somewhat surprised we wanted to save it but it's because we had grown it from a conker that Nathan had brought home as a boy. We planted perfumed winter boxes, hebe and lonicera nitida as well as 150 daffodil bulbs and some cyclamen. On returning to the studio, continue painting bottles and glasses across the lower section of the Bar, finishing about midnight. R comments that I have made a lot of progress.
R drives to Stroud to collect Rick, as the train is only coming that far. Weekend services when they are working on the lines etc. have always been very bad. The poor man e mails us after he gets back to London to let us know that on his return he had to travel by coach from Stroud to Swindon and then back onto the train. It seems appallingly bad especially in comparison with the Japanese Railways. But in between we have an enjoyable time sitting over lunch only interrupted by the arrival of the gas callout man as the electricity had tripped off when I turned the heating on in the morning. He's very efficient and he puts a new pump into the central heating. Rick's recently been working with Mel Fisher who had discovered an old Spanish galleon that had gone down off Florida and there have been a couple of cases about who owns the treasure trove. Museums, the finder or another school of thought is that it should remain on the sea bed as historically that is where it ended up, for experts to dive down and examine in situ. He's over here working on a couple of other cases and liaising with prospective clients.
After lunch we have a quick look around the studio (Rick owns paintings going back over the last twenty years) before R takes him back to Stroud station. Then it's back to the Bar, working into the figures across the top painting the little vignettes at each table.
Big bash on Bar painting, gradually working down the top half of the canvas and then in the evening into the the figures standing up at the bar. We are now up to the 1850's in the Edo period in the Geisha book
It's very well researched.
Reply from Dan at the art school re. a competition for designing and making a photography award for the National Star College. they have been thinking about doing a bronze. The crucial thing at the moment seems to be the timing as the students they have in mind would be working on it in the third term which should hopefully be just in time for the July Awards Ceremony.
Weather has remained good for Eddy and Les; it's exciting to now see some upward progress. Likewise on the bar painting, I'm beginning to refine the figures, particularly the barman, the main protagonist.
Cheque from Spinal Injuries charity for 50% of the sale of the wavy horse racing work with a nice letter saying the money will cover the cost of providing 8 weeks of Peer Support to newly injured people who are patients in the National Spinal Injuries Centre at Stoke Mandeville. I am also going to donate the half of the sale they have sent to me towards the New York trip that the National Star College are taking their students from the creative arts department on. So it's been a very satisfactory outcome.
Nice e mail from Alistair apologising for lack of communication recently as he and MJ have been travelling. They have approved the expenses for the Japan trip (which is just as well since the American Express bill arrived today).
R goes to London in a hired, calling in at Bristol en route to pick up sculpting material for Nathan. He's also collecting two big easels for me from Cornellisen's (between the British Museum and the Tottenham Court Road). One of my school type easels had broken recently when I tried to turn it with a construction on it; there had been an almightily crash with all the pieces falling off. Luckily none of them onto me, unlike the shoe shop construction in 2002, which caught me on my arm. This time Rose from next door heard the crash and came to my rescue. It was a sorry mess as it had also taken my water and paint pots with it. So R's persuaded me to invest in two new large weight bearing easels, similar to the big one I have already that is a lot easier to move being on wheels and winds up and down with a handle.
Meanwhile in the studio, the light is good as it's a bright day. I add some more tiny figures at the top and then work across the central section of the Bar painting adding more objects linking the composition top to bottom, with little sections of colour. Work until 2.30 am as R didn't leave Nathan's until about 1.30 am.
Henrietta and Kev had come over to Stoke Newington to rescue Nathan and Richard as they needed to saw down two 8 foot by 4 foot by 2 foot lengths of the sculpting material to get it into Nathan's studio and they didn't have a long enough saw so Kev came with three!
R assembles the two new easels. At the moment they have that distinctive new smell probably the linseed oil in the wood.
In between the complex tangle of table legs, chair legs and human legs I paint the chequered motifs on the floor of the Bar. General refining over the surface of the canvas which now looks very full.
Nice e mail from Eiji at the Morohashi Museum of Modern Art re. images of my paintings in their collection that they would like to have reproduced on wooden jigsaws for sale in the Museum shop.
Bar; Bar; Bar
In the studio working on the Bar when Henrietta comes in (they have taken my Mum for lunch at the garden centre). Pleased that she likes the Bar painting and also the Sweet Shop. We have a lovely evening and my Mum also comes for supper, exchanging news and travel stories; they went to Berlin at half term) and have brought us back the most beautiful Advent Calendar full of chocolate marzipan. Kev's design business is flourishing and he's working very hard, as is Henrietta in her teaching of art. Do another three hours on the Bar after they have gone to bed.
Henrietta and Kev leave about 1pm to have lunch with friends before returning to London. A little more to the Bar before Caroline and Simon arrive with their two beautiful, lively little daughters Kate and Arabella, to see the Bar which they have commissioned. I'm so pleased and relieved when they react so enthusiastically; Simon says it's just how he imagined it. After they have gone I work on sides bottom and top of the frame.
R takes the Bar to the photographers for 8am. We then prepare for the group who are coming from the University of the Third Age; there are about twenty four of them. They start to arrive about 10am, we serve them coffee and mince pies that my Mum had made specially. They are a very interesting bunch of people who ask very pertinent questions both during the informal talk I give in the house and during the studio visit afterwards. R then goes to Swindon to take the transparency and layouts to the printers whilst I work on the sides of the Bar and the second newspaper canvas for Standard Chartered Bank.
More to the right hand side of the frame on the Bar.
The afternoon play on Radio 4 is Resurrecting Miss Pym; about the writer Barbara Pym. Amongst a list of very prominent writers asked to name the most underrated writer (in The Sunday Times?) Pym was nominated by both Philip Larkin and Lord David Cecil. Shortly afterwards she was approached by Jonathan Cape who wanted to publish her; this of particular interest as she says, when wring to Philip Larkin that she has cordial letters from Tom Maschler, which reminded me of when Eric Lister took me to see him with a view to my writing and illustrating a book. There was some discussion about perhaps working with Laurie Lee but it was thought that perhaps he was rather a womaniser. It ended up with Tom buying one of my small paintings and leaving the project up to me - he liked the idea that perhaps I could write down the stories I told my children. When I asked if I could write under a pseudonym so that it could be separate from the paintings he thought it rather an absurd idea . After due consideration I thought it was better at that time just to concentrate on painting. I think Eric thought it would also help me financially but as unknown writers didn't get particularly big advances, I think in retrospect I made the right decision.
Two large emails from Yuka, our friend in Japan, sending me photographs of her cousin's wedding where there were three different ceremonies - Shinto, Buddhist and Chrisitian. It's rather wonderful the way the three are combined and overlap. Many Japanese are born into Shinto, marry as Christian and have Buddhist funerals. She also introduces her family to us through the photographs.
Have now got the second of the two Japanese canvases up again and am contemplating ideas for the fish market. Also a lot of work on the second newspaper canvas which is probably now at a similar stage to the first.