SEPTEMBER 2005
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As well as working on the two King Abdullah paintings I make some additions to the 14th March for R to take to the photographers in the morning.
The local paper says that Damien Hirst has bought Toddington Manor, a wonderful gothic building that was used as a school, it is only a few miles down the road from us.
Call from Brian Sinfield. later I sharpen up some of the edges on Valentines Day so that R can take it to Brian's gallery tomorrow.
It's still glorious weather here and after hearing the news all week of the terrible conditions in Mississippi and Louisiana that were hit by the wrath of Hurricane Katrina, it makes us realise how fortunate we are. In lots of the areas that were hit 90% of the buildings have been destroyed. the situation is appalling; water polluted, no food and dead bodies. Survivors huddled into cramped sports centres etc. where conditions have become dire. there's much criticism of President Bush and the government for not having got aid there sooner, particularly as these areas tend to be poor and black. many of the forces who would have been able to help are in Iraq where another terrible catastrophe happened when thousands of pilgrims were crossing a bridge to visit a mosque ; panic broke out when fear of a suicide bomber being in their midst caused a stampede, killing almost a thousand people by suffocation, being trampled or falling or jumping into the River Tigris below. such a tragedy.
Working on the second King Abdullah painting when my Mum comes into my studio bearing a basket of fruit and vegetables. My sister has just delivered her back after her week's stay.
Call from Nathan; all's going well with the film project. The studio is booked and he's met up with the casting agent who's really good (she cast Vera Drake). He and the costume designer, Jenny, have also been to source others from the National Theatre.
A lot of the day spent sending overdue communications to various people connected with the exhibitions planned for next year.
Still moving elements around, trying to get the angles, scales and composition right on the second King Abdullah painting. It's amazing how long can be spent just moving a line of paint.
Call from Brian Sinfield. Work on the two King Abdullah paintings.
Note from Thames and Hudson about the artist yearbook which gives the foundation a mention.
Making a few radical additions to the second King Abdullah painting, making the two grounds compatible (both fore and back) and yet separating them.
Saturday 10.9.05
Phone call from Rob Whittle who's now been paid for the work he recently sold.
R goes to London to collect stretchers, paints, gesso and brushes etc. Also to a reclamation yard to get a ridge tile with a rather benign looking dragon sitting on it peering over the end which will go on the lower roof to entertain passing children.
I've homed in on some of the larger small figures, players in the Janaderiah opera. It's so vast in its expanse that it's a little daunting until I've managed to paint a group of musicians and other players who are raising their swords in honour of the King.
Have now added a group of flag bearers. In the evening R shows me some of the scenes from Lawrence of Arabia to compare the historic costumes with those in the opera. It's strange seeing the film after having been to Saudi Arabia and meeting the people; somehow sir Alec guiness doesn't seem to have quite the look of a true Arab and I felt slightly indignant when Anthony Quinn rode among his tribesmen saying praise be to God instead of al-Hamdu li-l-laah. Strange that although the settings are gloriously beautiful, the style of acting now seems dated.
Eddie and Wayne put the very heavy dragon upon the roof end. They both seem to like it and were soon receiving comments from their passing audience.
Call from Michelle Blondel in their new Paris gallery. We haven't spoken for some time so it's good to exchange recent news. She asks about the paintings I'm doing and I tell her that although I've finished the Japanese canvases I'm still on the Saudi Arabian series. She's going to look at the Japanese works on the web site. They are very busy at the new gallery where she has now got her office set up
Wednesday 14.9.05
Invitation from Robert Sandelson gallery with an image of a rather beautiful Tamara de Lempicka painting for their forthcoming exhibition. R looks the painting up in Alain Blondel's catalogue raisonne and we are fascinated to see how the colour varies in each of the reproductions.
Seem to be making more progress with the second King Abdullah painting which work on until dinner. Later I put a few finishing touches to Descent from the Ark and then work on the central figure on the painting that I think will become Paradise Lost based on the beautiful old Arabian city of Al'dyriah.
Ann and Jeremy come to the studio with their friends Gwenda and Jerry. Interestingly Jerry had been the architect we had used seventeen years ago when we first moved here, to design the first addition to the house. I then came across him when I gave a lecture at the University of Gloucestershire two or three years ago whilst he was studying for a Fine Art degree as a mature student. Ann and Jeremy have come to look at Descent from the Ark which they are buying as a joint present for each other to accompany a little painting they bought a couple of years ago.
R's gone to deliver paintings to the Royal West of England Academy before going onto a reclamation yard in Bath, to look for interesting possibilities for the house.
Meanwhile I'm making forty marzipan roses with leaves which I then paint with natural food colours and attach to the beautiful cake that Richard has made as a ruby wedding anniversary present for our neighbours Richard and Rose. So not as much painting achieved today.
In the evening we drive over to Chalford for a drinks party at the Knowles - it's Caroline's birthday. She and Simon now own four of my paintings and have just commissioned another work, a reproduction of which they will publish as their Christmas card for Cantilever Bars.
Nice quiet day in the studio working on the two King Abdullahs.
I'd recently received an e mail from Chris at Gloucester City Museum with the dates they are thinking of ( 6th May thru July 1st ) for the Paradise, Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained exhibition also asking for some words on the form the show will take. I've e mailed Robert Fripp requesting some from him too. Am now trying to put together a paragraph or three for the purpose. It should be exciting to have Robert's Soundscapes as live and recorded music, though it is going to take a huge amount of energy for me to get it together with all the other commitments. The exhibition at the Morohashi Museum in Japan will have started in April and also run through till July; the Cheltenham Museum show starts a month earlier in March. So it will be a very busy with an exhibition at Robert Sandelson's gallery following later in the year.
I'm gradually painting more and more small figures into the middle ground of the standing King Abdullah canvas. A crowd of players at the finale of the Janaderiah opera. In the foreground, either side of the King, are two small tables with flower arrangements which they seem to use a lot in Saudi Arabia, perhaps because so much of the country is desert. We were amazed to observe how clever they had been at irrigating cities like Jeddah and Riyadh which often have the most beautiful palm tree lined roads bordered by sand and pastel coloured elegant houses, the design of which usually relate to traditional Arabian architecture. In Riyadh back in the 1930s the was only one palm tree.
I've now added groups of musicians and dancers to the crowd that fills the huge arena of the stage set and again reworked the head of the King.
R meets Brian halfway to Burford to give him the newspaper print which he than has to deliver to his client today for the opening of the 'News Cafe' in Oxford tomorrow.
Painting the red patterning on King Abdullah's guttra absorbs the whole day and evening but it has lifted the upper part of the painting where the red and white of this head cloth contrast against the green and brown of the set.
Late afternoon Wessex Timber deliver £3,000 worth of newly machined italian poplar cut to my own design for Tim to make up into frames.
Meeting with Sophia, Exhibition Officer at the Museum, to discuss arrangements for the exhibition 'A Day at the Races' in March of next year; all seems to be progressing well. After looking round the Museum we head off to Cavendish House to shop for presents for Henrietta's birthday next week.
Back to work on the guttra in the studio in the evening.
After a rainy start it turns into a bright sunny day spent in the studio until it's time to make large quantities of fruit salad for Rose and Richard's anniversary party. I have to smile when R arrives back looking rather like a green grocer, bearing large numbers of pineapples, melons, strawberries, blueberries, kiwis, grapes, apples and peaches. It didn't take long before he's transformed it into huge glass bowls of a myriad beautiful multicoloured segments. Just as I've delivered the second bowl across to their house our dear friend Tammy (ex National Star College student) arrives from Birmingham with her Mum and Dad. It's wonderful to see her looking so well; she had been very ill and in hospital for three months unable to eat or drink, whilst they tried to discover what was wrong and how to put it right. I think her recovery was due not only to the skill of the doctors and nurses but to her own inner strength and the love of her parents and family - her mother sat and slept day and night in the chair next to her bed constantly through the three months and certainly on one night Tammy would have died if her mother had not been there to call for help and the emergency team who resuscitated her. Tammy has been a friend for eighteen years (since I awarded her an Art prize in 1987) and is the most generous spirited girl who never complains. We all go over to the party where R is acting as the barman; my mum is very impressed with how smart he looks in black suit, white shirt and bow tie; I suppose she rarely sees us out of our paint splattered working clothes and of course for her generation, smartness was all. I'm being the party photographer! It's still in full swing when we leave about 11.30 to say good-bye to Tammy and her parents and to escort my Mum and Minnie home.
Spend day as usual working in the studio.
Autumn seems to have begun today as there didn't seem to be any warm sunny spells; so light level in the studio much lower. Have transferred back to the first King Abdullah painting with the multitude of heads, strengthening the tone on the four soldiers' berets before starting on Prince Salman's guttra which immediately lifts the painting with it's vibrant red patterning.
Nice e mail from Loughran O'Connor who says she has followed my work since seeing it in a London gallery in 1978 while she was here on a scholarship from the USA studying painting and art history at Goldsmiths. She and her husband are coming over and wonder if they can visit the Museum which is of course not open yet (Eddie the builder is still in residence, currently plastering the ceiling of the top room from where he will gradually make his way downwards through the next two floors). But we do of course open the studio by appointment.
Also an e mail from Matthew Wolf-Meyer an Anthropology Fellow at the University of Minnesota who's editing a book on Games, Gamers and Gaming Culture. He wants to reproduce one of my paintings on it's cover.
Fortuitous or coincidence Radio 4 are currently playing extracts from Milton's 'Paradise Lost' for Book at Bedtime, 10.45 each evening. With an introduction by Philip Pulman (His Dark Materials) who eloquently points out how powerful Milton's narrative and imagery are; that even Shakespeare would have found it hard to surpass. It is a wonderful reading by Ian McDiarmid as Satan whose voices conjure up and evoke the awe and mystery of Heaven and Hell. The extracts are taken from the BBC recordings of the complete Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained of which I have a set of tapes with William Blake's illustrations for the same reproduced on the covers but it is interesting to hear it with the introduction.
Today spent divided between the two King Abdullah paintings. Interestingly when my Mum called in yesterday she commented on how much the standing King canvas had progressed particularly the number of figures in the middle ground.
Request from Philosophy Department at Drexel University PA to reproduce one of the paintings.
Again work on both of the King Abdullah canvases.
R and I spend time working out the frame sizes for Tim to make up from the newly turned Italian poplar - twenty one of them in all, which should keep me going for a while! I work in reverse to most artists, by having my frame (which is an integral part) made up as the starting point for commencement of each work; others usually consider it after the painting is finished.
By coincidence John calls in the afternoon with two very beautiful corrugated constructions; I feel excited at the sight of them as he's made them differently. I give him a free hand which allows him to come up with new ways of constructing them. He's brought his sister with him. I show her the paintings I am currently working on and also the huge triptych that John made so magnificently for me but still hardly started. He asked if I'm waiting for inspiration so I tell him I have plenty of that but not enough time!
Statement from the Bridgeman Art Library for reproduction fees paid this quarter. Many of them are through Getty Images; of particular interest is a publication entitled Great Writers volume 10 in which they have reproduced "Big City". Also in today's post a very nice invitation card from Robert Sandelson to the Victor Vasarely in Black and White exhibition which opens on October 21st till 26th November.
Day spent finishing filling in tax returns as the forms have to be there by 4.30 pm for Her Majesty's Inspector of Taxes to work out how much he's due. After delivering them, a little more shopping for Henrietta's birthday. Work in the studio didn't start until later in the evening.