MAY 2004

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Saturday 1.5.04

Sergio's book CRONICAS CULTURALES arrives, wearing my painting Monday Morning on it's cover it also has the article Sergio wrote on my work in 1999. I feel honoured to be included as he's interviewed and written on people as diverse as Salvador Dali, David Mach, Isaiah Berlin, David Lodge, JK Rowling, Frank Gehry, Richard Rogers, Salman Rushdie, Kazuo Ishiguro, Octavio Paz and many more. If only we could read Spanish ....... He coined two memorable phrases about me "the artist of the crowd" and "a childhood worthy of Dickens".

Henrietta and Kev arrive about six, both looking well and happy; we have a nice supper together.

Sunday 2.5.04

H and K take my Mum to the garden centre and then out to lunch. Manage to add a little more to the circus canvas which is beginning to look fuller.

My Mum joins us for dinner and we exchange belated Easter presents as Henrietta and Kev had been skiing at Whistler in Canada at the time.

Monday 3.5.04

H and K go back to London after breakfast, packing their car with all the plants they bought at the garden centre yesterday.

Struggling with the lion, trying to reposition the head and stance.

R's giving the floor in the pavilion a sand and revarnish as we have new tenants moving in shortly.

Tuesday 4.5.04

Frank Grace rings to discuss arrangements for me to go and see their London house, particularly the bedroom, for the commission I'm painting for him of them in bed reading newspapers. We figure will go before a visit to Robert's gallery, hopefully see the El Greco at the National Gallery and the Tamara de Lempicka reception at the Academy.

Have added more zanies and dogs jumping through hoops to the circus canvas.

Wednesday 5.5.04

Find invitation on the doormat that has obviously been delivered by hand from Cressida Connoly and Charles Hudson to celebrate his 50th birthday at Wick Manor. Cressida is a writer and apart from her own books she often writes very interesting articles and reviews. She wrote a fascinating profile in The Telegraph magazine on Mark Haddon and The Curious case of the Dog in the Nighttime ; this was the first time we had heard of the book though it has become very celebrated since. He grows delphiniums and uses them for Real Flower Petal Confetti; they are beautiful colours and of course, biodegradable.

The heads of the audience on the front of the circus canvas have changed from the vague outlines that I moved to and fro trying to find the right positions, into heads with rather more shape, form and personality now.

Still much controversy about The Mirror's photographs of British soldiers maltreating Iraqi prisoners. Piers Morgan, the editor, is to face a Commons inquiry as to their veracity. In America President Bush has made a statement saying how disgraceful the behaviour of a small number of American troops had been in also treating Iraqi prisoners in degrading ways. The whole situation in Iraq seems totally out of control and the war seems to have caused nothing but destruction and chaos and more and more troops on both sides are losing their lives as well as all those Iraqi civilians and children.

Thursday 6.5.04

Suddenly realise I haven't replied to the gallery in Rutland who had asked if there was someone who could come and say a few words at the opening in September - so have sent a couple of suggestions. R teases me that if I can paint the rest of the very large circus canvas in as much detail as the audience but I point out to him that there's a whole band across the top that I still haven't painted.

Friday 7.5.04

Paint further into the tiger as well as filling the whole of the upper section of the canvas with tiny figures making up the huge faceless crowd of audience on the far side of the circus ring before a short clothes shopping trip into Cheltenham. I always rather begrudge the time out of the studio.

Saturday 8.5.04

It's sometimes hard to stop myself gazing out of the studio window at the various birds who are in such wonderful voice at this time of year. We seem to have more than ever, perhaps because we allow rather more prolification of undergrowth than most. The ivy that covers the house must give habitat to hundreds of small birds. It's always a joy to hear their music; unlike other sounds that can grate or interrupt thought patterns. A survey was done in one German city where the nightingales now sing even louder to compete with the noise and drone of its polluted urban environment. We also seem to have several squirrels who cheekily eat the nuts that I put out for the birds and denude our horse chestnut tree of it conkers before they are fully formed.

Have started adding faces and form to the figures and animals in the circus painting.

Sunday 9.4.04

Two writers seem to have been mentioned this week who I've had the pleasure of having a work on their book covers. It's the centenary of the birth of Patrick Hamilton - PD James reckons he was very underrated and that he is better than Isherwood and Auden. His book HANGOVER SQUARE was being reviewed on 'A Good Read'. David Lodge was discussing NICE WORK on Radio 4's 'Book Club'.

Circus seems to be progressing at a slower rate even though I am working as many hours on it.

Monday 10.4.04

Working on the Gossages commission today; it's quite good having been able to stand back to see it afresh.

Tuesday 11.5.04

Arrive in London at the Grace's magnificent house in Mayfair just after 2. I feel rather honoured to have two of very few contemporary works in their collection (which has quite a lot of turn of the century theatre related paintings). Make notes for the commission.

Then onto Robert Sandelson gallery in Cork Street to see his exhibition of Tamara de Lempicka drawings. We walk to the National Gallery to see the El Greco exhibition. Amazing that this man who started as an icon painter in Greece graduated to huge religious panoramas, often vertical (...........) almost reaching the ceiling. The paintwork is quite loose and almost expressionistic at times, the figures elongated with small heads full of emotion. It was in the mid nineteenth century that other artists began to collect his work, amongst whom were Delecroix and Degas, keeping the images alive. A breathtaking exhibition.

Tamara de Lempicka

Portrait of a man, 1928

(the artist's first husband, Count Tadeusz de Lempicki)

Walk back to Robert's before setting out with him to the reception at thE Royal Academy of the comprehensive exhibition of the paintings of Tamara de Lempicka. Alain and Michele Blondel are there from Paris, so is Barry Friedman from New York. It's moving when the President of the Academy mentions them in the rediscovery and bringing to the public eye the work of de Lempicka who had also fallen out of fashion through the forties fifties and sixties until Alain rediscovered her and staging a successful exhibition of her work from the 20's and 30's which epitomises the Art Deco era. Michele tells us about the painting of Tamara's first husband Tadeusz, (above) also a Russian emigre. How whilst Alain was in the studio Tamara offered it to her daughter Kizette,as it was a portrait of her father; Kizette said it was much too big to take back to Dallas, so Tamara took out some scissors to cut out the head for her and it was only after Alain intervened and stopped this action that the painting was given to the Musse d'Art Moderne in Paris. We meet Anthony Green and Mary Cozens Walker and chat about work and children; Mary had noticed a woman dressed in white feathers and wondered whether she was Tamara's granddaughter but Robert tells me she is Isabella Blow, fashion writer renowned for her remarkable outfits. Introduced Martin Bailey to Barry Friedman; Barry has recently come back from the Chicago art fair where he had seen Philip Kotler - we all had dinner at the Kotlers house (Michelle, Alain, Barry, R and I) when Barry and they were showing my work at the Chicago art fair. Philip is Professor of Marketing at Midwestern University and a business guru who owns several of my paintings and about a thousand glass sculptures.

Then onto meet Henrietta, Kev, Nathan and Sofia for dinner at Inn The Park.

Wednesday 12.5.04

Inka calls for the Brian Sinfield gallery and asks if we can send a high resolution image of LATE NIGHT MOVIE to a magazine that is doing a piece on the forthcoming show. It's good to be back at work.

Thursday 13.5.04

Call from the Great Roberto to say that the cards that Richard had designed for him are wonderful and to go ahead with getting them printed. He tells me that Toyah is on television this morning and that last week she was on a programme where she designed a picnic outfit that was then compared with that of a designer.

Now working on the supper painting, then back to the circus in the evening.

Friday14.5.04

Surprised to receive small check for royalties from Wentworth Wooden Jigsaws.

E mail from Jim and Sandy Rosenberg in Chicago telling us that the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art is doing an Art Walk, looking at different collections next week and that the notorious INSIDE OUT (it disappeared in shipper's warehouse for a year) will be seen by all the people who take part.

Computer technology is wonderful but when it goes wrong you can feel awfully let down. Our i book seems to have given up so R takes it to be repaired and buys a new one but whilst transferring information from the large Apple Mac that somehow loses its ability to access the internet, thus we have no e mail. It makes you feel stranded and cut off.

Saturday 15.5.04

Can't think for a moment why I have received a gold embossed invitation to the opening by the Canadian High Commissioner, of an exhibition of Inuit Art and Matisse lithographs at Fortnum and Mason, until R notices on one of the cards says that Theo Waddington is doing an evening giving a "..fascinating insight into Inuit art, the history of Inuit carving, Matisse and the Inuit face." and we realise that he has probably organised the whole show.

Monday 17.5.04

Large e mail comes from a publisher in Germany; they want to reproduce GOOD MORNING M. BALLADUR in an academic book, an edition of 40,000. The only trouble is that they sent a huge attachment (a reproduction of the painting) that it clogged up the mail system which hasn't recovered yet.

Whilst researching newspapers for the small corrugated piece that I have been working on, find interesting article and reproductions of the South American artist Botero's paintings. These wonderfully inflated figures are highly regarded by dealers and collectors. The article says that he is considered to be "the Picasso of South America". It also draws comparisons with Beryl Cook, the British painter of large ladies, which seems too obvious a comparison. Cook's are more caricaturish and whilst wonderfully humorous don't have the quality of Innocence of the Boteros. Like Tamara de Lempicka he is also collected by Madonna and other celebrities and some of the works have fetched over $1m. When we were at the Palm Beach Art Fair whilst Theo Waddington was showing my work there, there was a beautiful Botero of father and son.

More work to the top of the circus canvas; have now added the stripes of the circus tent.

Tuesday 18.5.04

The circus takes all energies again. Add monkey on a stick held in the air by a scantily clad performer. I like to interweave and overlap layers of legs and trunks etc. making a complexity of shapes.

Last week interested to hear in a programme on Elgar (who lived nearby in Malvern) that he kept a potato on his desk for sticking his pen nib into. A versitile thing the potato. I remember Bernard Carter, a Portal Gallery painter, who had been to Goldsmiths and was Keeper of paintings at the National Maritime Museum, used to clean his paintings with half a potato.

Wednesday 19.5.04

Very nice letter from Anne Lonsdale, President of New Hall, saying thank you for Radio Pram, which has become part of their extensive collection of womens art. She also tells me that their plain brick and concrete buildings make an excellect setting for the collection; they were completed in 1965 by Chamberlin, Powell & Bon (who created the Barbican complex) listed grade II* in 1991 with important additions by Austin, Smith-Lord in 1995.

It's a glorious day for our new tenants moving into the pavilion.

Late afternoon call from Victoria Bridgeman of the Bridgeman Art Library asking if they can reproduce my painting The Party as an invitation to a party they are giving at the Chelsea Arts Club and asks me to save that day.

Still working into the crowd on the Circus.

Thursday 20.5.04

Nathan rings, excited that he had just persuaded the processors to show him his film when he went to collect it. He's really pleased as he had been very worried that part of it might have become damaged but it only seems to be about 30/40 seconds worth. The processors liked the look of it and are keen on working with low budget productions. Now he has the task of editing and putting the sound track to it.

Catch snippet of Toyah speaking on radio 4 this evening at a meeting of speakers discussing the role of women as 'after dinner' and 'motivational' speakers etc. with Sally Gunnel the gold medalist, runner, journalist and writer.

We get a copy of the Gloucestershire Echo as they have advised to check out our ad for letting number 80. Of course it's property night and we are amazed to find two fairly local houses that we have at times had our eye on. The nearer one, although older, I'm not sure is as pretty as the one we have; the other, Richard used to frequently call at when he collected one of Nathan's school friends on the school run, was built by Lord for his mistress - I might not be able to resist having a look at them.

Add new figure to Circus canvas also try moving the tiger's head. I'm mildly panic stricken when I see the date is the 20th

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Friday 21.5.04

Add three tumblers or acrobats to the Circus.

Phone up the estate agents. It seems the property at Prescott is in need of a lot of work which is why the price seems low. And the closer one we are still deliberating on; although it's Listed and older we wouldn't have as much space as the combination of The Old Police Station and my studio house across the road, though it might make a nice museum.

Nice e mail from Jim Rosenberg saying that the Museum of Contemporary Art had five people stationed in his house for the Art Walk, which seems to have been a great success.

Saturday 22.5.04

Beautiful sunny day - my Mum and I sit in the studio garden to have a cup of tea when she calls in with two geraniums that she has bought for us. I plant these and another tray of lobelia whilst she decides to have a go at my studio sink which now gleams though some of the little bits of paint were impossible to remove. It's sweet as at 81 she still likes to do things to look after me.

R took some time out from his vegetable garden to dig over an area of the back garden of number 80 ready to turf as our gardner hadn't done that when he turfed the front as out tenants had a large inflatable swimming pool covering the area.

There are now a couple of figures climbing up a rope to the high wire, on the circus canvas. Still working into the audience. The composition is becoming denser and denser.

Sunday 23.5.04

Start companion piece for the small corrugated newspaper, both based on the Leap Year Weekend, 28/29 February although this one will be more continental with le Monde, El Pais, Figaro etc. I haven't ever made any corrugated newspaper paintings on such a small scale before.

Monday 24.5.04

Nice e mail from Edward Gillsepie giving some very good advice on the prospective Museum show in 2006 for other possible venues. Also inviting us to go and see the Centaur (new exhibition centre) at the Racecourse.

Mix up new colours in jam jars then we go to look at the house that we had spotted for sale last week. It is very nice, built in the 1800's with stone mullioned windows, beamed ceilings etc. but not as light as I would like and our ceilings are probably eight inches higher, though it does have a very big garden that would be interesting to develop further. But since we don't get as much time to work in the garden (let alone sit in it) as we would like, it isn't an essential.

Back to the easel to work on the large supper canvas, filling in the scenario in the mirror with more diners, waiters etc.

Tuesday 25.5.04

Interesting piece on 'Leading Edge' the science programme on Radio 4 about the link between the Surrealists and science. It mentioned that it is the centenary of Dali's birth. He painted a wonderful portrait of Einstein made up of atomic clouds that we saw in the Morohashi Museum of Modern Art [whilst they were holding the exhibition of my work from their collection in 2001]. The programme quoted part of an interview with Dali in 1962 when he said that he had painted his famous 'soft watch' after eating camembert one night. Ever the showman he also said that Marcel Proust's moustache drooped downwards because he was a pessimist whilst his own pointed upwards because he was an optimist.

News of fire at Momart the biggest art storage facility in the country which has destroyed amongst other things the Chapman brothers' HELL and Tracey Emin's tent EVERYONE I HAVE EVER SLEPT WITH. Both are part of Charles Saatchi's collection but many other works belonging to him and other dealers were destroyed.

Wednesday 26.5.04

Receive two more party invitations both in July which is becoming an increasingly busy month. Package of American newspapers for 17th May from Frank Grace, for his commission. Having now worked out the mirrored reflection behind the diners, mix up new colours to work out the wall paper patterns; by the end of the day it's a different one on each side of the canvas.

Thursday 27.5.04

Call from Brian Sinfield to say he's just received the RA magazine and he's pleased with the ad. Post arrives shortly after in which our copy of the magazine arrives so we can see it for ourselves. Also letter from the Oriel Gallery at Theatre Clwyd saying he's penciled in the dates for my exhibition there, part of the tour organised by Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum in 2006; and then a phone call from Sophia at the Museum who is organising it. Public institutions always plan a long time in advance.

I'm delighted during the afternoon when there's a knock on my studio door and it's John, who has completed his first frame construction for me. It's beautifully made and he's obviously wanting to get on with the altarpiece triptych.

At 7 we go to the School to visit the exhibition of four students work, one being Kate who did a study on me as part of her double art A level. The work is of a high standard and well hung; we are delighted to hear that Kate and her colleagues have been accepted on the Foundation Course in Cheltenham Art College.

Then back to the studio and "The Diners". Work on the table top adding more objects and decided on the wall paper pattern so that both sides now correspond.

Friday 28.5.04

Copy of Perspectives arrives in this morning's post with the Newsletter from the Museum. It has the interview with me by Tony Whelpton.

Hear interesting item on radio 4 business programme about the music industry and the problems it is having with people downloading music rather that buying the CDs. It included a phone call to Peter Gabriel who has set up a system which should legalise the process with White Label - digits to music, money to people. Peter bought one of my paintings many years ago and later came to visit. As well as furthering The Diners I also work into The Ark adding monkeys, pigs and rhinoceros.

Saturday 29.5.04

As R is going to take a mock up of the catalogue over to brian Sinfield this afternoon I decide to have a bash on two of the pieces that need more work before he photographs them. The small corrugated Continental newspapers for the first half of the morning then Serenade to which I add several tiny figures and trees. Brian who likes the layout and the works comments "is this work entirely finished?" But it did look rather more resolved by the evening, several hours after R had shown it to him. During the evening transfer to Cafe, adding another smaller face looking through the shelves of food and more figures across the top section of frame.

Sunday 30.5.04

Continue with Cafe - paint in a tartlet to partially obscure the main protagonist's face and other confections seen through the lower shelf. Back to Serenade turning the two smaller figures into harlequins and adding a small dog to the foreground.

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