MAY 2007

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Tuesday 1.5.07

Cheque received for Passage of Time, a painting I bought back to add to (from a Christie's auction) that Brian Sinfield has sold. I seemed apt as I painted it over twenty years ago to add more before it went back out into the world. Also the deposit on the new commission.

Later in the day the judge's brief arrives from Art & Business to prepare me for doing so on Thursday.

Wednesday 2.5.07

The papers have now arrived from Canada so am able to start the canvas R had prepared for it, today.

Thursday 3.5.07

The post has been good this week as this morning received payment from International Art Consultants for 14th March, a painting that went to and fro several times as both they and the Brian Sinfield gallery had more than one client interested in the work. Another cheque from the Fosse Gallery for two very small works.

We set out for London early afternoon after voting in the local elections en route. Arrive in perfect time at the Galleria in Pall Mall. The works all exhibited on easels. I found it particularly difficult as all being regional winners, each had its own particular qualities. But with the other four judges who included Lucian Camp the Chief Executive of the advertising agency CHMIping, Farah Nayeri of Bloomberg News, Colin Tweedy Chief Executive of Arts and Business and Ian Byres Corporate Development Director of Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance, we came to the final choice (after some heated discussion) also making a commendation for an extra work. It was good to see all the bright young students (who had travelled from as far as Edinburgh and Glasgow) and their fresh ideas; Lloyds TSB had given a matching prize money to each student's College. The theme was the Art of Nurture. Ian took me through to the gallery opposite which had reproductions of the past paintings used, including my Latin American which was the first in their campaign. He also gave me a catalogue that they had reproduced it in. During the event champagne and canapés were served, live music played and there were two lots of thanks from the podium to Alex Crouch of Arts & Business, who had organised the event.

Friday 4.5.07

Nice letter from Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum; as part of their Centenary they are doing something called 'Celebrity Challenge' where they ask well known or people who have a connection with the Museum, to name a favourite piece in their collection, which is extensive and world renowned for its Arts and Crafts furniture. It will be very hard for me to decide, I would be tempted to mention Richard's two ariel views of Cheltenham that are in the local history gallery or Barbara Gay's wonderful ceramic Lady and the Unicorn tableau that she gave to the Museum which she had been most taken with when she visited it for the Star Art exhibition in 1991, towards the end of her life.

Saturday 5.5.07

Phone call from my client in Germany to say how pleased they are with the little painting, how it's really too good to give away and how she hopes they may be able to come and visit my studio at some time. Spend day on the Canadian newspaper painting.

Sunday 6.5.07

Lee rings from New York; they have received the Fedexed photograph of the commission and would like it sent tomorrow. I explain it's the May Bank Holiday so it will have to be sent on Tuesday. Not a lot achieved in the studio today as much of the time was spent sorting through the huge mounds of paper that rise up from every flat surface. R had put a card table up for me to work on the restoration of Jane and David's very old hand coloured photograph (on glass) of Jane's great grandmother and in the few days since finishing it an amazingly big paper build up has occurred. Although I try to recycle most of it some things aren't eligible for the Council's recycling bin.

In the evening my Mum and my sister Gill come to supper, Gill having driven her back from a weeks stay with them.

Monday 7.5.0

Working on the big lion.

Tuesday 8.5.07

E mail from Alex at Art & Business saying that Lloyds TSB have asked if I could do a quote for their press release on the Art & Nurture competition and saying thank you for being one of the judges and standing in for the Chairman to present the prizes.

Busily putting the final touches to Lee's painting ready for R to pack in the box he made for sending it to New York when the telephone rings; it's Julie Crawshaw who had arranged to interview me on the 'phone this afternoon. It had totally slipped my mind. I apologise and ask if I might ring her back once the painting has gone but we make arrangements for a new date. The Fedex man arrives whilst R is still wrapping it; he kindly waits whilst R packs it in the box and I write on the outside and sign the invoices.

Wednesday 9.5.07

E mail from Joan at the Loch Gallery in Toronto giving the dates that the works need to arrive there by and also the specification for the reproduction on the invitation card etc.

Thursday 10.5.07

We're off to London early today. R drops me at the Chelsea Arts Club at about 12.15; there are two women hovering outside unable to get in so I feel rather pleased when I am able to wave my magic electronic members key in front of it and push the door open. I'm a little concerned as I can't see the other member of the ACS Board in the bar but then spot a group of people sitting outside and sure enough it is Harriet (Viscountess Bridgeman) and the other members. We decide to go indoors as it feels as if it's going to rain. Am given the agenda, figures to date and the list of artists who have signed up. Harriet, who founded the Bridgeman Art Library in the 1970s had been approached by dealers to set up ACS as an alternative collecting society (for Droite de Suite) to DACS. After some discussion of items on the agenda we move to the dining room for lunch where we all opt for the turbot with dandelion stalks. The Chelsea Arts Club has always served good food. I explain to them that although I am a member I am rarely in the Club. Whilst in the office where I am endorsing a prospective member, she introduces me to Evelyn who of course I have had frequent conversations and correspondences with particularly when they were producing the Christmas card with the reproduction of my painting. I meet Richard outside at 3 before we drive on to Tate Britain There's a very nice exhibition of the work of the late Prunella Clough. Her beautifully executed abstracts make me feel that it would be quite nice to paint some myself but then as the quote in the hall from David Hockney says - all painting is abstract. We move through various galleries, one contained works by past students of Saint Martins including what had been a large pyramid of Fresh oranges with a label inviting viewers to take an orange which I did. Then on to visit Henrietta Isaac and Kev for supper.

Friday 11.5.07

We have Isaac for the day. During the afternoon we take him to visit Nathan in the studio he shares with four others although apart from him only Sam is working there today. I give Nathan the orange from the Tate thinking it might give off some good zest in the studio and a new book on digital film making by Mike Figis. Rebecca also visits so does Ruth (who edits her own Art Magazine The Guest Room) with her nine month old son Emil who has a beautifully cheeky smile. Nathan and R go out to get some Chinese food that we eat eat in front of Nathan's suspended cloud! which Isaac keeps pointing at. He also walks (and Emil crawls) through Naoko's exquisite floor to ceiling strung thread installation!

Saturday 12.5.07

Message from Lee to say that she and Jim are delighted with the painting that has now arrived. Phew!

Sunday 13.5.07

Start new painting. Sad to hear an obituary(on Radio 4) by Tracy Emin of the fashion icon Isabella Blow who took her own life last week. An extraordinary and colourful figure Isabella had been editor of Vogue and always wore the most extraordinary clothes. She was responsible for the early success of the fashion designer Alexander McQueen, buying up the whole of his degree show for £5,000 also Philip Treacy whose hats she always wore. She was also part of an exhibition we were in at Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum entitled Celebrity Stitches, which exhibited the outfits of well known Gloucestershire people (a wonderful collection including the suit Laurie Lee went to the Spanish Civil War in) hers was the beautiful purple velvet pre-Raphaelite like wedding dress that she had been married in at Gloucester Cathedral: the photographs on the front of the Gloucestershire Echo at the time reminded me of a Richard Dadd painting. Nathan remembers meeting her at the degree show in Cheltenham whilst he was a Foundation student. We last saw her at the opening of the Tamara de Lempicka exhibition at the Royal Academy; we were talking to Anthony Green and Mary Cozens Walker who wondered who the woman in the swanlike white feather outfit was. She ended her life in a most terrible and dramatic way by drinking Paraquat weed killer - I cannot bear to think how painful that must have been.

Monday 14.5.07

On Friday while we were away, a message was left on the answer phone by a woman who is preparing a BBC website for North Wales and wanted to use my painting Bore Coffi Cymunedol that hangs in the Daniel Owen Centre in Mold. It was commissioned by them (half funded by the Welsh Arts Council) to celebrate their 25th Anniversary. This morning I ring her back; she is creating a virtual tour round the region and asks me about the painting and when I painted it. I tell her that the man at the bottom of the painting with his back to us is how I imagine Daniel Owen (who was a poet) would be, reading the local paper.

E mail from Dr Margus, the Estonian Ambassador saying he quite understands why we cannot attend the concert 'Sacred Voices', Gregorian chants sung by an Arabian soloist with an Estonian choir, as we have Henrietta and Isaac coming on Friday. He also says he will let us know when the artists Juri and Evie Arak are coming over from Tallinn as he is going to drive them down to visit the studio and have lunch.

Bore Coffi Cymunedol - A Community Coffee Morning

acrylic on canvas on wood, 97 x 64 inches, 1997

Tuesday 15.5.07

Sharon e mailed to say that they had an enquiry from the Mayor of Athens office who are interested in my work. They had liked one of my on her website but it had already been sold.

We are very pleased as Fat Flyers have been able to print a postcard with images from Nathan's film Lexicon Chapter One which is being taken to the Cannes Film Festival on Thursday by a distributor.

Have just had e mail from Jane and David to say that they would like the tickets that Margus (the Estonian Ambassador) sent us for the concert at the Sheldonian in Oxford for Friday evening called Sacred Voices, an Arabian singer with Estonian choir performing Gregorian chants. We are disappointed to be missing it but delighted that Jane and David can go.

Wednesday 16.5.07

The reality of how imminent the deadlines are for both the exhibitions in Toronto and Burford is beginning to dawn on me, so am working both on existing paintings and new ones that I have been starting each day; some of course are small.

Thursday 17.5.07

Am surprised to hear on the World at One (BBC Radio 4 news programme) Margus talking about Cyber attacks on important Estonian web sites - the President, Parliament, the ministries, banks and media. Bombardment from a million computers thought to be in Russia, a retaliation for the moving of a bronze statue of a Russian soldier to a different site that caused rioting in Tallinn a few weeks ago (one person died and many were injured). Millions of enquiries for information flood each of the Estonian web sites causing a crash. On various news programmes today I heard the phrases 'cyber war' and 'cyber terrorism'; it sounds like the stuff of science fiction but must be hugely disempowering for Estonia where for instance 90% of banking is done on line and of course these days most organisations use electronic communication both internally and externally; more than the telephone or postal services. A computer expert from the UN is travelling to Estonia to investigate the causes. The Russian government denies the accusations, saying that it is possible to falsify e data but Estonia have evidence of much of the spam coming from Russian government addresses. To read what Dr Margus Laidre The Estonian Ambassador wrote in The Guardian...

Friday 18.5.07

Tony Blair seems to be bidding a long farewell to the country in American Presidential style. He has also been in the USA making a speech from the White House lawn with President Bush - a mutual admiration society. But not so former President Carter who has made a statement in which he accuses Tony Blair of following Bush blindly into the Iraq War a major tragedy of our time. If only voices like his could have had more effect sooner then perhaps Iraq would not now be in such a terrible state of internal conflict. A hundred die each week. So much could have been achieved if all that energy and expenditure had been used positively. The Iraq War is a terrible blot on modern history and although there is a seeming peace and agreement in Ireland, started of course by John Major and furthered by people like President Clinton (which is why Mr Blair said he was in the USA to make his thank yous to those who helped). Now on his seventh visit to Iraq he is having discussions with the President and government. It seems sad that a man who after 9/11 was reading books on Islam to increase his understanding and travelling the world having discussions with leaders of many Middle Eastern countries, could have been swayed by a gung-ho American President when he, the more articulate of the two, had it within his power to try and persuade him to take a different route; one of building bridges between Palestine, Israel and the rest of the Middle East.

Saturday 19.5.07

My darling Henrietta and Isaac are here for the weekend, they arrived last night to be with us whilst Kev and his father walk in the Peak District. Isaac is wonderfully curious and loves to take the hat off Nathan's old ventriloquist's dummy and points at the fish boy mannequin who was part of Nathan's Foundation course installation. He's also fascinated by the paintings; he points to everything that he is interested in - I've noticed that similar pointing boys are beginning to appear in my new works!
Sunday 20.5.07

Don't get into the studio until late evening as after Henrietta, Kev and Isaac leave at 7.30pm, I get a 'phone call from the care line to say that Lyn Horne had fallen over. Richard had just walked my Mum back home so I ask two men sitting in a car on the next door drive to help lift her up. Luckily this time there are no broken bones.

Thursday 24.5.07

Phone call from Miranda at the Brian Sinfield Gallery to arrange studio visit for clients who have commissioned a work to come and view it in progress. They have started to get enquiries about the forthcoming exhibition from the add in the RA magazine.

I hear Peter Gabriel on 'Front Row'; he had just been awarded the Ivor Novello Award for song writing. He's such a nice man; I remember him phoning up to see if he could visit the studio to see my work way back in the 80s and we didn't realise who he was!

Saturday 26.5.07

Invitation from Harriet Bridgeman and the Artists Collecting Society for the Artists Summer Party at the Chelsea Arts Club later this month. It's getting precariously close to my exhibition, opening July 14th, at the Brian Sinfield Gallery, so we will have to see how well I progress.

Studio visit.

Sunday 27.5.07

Have started another new canvas; the shape of a seated lion begins to emerge and the suggestion comes into my mind that he should be accompanied by St Jerome.

Monday 28.5.07

Dear friend Ronald (the architect who designed our pavilion style bungalow) rings and asks if we'd fancy going to a wedding at Winchcombe church in July. I congratulate him and say we'd be delighted. It doesn't come as a surprise as he had mentioned that he and Lynn had become engaged a few weeks ago.

Tuesday 29.5.07

Receipt from the Garden Gallery for my deposit on the booking fee for the Star Art exhibition that we are organising in October.

Wednesday 30.5.07

R's always telling me not to lift heavy things but I hate to not show willing when he is lumbering under the weight of one of my large and heavy works, insisting that I leave it to him. He thinks I'm Fussing! (worrying is more exact)but have now learned my lesson as he did allow me to help angle it into the back of the car. After he's gone I proceeded to lift a smaller newspaper painting (that he had offered to put on the easel for me) This double exertion must have strained my wrist. The wrist had recovered by the morning but the thumb on the opposite hand had become inflamed, perhaps by compensating for the right hand; it made me realise how extremely difficult it must be for the disabled who sometimes spend their lives operating everything with alternative parts of the body due to not having control or power in their hands.

Thursday 31.5.07

Call from Rob Whittle who asks if it would be alright to take Before the Race to the Chester Art Fair in October as the organiser would like to reproduce an image of it.

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