Sunday 1.8.10

On the way to Jane and David’s wedding party we drop my Mum off in Winchcombe so that she can also enjoy the afternoon I’d planned for them all at Sudeley Castle. We are a little late so when we arrive in Naunton we can’t see anyone in the house or the lower part of the garden But walking up its steep incline behind the old apple tree, we find the long table with the gathering of  a dozen or so people, some of whom like Camilla knew, I had been an art student with and her potter husband Mike also Anne who had been at university with Jane and her professor husband Dick. It’s such a delightful occasion, so relaxed and informal and unlike the usual hotel type wedding breakfasts. Most of the delicious food has been prepared by Jane - a wonderful Greek dish with layers of spinach, feta cheese and filo pastry with salad; for the desert a delightful black current fool, most of the fruit and vegetables having been grown n their garden. The  chairs have all been individually adapted by David to sit on the gradient ( but not the table so it as fascinating to see after the meal that the tea or coffee in the beautiful old cups was at a very steep angle which caused much amusement. I had a slice of Jane’s delicious zucchini cake. The conversation and atmosphere is very much that of long friendships and good friends; we leave at about six . Henrietta, Kev and the boys have been back for an hour or two and dropped my Mum home. They are watching Nck’s Chicken Run video and are totally enthralled, all on the sofa under a knitted rug as the evening has grown a little cold.

Monday .8.10

Following up a conversation in which Isaac was telling Richard about gargoyles and how you found them on churches and castles, we take them down to St Michael’s where Isaac goes round the outside of the church spotting them and using our rather heavy camera takes photographs of them and the dragon around the arched entrance doorway in the porch. They  heard the organ start up whilst doing so and Harry, long time choir member and churchwarden, tells us that it’s one of the choirboys playing. We go in to observe and Jack who is playing barefooted offers to let Isaac and Samuel have a go. Of course the are much too small to be able to play the pedals but he pushes the stops in and out for them whist they press the keys. He used to be in the Cathedral choir but now sings once a week at St Michael's and once a week at Cheltenham College. We are very impressed as Samuel points up to my painting in recognition. All in all quite an educational little trip as on the way walking down  Isaac had spotted a ladybird on the lane which he encouraged to walk on his hand; soon there were others too so we spent a good ten minutes enjoying the company of these little insects that are also a symbol for the Madonna.

Tuesday 3.8.10

Intriguing hand decorated envelope in today's post. On opening it discover it is from Emily Lister the Gloucestershire College student who visited my studio with the group who came last year and who had received one of the prizes I sponsored this year.

Wednesday 4.8.10

Work in the studio till about 5.45pm then change. We drive over to Gloucester for Bishop Michael’s garden party which has a lovely atmosphere and is full of chattering people sipping wine or elder flower cordial. Julia and Mark Hurrell tell us very excitedly that they have bought the Cath Kidston violin from the silent auction. Carol Bungard tells me how much she enjoyed the unveiling. Lisa Noaks introduces me to the wife of Gloucester’s new (Conservative) MP; they are keen to go and see the painting at Gloucestershire College. Speak to Edward and Alyson; Edward is wearing a Gloucester Cathedral tie with a design that incorporates fan vaulting from the cloisters. Then I feel a big hug  from behind and someone exclaim ‘hello PJ’ it’s Martin Horwood, MP for Cheltenham (Liberal Democrat); he’s such a lovely man. it’s the first time I’ve seen him since he retained his seat in Cheltenham at the general election although we had met his main opponent at the Royal garden party. I congratulate him on his win and with a grin he generously says he didn’t get as much coverage in the paper as I did for the Gloucestershire College painting. I’m delighted to meet his beautiful Indian wife Shona. She has an equally high powered career being a doctor, head of Gloucestershire Primary Health Care Trust and a governor of Gloucestershire College. last time we saw Martin he was accompanied by their two exquisite little children, a son and  daughter Maya who they are anxious to get back to, to relieve the baby sitter. As we are leaving we tell Bishop Michael that we have left a print of the Gloucestershire Nativity I painted for reproduction on his Christmas card last year in the hall so he accompanies us in to see it and also shows us the portrait that was painted of him whilst he was at Derby; also an image of the new last supper painting at Nailsworth.

Back to the studio.

Thursday 5.8.10

I’ve now got to try not to be distracted and concentrate on the exhibition. Some days the correspondence is so great it means I get into the studio rather late. Richard’s cleaned my big wooden palette so I’m able to squeeze out the luxuriant oil colours in worm like formations that very soon become spread, battered and mixed on every area of the palette. I have sometimes used old plates or any surface available but the palette and plate are more portable than a table top, when changing positions in the studio; though I have to admit I do sometimes feel a little pretensions with the palette - more like a caricature of an ‘artist’.

Friday 6.8.10

Have been exchanging e mails with Gina, chairman of the Friends committee at the Art Gallery & Museum, who would like a meeting to discuss ways of helping the Museum’s new development.

The lovely smell of oil paint now pervades my studio.

Saturday 7.8.10

Jubilant e mail from Gill Henry telling me that they have just received a good grant from a Trust towards the new development and thanking me for my help.

The studio’s beginning to look livelier and fuller again; it’s nice to have a few days without interruption.

Sunday 8.8.10

The disastrous floods in Pakistan seem to be getting worse with the relentless rain. Things sound  there horrendous; a whole bus was swept away killing its forty plus passengers. British donors have been as usual very generous and the amount is already over £5,000,000 though I’m very cross with myself as by the time we made our donation the Big Give had stopped its doubling.

Monday 9.8.10

Luxuriate in another uninterrupted day

Tuesday 10.8.10

After some to-ing and fro-ing of e mails, have managed to arrange for the Arts & Heritage group of the Hon Co to meet at the Art Gallery & Museum next week. It will be rather a busy a day as I have another meeting just prior to that with Gina, the Chairman of the Friends Committee, Jenny Ogle one of the founders of the Friends and Graham Lockwood chair of the development appeal board.

Wednesday 11.8.10

About 5 o’clock stop work to change to go to Bristol for Martin and Nick’s launch of Green Poems for a Blue Planet. It is at Rise Music Store and Book Shop. When we get there I’m very pleased to spot Toyah and Robert as we have not had a chance to give them the little presents we had for them after the unveiling and Robert’s two concerts. Interestingly they are talking to Jill Ranford who I haven’t seen (although we have corresponded) since she was camera woman on the docudrama in which Toyah played Rolinda Sharples the Bristolian artist born in the 1790s. Who travelled with her parents, both artists, to America (being kidnapped by the French en route, and all the livestock and plants were washed overboard. But when they eventually arrived Rolinda’s father made a handsome living out of  painting portraits of George Washington and the leaders of the new Republic of which her mother made copies to make further sales. After his death Rolinda and her mother returned to Bristol where Rolinda made her living as a painter, mainly from portrait. In the film I played myself as a letter day contrast as Rolinda had never married for fear that  husband would absorb too much of her time and had not had children for fear of dying in childbirth. She did died of  in her 40’s of breast cancer but was survived by her mother Ellen Sharples who founded the Royal West of England Academy (RWA) and her collection  which later became the nucleus of the new Bristol City Art Gallery & Museum collection. Jill remembers the big painting I did of the making of the film and seeing it in the window of a London gallery; the painting now forms part of Robert and Toyah’s collection.

The book launch is hugely successful with queues of people waiting to have their copies of Green Poems for a Blue Planet signed by Martin and Nick. It’s a sell out and they run out of books. Whilst they are setting up Martin had a call from Foyles in London who would like them to do a book signing there too. The event was obviously giving off good vibrations as Toyah also had a call whist there from Warner Bros. who want to distribute The Humans forthcoming release through several countries which was very exciting. After the event we go back to Martin’s for champagne and nibbles. As we are climbing the stairs to his living room we hear the piano being played and a beautiful female singing voice ; I imagine it’s Martin’s daughter Seraphina but no, it’s Sarah Williams a friend of Nick’s and a most incredible woman who has founded her own charity called Smiling Eyes International. She trained as nursery nurse and has worked with children all over the world from the homeless in New York to a hospital in Bolivia, and orphanage in Romania, refugee amps in Yugoslavia, street children in Nicaragua, abandoned street boys in Peru, a school in Durban with tsunami orphans and widows in SriLanka, feeding the street children in the Philippines, helping to build houses in Cambodia, playing her accordion with the street children and prison ministry. All the more remarkable that Sarah was born with Marfan Syndrome a connective tissue disorder that affects the eyes, heart and her deformed feet make walking difficult, But this doesn’t stop her, she’s  played golf in the British Blind Masters and the Australian Blind Open in Melbourne as well as in the UK. Every Thursday she spends at Riding for the Disabled and had competed at the regional and National Dressage Championships for three years. Sarah sails dinghies every week on Chew Valley lake and has sailed on tall ships for the disabled, the Lord Nelson around Scotland and the Tenacious from Southampton across the Bay of Biscay to the Canary Islands, using a compass that has different beeps to indicate port starboard, fast and slow. She has trekked in the Antarctic to raise money for a Tut Tut for Tsunami orphans. Through her friendship with Nick she is also the voice of Pickles the Guide Dog in ITV’s Creature Comforts and Nick is Patron of Smiling Eyes. Sarah has a guide dog called Ozzy (who isn’t too well himself), as she is registered blind and has also taught brail at RNIB schools in London, north Rockey School for the Blind in Sydney, Homai School for the Blind in Auckland, Salvation Army School for the blind in Mombassa Kenya (she bought the school a new cooker and twenty white canes). She also does public speaking which I’m sure spreads her remarkable energy and warmth to even more places. She has sung at the Royal Albert Hall (she had achieved Grade 8 at singing) and her remarkable ability on the piano where she is playing everything by ear and when I say everything it does mean everything. So Martin had to take it in turns. We were also treated to wonderful playing of his own compositions and his friend Sheila who also has the most beautiful singing voice and has sung in and understudied in musicals like Hair. The sing song and the conversation are a delightful way to finish a marvellous evening.

We get home at about a quarter past midnight and I do another three hours in the studio.

Thursday 12.8.10

Having finished the snooker painting Hustler (started at the beginning of the year) and Dreamer for Richard to take to the photographers this morning I’m now trying to finish Higher Heels and Longer toes for him to take tomorrow morning. Work until dawn and the oil is still very wet but Richard says he will make sure the photographers don’t handle the fronts.

Friday 13.8.10

Concentrate all efforts on Learning to Fly (started in January) and Song of the Sea

Saturday 14.8.10

Very pleased that the Big Give is open for doubling donations again as the floods in Pakistan are now seen as the biggest world disaster in living memory, so its brilliant that this charity is able to double again my second donation.

Sunday 15.8.10

Work through the day and the night on Objects d’ee and Objects d’art which Richard then photographs, then transfer to Learning to Fly and Song of the Sea from about midnight. It’s light and the birds are singing when we return to the house

Monday 16.8.10

R has been having a rather busy time liaising with the printers for the new catalogue and to-ing and fro-ing to the photographers with the paintings. He’s worked very hard and has managed to get everything there on time, which is difficult for him with me working on everything until the last moment.

Tuesday 17.8.10

Brian Sinfield rang to see how things were going and in the hope that I might have some work for him. I explained to him that with the London show so imminent that it isn’t possible. and forgot to mention that of course I’m also working towards the show in New York next year.

Wednesday 18.8.10

Studio

Thursday 19.8.10

Dental appointment in the morning followed by a couple of hours in the studio before needing to change again to go into Cheltenham for a meeting with Gina, chairman of the Friends, Jenny Ogle one of the founders of the Friends and Graham, chairman of the development trust board. Discussing ways to help the Museum with the next phase of its appeal. Richard collects me at about half past four and we drive to the museum where he drops me off to meet the arts & heritage group from the Honourable Company, for our meeting which is preceded by a fifteen minute visit to Helen’s store to see some of the ancient artefacts held within. Then its up to the friends meeting room where Jane gives a short presentation on the new development. One of the main issues of discussion is what the role of the arts & heritage group is within the Honourable Company; I’m not sure that we manage to define it but Master Robert Turner, the Warden, was very informative on how the Company’s moneys were spent and which worthy causes it had supported. Nicky said he had looked at my web site and says ‘carryon painting your masterpieces’.

My phone had rung half way through the meeting which I turned off. When I get back to Richard and the car I discover it was the gallery so we sit in the car for twenty minutes whilst I phone them back and discuss details for the exhibition with Mikhail.

Friday 20.8.10

R takes two of my paintings back to the photographers, Higher Heels and Longer Toes, as after seeing the proofs for the catalogue I decide that I should rework the frame on Longer Toes. Also make an addition to that of Higher Heels which means two more transparencies and two more scans!

Lots of e correspondence with the gallery again so it’s rather late when I get into the studio where I am trying to finish a painting that will hopefully be reproduced on the invitation card if I mange to complete it in time!

Saturday 21.8.10

More e correspondence with the gallery who have noticed a couple of small measurement discrepancies in the catalogue.

Sunday 22.8.10

Beavering away on The Hourglass in the hope that I will be able to complete it by Wednesday morning. I’d started it earlier in the year (January or February I think) leaving it rather like  stage set waiting for the players to emerge which they have  done  in the last couple of weeks. I didn’t really know quite where they were going or what they were doing, just followed the muse.

Monday 23.8.10

ditto

Tuesday 24.8.10

Work all day and then through the night not retiring to bed until...

Wednesday 25.8.10

...Richard appears in my studio waiting to take the painting to the photographers. So it’s after 9am when I crawl under the duvet. I rise in the afternoon  just as Richard is putting the image on the disk to take to the printers.

Thursday 26.8.10

After we have approved the proof the gallery e mailed an article written in Art In London which Sasha says they are very pleased with and asks if it would be possible to include Rodin on the invitation card too. So Richard, who on Tuesday was told he had shingles (when I sent him to the doctor), manages to redesign the text side to incorporate both Rodin’s Great Thinker and The Kiss which actually look very nice. He sends them the design by e mail with only four minutes to go before he leaves for the printers in Tewkesbury and with a minute to go a note comes back with two small amendments and bless him, he manages to still get there just in time! When he returns a little later I send him to bed for a good sleep and at half past ten take him up a supper of two boiled eggs with salad sandwiches and some miniature oranges as the minerals in the pith are good for helping to heal the nerve endings which become painfully raw with shingles which is a recurrence of the dormant chicken pox virus from childhood that lays at the base of the spine and sometimes remerges. Eggs too are conducive to the healing. When my father had it it was across his rib cage which is the more common place but Richard’s has occurred around the left hand side of his eye which swelled up rather like a black eye without the blackness and the sores from the rash are between the eye and the hairline. Dr Robinson says it just happens but I have wondered if it was the intense effort of getting  the catalogue into production.

Friday 27.8.10

It’s Nathan’s birthday and we had been going up to London to take him and Ruth out to dinner but as Richard hasn’t been well we decide to wait a day or two until he’s feeling a little better.

Saturday 28.8.10

Working in the studio when notice a text on my Blackberry. It’s from Nick’s remarkable friend Sarah saying that she and Ozzy her guide dog are with Nick and Martin who are giving readings and signing books at the Greenbelt festival at the Racecourse; she knows we don’t live far so would we like to meet up? She’s only there today although Nick and Martin will be on Sunday and Monday also. She gives the phone to Martin so that we can discuss a good arrangement - decide it might be easiest if they come and have supper at about 7.30 before their next reading and signing between 10 and 11pm. It’s lovely to see them and Ozzy her guide dog  seems to know the way in and around the house, waiting by the back door for Richard to let him out into the garden (Sarah is the voice of Pickles the guide dog in Aardman’s Creature Comforts). She’s the most marvellous person and soon discovers our very out of tune piano! Martin wonders whether the pegs have gone ! but I suggest that its probably because we haven’t had it tuned for so many years. The book Green Poems for a Blue Planet is going really well; there is a big reading and signing at Foyles in London, another in Bath and also at the film festival in Bristol and they are appearing on Blue Peter who are going to use one of Nick’s illustrations on the front of their Christmas card and one of Martin’s poems inside it - it’s gaining in momentum all the time.  A fabulous book ! I’m giving one to Nathan for his birthday when we go up tomorrow.

Sunday 29.8.10

Up to London. First to see Henrietta, Kev and the little boys who when we arrive all appear on the doorstep to greet us. Isaac’s got a new haircut that Henrietta took him for at her hairdresser; so not as short as when Kev takes him. It makes him look quite beautiful and elfin. I can’t believe that he will be starting school at the age of four and a half in just over a weeks time. He tries on his beautiful purple and green blazer and cap for me and looks quite angelic until he’s rolled on the furry rug when showing it to Richard! It’s then two and a half year old Samuel’s turn at his own request to try it on, the cap this time worn at a jaunty sideways angle with the peak pointing out over one ear and his long blond curls and ringlets spreading out over his shoulders below. The windmills I’ve bought them very quickly become missiles for them to aim into the tree from their tree house. Isaac’s keen to show me his tree climbing skills. The bubbles always hold a magic for them both and remind me of when Henrietta and Nathan were about the same age; there’s a timeless appeal and later I try to connect it with a very simple science lesson by showing Isaac whilst he’s in the bath how all the toys with air in float to the top and how the air escapes through little bubbles when they are pushed down. A little later when reading  him a story I ask him what it is that’s invisible and all around us and he remembered that it is air, so I’m pleased with our little science lesson. After many farewells with Kev bringing Samuel out to give us more kisses several times before we drive off to Stoke Newington to meet Nathan and Ruth for the birthday celebration. They have chosen a Mexican restaurant in Church Street. Richard, who has a knack for these things, says we’ll probably spot them walking up and there they are striding along the High Street, a handsome couple Ruth being  almost as tall as Nathan and very slender. I jump out of the car and run to embrace them both then almost running like a child between them going so fast we arrive there before Richard who parks in a car park behind the restaurant. I get up from the table to help him in with presents etc. and we hide behind the partition to put candles on the chocolate cake. The young manageress says that she can handle that and when would we like it to be brought to the table? They had chosen this Mexican restaurant as it also served fish, knowing that we eat that rather than meat. It’s also close to the flat; they’d gone back to change after spending the day working in the studio where tomorrow Ruth and Martin will be making the props for one set while Nathan is filming on another. After the starter and the main course, the candle lit room lights up with even more candle glow as the cake processes towards our table out of Nathan’s view. A huge Mexican hat with a lot of silver on the crown is placed on his head as we sing happy birthday. It’s a lovely evening that goes all too quickly. They stride off again to the flat at 11.30 and we jump into the car for our return journey. We are home by just after 2.

Monday 30.8.10

Painting round the sides top and bottom of the frames, the penalty I pay for including them within the composition. Always left till last as they can’t be seen when photographed for catalogue etc. Richard’s feeling a bit better.

Tuesday 31.8.10

Catalogues and invitation cards are delivered from Tewkesbury Printers at about twenty to five and as have been busy addressing envelopes and notes were able to get quite a few in the post this evening.