April 2010 Thursday 1.4.10 Richard has gallantly volunteered to go on his own to position the paintings when Barbara collects him at 10 while I relax here to work on my speech. R’s booked a hotel car to take us to the opening . We seem to have only been there for a few minutes when Margus arrives with two of his friends Peep who works for Estonian Heritage trying to reclaim Estonian museum treasures etc. that have been taken during occupations. It’s very good to see Yuri Arrak and Evi who look exactly the same as when we here four years ago. Yuri generously gives me a magazine Estonia Now with a large feature on him and his work that he has signed for me. Closely followed by Wallace, Madge and Laura. I haven’t seen Laura for about ten years when she was still at school, she has since been at Goldsmiths to study textile design. Last night they went to the Helehund where John Beevor took us in the early hours after we’d had dinner apres the private view in 2006. Lots of interesting friends of Margus’ including an art critic, historian etc who also lectures at the University. Two musicians, a guitarist called Robert who’d been with Robert Fripp on one of his guitar craft courses and a drummer called Arvo who had played with Toyah and the Humans. It’s most touching that two women who I do not know, separately come up and give me gifts, one a bunch of beautiful yellow daffodils, another a pinafore with two chickens and four leaf clovers printed on it with a matching pot holder. And dear Wallace as usual brings roses. Margus makes a very warm and welcoming speech in English after which I in return give my reply of gratitude and appreciation for the efforts of this marvellous man who seems to have the capacity to turn dreams or wishful thinking into reality and it is the great generosity of the Embassy and the Estonian Ministry of Culture that this wonderful event for me is taking place. How fortunate I am. After my speech Barbara presents me with two exquisite blooms bound intricately with plaited leaves. Still a student who works two days a week at the gallery, she has been brilliant at organising it through her communications with us via e mail and her kindness and attention to us during our stay. After the vernissage we are taken to dinner at a very interesting restaurant around which Peit, one of Margus’ friends from the University , shows us. The old building which has had two floors added used to be a wine shop. Kaire (the manager of the Gallery) and Barbara are with us and Peit’s Chinese wife joins us a little later. She also lectures at the University. The food was all Estonian including the delicious black bread which Margus says is the food he misses most when he’s in London. It’s a wonderful meal, my starter is a finely sliced pickled beetroot dish with a goats cheese and salad followed by a wonderful fish plate. Estonia is almost surrounded by sea which is why it became so important to the Russians. There are some very interesting conversations. Peit was in Afghanistan just over a year ago and I wondered how it had felt but of course as Margus pointed out, like the young Estonian amputees he has visited in Birmingham’s Selly Oak Hospital, the response is always positive even though it will profoundly affect their future lives. I have an interesting conversation with Peit’s wife about Chinese culture, weddings and e learning - particularly interesting is the Spring festival she describes where thousands upon thousands of Chinese travel to be with their families causing a great overloading of the transport system there; she feels that she and her students at the University here are adequately able to communicate with those they love through Skype which of course was invented in Estonia about five years a go. Margus says they now need to make another new technological invention of similar importance! Friday 2.4.10 We’re meeting Margus at 1 and as we cross the market square we see him waving from outside the Town Hall as he walks across to meet us. Then he catches a glimpse of someone he knows, a young man and his wife pushing their 4 month old baby across the square. They had worked together when Margus was ambassador in Sweden. Margus tells them they must go to see my exhibition at the Vaal gallery which is quite close to where they live. Margus then takes us to see the Freedom Monument which is in the shape of a tall cross partially made in glass which lights up at night. We then walk through the Old Town to a wonderful little tea and coffee house that specialises in chocolate, where we have a large slice of German chocolate and marzipan cake each. It’s so good to have this time to chat to Margus on his own, a highlight of the visit; we talk about the way I paint and discover it is very similar to the way he writes. Being guided perhaps by the creative spirit rather than a preconceived construction, allowing for chance, the incidental and mistakes all to offer direction and inspiration. That the course only becomes apparent during the making. After this Richard and I find an antique shop where I buy an interesting broach made out of six Estonian coins from 1931 - perhaps celebrating the first ten years of independence which was of course lost again to the Russians, then the Germans then in 1944 to the Russians again. And a couple of other pieces of jewellery from the 50’s. We go back to the hotel which is listed as one of the leading small hotels in the world. The German chancellor and the Pet Shop Boys amongst others, have stayed here. At 8 o’clock we meet Wallace, Madge and Laura outside the Town Hall in the square. They decide they would like to go to a Russian restaurant so of course we start with ice cold vodka (with a red current suspended in the top of each). Small bowls of tomato soup compliments of the chef with black bread. I had herring as a starter whilst R had fish soup followed by a rather magnificent salmon pie for the main course. After this we decide to go onto the Hellihunt for a night-cap but its crowded with no seats left. Whilst we are wandering in the rain, we are beckoned into a restaurant and bar called The Bank where to my delight there is a group of young people dancing Latin American. They are brilliant and obviously passionate about this form of dancing, which is very erotic, some say that the tango it is a vertical expression of a horizontal thought. I’m not sure that it’s quite Laura’s scene as she would have liked to have gone to the Depeche Mode bar (though I’m sure she would have been good at it if she had the courage, having studied ballet for ten years) but I found it inspirational. Its about 3 am when we turn in. Saturday 3.4.10 After packing and breakfast we go out to the Museum of Marzipan to buy some of the beautiful hand painted marzipan animals as gifts and look at another antique shop before returning to the hotel where Margus meets us with his friend Peep who is going to drive us to the airport, calling at the gallery en route for a final tour round the exhibition. Margus is most perceptive and sensitive to what I have tried to convey in the paintings, (most of which have been borrowed back). Barbara presents me with a beautiful book on food inspired by Estonian paintings inscribed from the gallery and I in return sign one of mine for her. We then go onto the airport and bid our farewells to Margus and Peep. We are sad to leave such delightful people and so wonderful a country. Our first flight takes us to Stockholm where we spend a couple of hours before connecting to our British Airways flight to Heathrow. We collect our car from the valet parking and are home by about 10.30pm. Sunday 4.4.10 Henrietta, Kev, Isaac and Samuel arrive during the afternoon and after a cuddle our first task is a chocolate bunny and egg hunt in the garden. Isaac’s pockets are bursting with his treasures and Samuel’s are pretty full too. Monday 5 .4.10 Take the boys to Pittville Park to see the peacocks, doves, chipmunks, rabbit and chickens and to play in the newly refurnished playground. There’s a wonderful saucer-like roundabout that both the little boys lie in together and laugh and laugh as R pushes them around. Tuesday 6.4.10 We look after Samuel whilst Kev and Isaac go for a haircut and Henrietta takes my Mum out for lunch in Cheltenham. We then meet them at the shoe shop in the village where they drop Isaac off and we have both boys feet measured to buy each a pair of summer weight shoes the ladies are very patient as we seem to fill the little shop with a mischievous presence. In the evening H& K go out for a meal whilst we baby sit. Wednesday 7.4.10 After lunch they set out to Devon so its back to the studio after almost a week. It always takes time to re-ignite after a lapse, usually reworking parts before regaining momentum. Thursday 8.4.10 R takes two paintings to Rob for exhibition at the art fairs. Busy day on the communications front. Call from Lee in New York re dates for next years exhibition there etc she says it’s so hot there that people are walking round in shorts and T shirts and they have the air conditioning on, which is confirmed by an e mail from Chirag (also in New York) re his commission saying that Spring has arrived, as it seems to have here. It’s so warm that I sit out in the garden for my late breakfast. Also call from the London gallery and one from Michelle Blondel in Paris saying they have just sold one of my urban cityscapes to an American client; she says things have been fairly tough in Paris but seem to have picked up over the past ten days. It’s good news and I’m always pleased to feel I’m doing my bit for British exports. Call from Wallace in the evening thanking us for dinner on Friday in Tallinn and to say how much they all enjoyed the trip. Friday 9.4.10 It’s another beautiful spring afternoon when we set out for Woodchester Mansion. We have allowed plenty of time to meet the minibus at the end of what Stephen had described as ‘a bit of a bumpy drive’. But we get hopelessly lost as Richard had decided to follow the AA instructions that he’d downloaded from the internet and the St Mary’s Lane we turn down is at least six miles beyond the turning we should have taken. A very nice man in a small hamlet we drive through directs us but when we reach a turning for Woodchester Park there doesn’t seem to be any sign for Woodchester Mansion. So we turn back out and drive into Nimsfield and end up inquiring in The Rose and Crown. But discover we should have kept going through to the National Trust car park which we now do but we still don’t see the mansion although there is a sign showing that it is along a woodland track. It is very pleasant in the sunshine though I am getting rather anxious about being so late and I’m not entirely convinced that it’s going to appear! As we round the bend it does, a fantastic Gothic Revival mansion, most windows still unglazed, this is not a building that is a ruin decayed or ravaged by time but a magnificent beginning that was never completed! The interior is breathtaking I have never seen anything like it, the stuff of dreams, enhanced by it’s state of unfinish, one’s eye is swept upwards through floorless chambers, arched stone fireplace above arched stone fireplace above arched stone fireplace like entries into a secret world within the wall cavities. Up and up to the magnificent vaulting and ceiling bosses. Much of the mansion is the splendid shell of this extraordinary building which is being very sensitively restored often by the students who train here, particularly in stone masonry but there’s also a beautiful wooden door that they have made in the Drawing Room where the meeting is taking place. Luckily Stephen had spotted us through the window searching for the right way in and calls through the window. I make my apologies as Richard climbs his way back to the top of the hill and the car park. I’ve missed several of the items on the agenda but Stephen quickly briefs me. Today we are joined by the Honourable Company’s new Warden, Master Robert Turner who is also organising the Hon Co’s History Group and Tony Crook, who is Clerk of the Company and Secretary of the Woodchester Mansion Trust. Both the Company and the groups within it are still working towards identifying what their aims should be and whether it should be of charity status etc. We briefly discuss my suggestion that the inaugural event that the Arts & Heritage Group offer to the rest of the Company should be the Creative and Performing Arts event at the National Star College on July 8th and will further our dialogue on this event by e mail. We’ve had not only an enjoyable meeting with tea and home-made cake but the finale is a tour around the marvellous mansion conducted by Nicky Mander and Stephen who is chairman of the Woodchester Mansion trust and passionately beavers away to obtain funding for both the restoration (though this building must never be completed) his students and their status in terms of qualifications. They’re already linked with the Prince of Wales’ Building Crafts Apprentices Scheme, the Royal Agricultural College, Gloucestershire College, National Heritage Training Academy SW, Cirencester College and the University. The beautiful rose windows in the chapel are partially obscured by the scaffolding; monks would have dwelt and worshipped here as would the family of William Leigh its creator. We are running out of time but manage to do a circuit around the staircase and building, before the mini bus takes us back up the track, dropping me off at the National Trust car park before taking the others on to the car park that we should have arrived at. Saturday 10.4.10 The weather is glorious again which makes it very tempting to potter in the garden before commencing work in the studio; particularly pleasing as Henrietta, Kev and the boys are in Devon and will be able to enjoy what Isaac calls crabbing (they always put them back) on the rocks in the bay. It’s always hard getting back into a work pattern after I’ve had a break but I’m slowly building up momentum. Sunday 11.4.10 Very sad news today as a huge Polish delegation including the President Lech Kaczynski, his wife, church leaders, political and other high ranking officials, a hundred in all, were tragically killed in an air crash in Smolensk in Russia yesterday afternoon. They were flying in to mark with Mr Putin and Russian officials, the tragic massacre of 120,000 Polish officers at Katyn in 1944. This is, as the Polish Prime Minister said, the worst disaster to strike Poland since the Second World War. A hundred figures from the higher structure of Polish society taken away in one fell swoop. The fog was apparently appalling and Russian air traffic control had advised the pilots to fly on to Minsk and not to try to land at Smolensk. Poland is in mourning as a country and it will take them a long time to recover. On BBC Radio 4’s obituary programme Last Word I hear two obituaries on major figures in the arts - Malcolm McLaren who professed to be the Godfather of Punk, he managed The Sex Pistols and the New York Dolls and also performed himself. Founded the punk shop Sex with his then partner the avant garde fashion designer Vivienne Westwood. He later became a professor at the Royal College of Art. I always felt that Alexander McQueen the young fashion designer who took his own life after the death of his mother a few weeks ago, was following in similar avant-garde footsteps to Westwood and McLaren. The second obituary was for the actor and political activist Corin Redgrave, son of Sir Michael; brother of Vanessa and Lynn; uncle to Natasha (who sadly died last year after a skiing accident) and Joely; father of the actress Gemma. Although he’s probably best known for his Shakespearian and similar roles, filmgoers will probably remember him most as Hamish in Four Weddings and a Funeral. Monday 12.4.10 Hurrah !! Federal Express have delivered the second of two packages - the first on Friday containing one of my smaller works and two of Richard’s - the second today with two larger pieces from a former dealer in Florida. It was very much thanks to the help of good friend, collector and lawyer Rick Rumrell who practices in Saint Augustine that we were able to get the paintings back after my years of endless phone messages, letters and e mails trying to track them down no avail. This jovial man, his colleague Mary and the Private Investigator they hired are my heroes! Tuesday 13.4.10 Phone call from Professor Ken Simmonds whilst I’m standing on the top of a tall stool working on a higher section of the big, big, big Gloucestershire College painting. The studio’s bright with the Spring sunshine and it’s good to hear from him as he and Nancy have been out of the country for most of the past five years (whilst he has been professor of Global Strategy at the university of Auckland etc.). Many of the paintings in the Estonian exhibition belong to them, he wonders if we can meet up for breakfast! in Burford or somewhere en route on Saturday. I tell him that Nathan might be back for the weekend so we are going to discuss it again on Friday. Ken thinks that the climate is going to be very good for art and that people will invest in it rather than stock markets; he predicts that there will be runaway inflation and I guess he’s better equipped than most to advise, being professors of marketing, international business and global strategy ; you could play scrabble with the number of letters after his name! Wednesday 14.4.10 I’m not sure whether it would be considered prophetic as in January I started painting that had a volcano erupting in it with a migration underneath. So it was with interest that I heard, whilst working in the studio, on Radio 4 News that all aircraft have been grounded here and across Europe due to an eruption of Eyjafjallajoekull in Iceland, throwing up large cloud like plumes of ash which mixes with the ice clouds and then including tiny shards of ice. Hazardous to aircraft engines. It’s rather wonderful that this natural phenomena can bring to a halt much of the world’s global travelling and have a more profound effect than war or terrorists. Thursday 15.4.10 Working on Gloucestershire College painting when Professor Ken phones to say that he seems to have come down with a virus and won’t be able to meet us on Saturday. Friday 16.4.10 Phone call from Andy Curry who is now involved with Paintings in Hospitals and two of my paintings, one that I gave and one that I sold for a nominal price are in the children’s cardiac ward in Leicester. She said that at a meeting they had in London my livepage.apple.comname came up as an artist who might donate a work to an auction to raise moneys for the scheme at Bonhams in June. They currently have an artist in residence painting a big mural with some of the little patients at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children in London. Andy and her husband Lionel bought the painting I made for the auction at the Star College event in 2006 and travelled down from London especially. These things are also often reciprocal as I’d previously donated a painting of similar value to the Yes for Life charity (alternative and complimentary cancer care). Working in the upstairs studio when I hear Nathan and Ruth arriving at about 11.30pm. They have had an exceedingly busy week art directing a very ambitious music video for Lilly Allen. Saturday 17.4.10 We sit out in the garden with Nathan and Ruth before they go over to Tewkesbury to visit the Abbey, walk along the river and stop for a drink at the Lower Lode, which is opposite the boathouse that he used to go to whilst rowing at Cheltenham College, where he got an art scholarship from the Abbey School in Tewkesbury. I do a spot of painting until they return. Mount Eyjafjallajoekull still belching out large plumes of volcanic debris so airports still closed here and across Europe. Barak Obama, Prince Charles, the King of Sweden have all sent apologies to the Polish Prime Minister as they will not be able to attend the state funeral of President Lech Kacsynski as planned, due to lack of flights. Sunday 18.4.10 We sit out to have breakfast with Nathan and Ruth; they later go to Deerhurst and to walk along the river again. The pub we’d suggested shut early so they called in at Lower Lode again where they meet some aged bikers. Nathan’s sure they were in their seventies, in leathers with their Harley Davidsons parked outside. After supper of monkfish and vegetable kebabs, Nathan chooses some of the projects he’s been working on and we watch him put together a showreel for his web site until about 3am. I think he’s inherited his nocturnal ways from me. Monday 19.4.10 Nathan still refining his showreel when he receives a call from the production company confirming that he’s just got two new art directing assignments for next week. In the afternoon they go to visit Sudeley Castle so like yesterday I’m back in the studio whilst they are away. After supper supper of Richard’s marinated mackerel they leave at about 9.30pm. Nathan calls about quarter past twelve to say they are back safely. Tuesday 20.4.10 The light’s good in the studio across the Lane. Visit from my business account manager - I want to discuss the possibility of purchasing another house; not because I really want one but because I’m afraid that a builder would build a not very desirable property on its garden. It’s a bit distracting really but unless I explore this possibility it would be even more so if a builder was there creating something not very nice. I’ve thought about putting a studio there but I have very happy with the studios that I have particularly because I had one of them altered to accommodate the big Gloucestershire College commission. Alternatively a ‘granny annexe’ but then at the moment my Mum is very happy in her house round the corner and is coping with the stairs which of course help to keep her fit though occasionally she does have a bit of trouble with her hip which then starts to make me worry about making provision for her as her bathroom and bedroom are upstairs. But of course any move is not so good for the well being. Adrian’s very helpful and suggests different plan that he will get further information on. Working in the studio when at about midnight receive e mail from Nathan who has now managed to put the showreel on his website. Wednesday 21.4.10 Another communication from Paintings in Hospitals arrives. On Monday the chief executive had rung to discuss whether I might donate a painting to the auction that is being held at Bonhams in June. Whilst we are discussing details he mentions that one of my two paintings has been moved to the Royal National Hospital for Neurology in London’s Queens Square, with ten other works, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of Paintings in Hospitals. It would be very difficult not to support such a wonderful charity when I know both works were originally in the children's cardiac ward at a hospital in Leicestershire. I suppose it does relate in some ways to my relationship with the National Star College. Very good day in the studio working on the Gloucestershire College painting and a large corrugated piece for my London show. Thursday 22.4.10 Visit from a client during the morning discussing a commission for next year,then off to Holy Apostles church for Anthony and Penny’s wedding. We were delighted to see Anthony, Charlie and George all sporting top hats in the church car park and looking happy. It’s rather wonderful after the great sadness they have borne to be moving into this happy period of life where they will become brothers to Penny’s four boys. It’s quite an extended service as Penny and Anthony also repeat part of the service pledging their commitment in their own words; they also take holy communion. Late in the evening more to Gloucestershire College. Over supper Richard and I listen to the second of the three leaders political debates. To e they seem to be a good idea as they have certainly ignited the interest of a lot of young people who would not otherwise engage and there has been an increase in applications for voting forms. After Nick Clegg’s huge rise in popularity rising from little known to being almost as popular as Winston Churchill in one poll, to being called a Nazi within one week, it’s very hard to respect a press that sensationalises to such a degree. We want them to be investigative and inquiring but with honesty and fair mindedness. Many think this will reverse and strengthen peoples own judgements. Peter Mandelsohn has blamed it on the Conservatives but surely they wouldn’t stoop this low though I seem to remember similar things happened in the States when the Hilary Clinton supporters were supposed to have started a slur campaign against Barak Obama. Friday 23.4.10 Up at 5.30 to shower and wash my hair before going to Gloucester for the Bishop’s Breakfast meeting. As I arrive I meet Ruth Fitzjohn in a beautiful outfit almost worthy of being described as art. Bishop Michael has recently come back from the House of Lords where he gave his maiden speech, a lot of which was about our county of Gloucestershire although the topic of debate was television, film and the media. This morning he has eight points to make including being ‘managing director’ of the diocese and its almost 400 priests. Around the table a lot of the discussion is on the two televised debates, the second of which was last night. Andrew North as chief executive of Cheltenham BC he is the returning officer and will be responsible for the count which he says will not go on through the night. We know and like the two major candidates, Martin Horwood being the current MP and Mark Coote, the candidate for the Conservative Party - Labour never seem to get much of a vote in this or the Tewkesbury constituency though Gloucester’s Panjit Dhanda is Labour as is Stroud. In Tewkesbury there is only a 2000 vote divide between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. Ruth Fitzjohn suggests that for the next meeting, which I have arranged to be at Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum, the theme should be on the arts in Gloucestershire and Bishop Michael asks if I will be happy to do that. After the breakfast Bishop Michael has invited any who would like to attend a small holy communion in his private chapel; five or six of us attend along with a handful of his staff. A very beautiful, quiet and intimate service, a lovely way to start this St George’s Day. Back home to start work on the Gloucestershire College painting and the corrugated piece. Good light and atmosphere. Nice e mail from Barbara at the Vaal Gallerii in Tallinn saying that they had lots of children and school parties in to see the exhibition. It’s now packed and ready to begin its homeward journey. Saturday 24.4.10 There are still Britons stranded in many parts of the world - thousands in Thailand camping out at the airport waiting. People from different parts of Europe have spent thousands of pounds trying to make their way back by alternate routes and transportation, hiring cars or taxis to take them from one country to another, trying to get back to ferry or Eurostar to cross the Channel. Although the airlines will have lost huge amounts of money the ferry companies and car hire etc. will have increased their profit. many teachers and medical staff have been stranded, making things difficult for schools and the NHS. Henrietta said the head of the school she teaches at, one of the doctors at our surgery is away thus my Mum’s appointment has been postponed until well into May. There are now complaints from the airlines that the European committee that decides on these things have been over cautious but experts say the fine dust has been found in the engines of RAF planes. Rather like the complaining about the amounts spent on swine flue vaccine personally I would rather err on the side of caution. If one passenger carrying plane had come down we’d have all been devastated. I’m hoping it might boost our own tourist industry; it will certainly have helped the planet and people who live near airports have enjoyed the quietude it has brought about. Sunday 25.4.10 Glorious sunny day again. Good progress in the studio and e mail from Margus saying that he’s just heard from the Embassy driver that the paintings have arrived back in London and enquiring as to when would be a suitable time to return them to us. He’s attached a beautiful photographs he’s taken of pink cherry blossom against a clear azure blue sky. Monday 26.4.10 We meet the two Ians at the Bank to discuss further the prospect of purchasing the next house up. Tuesday 27.4.10 Good progress in the studio over the Lane. With all this good weather it’s been light and warm, making it conducive to work there. interesting e mail from a landscape architect asking if I’d be interested in submitting for painting a six metre high Victorian cast iron vent after doing a workshop with local children. It sounds to be such a nice project but of course it would clash with completing the big commission for Gloucestershire College which I am so enjoying and preparations for the London show. Wednesday 28.4.10 The paintings arrive back from Estonia all beautifully packaged, along with presents of Estonian vodka and an Estonian liqueur,Vana Tallinn, in a beautiful linen bag. And an Arvo Part CD In Principio - he is perhaps the greatest Estonian composer. The driver has come early as I have a dental appointment at 1. Thursday 29.4.10 A package arrives full of leaflets for the Toronto exhibition. E mail from Kate Green at the National Star College - she is very pleased that I have offered to sponsor an invitation card for their CAPA event. Also exchange two or three e mails with the arts & heritage group of the Hon. Co. re this event. Stephen also mentions that they have been approached by the Public Art Collection catalogue; a brilliant and vast concept to catalogue all the paintings in public collections in the UK although does not include art in churches. We watch the third of the three leaders election debates and this one is perhaps the strongest so far. Friday 30.4.10 Nice quiet though more overcast day working in the studio; much needed rain for the gardens.