APRIL 2023

Saturday 1.4.23

Richard and I tend to think of this as being our anniversary as it’s the day we started to live together many years ago. We always have the pun that it wasn’t until the afternoon that he arrived from York with his goods and chattels in a large hired van but as it was after midday neither of us was the April Fool. Over dinner, which of course he has cooked I have mackeral with apple sauce he has a mushroom omelette, he tells me that this is his sort of celebratory dinner. He spent much of the evening cutting out a complicated wooden background that I have painted for one of the triangular works, what Simon Knowles calls my ‘branching out’.

Martin rang. He’s now written fifty three thousand words of his novel and I think only has another twenty seven thousand or so to write. He’s going to a conference at the London Book Fair later this month but in between, next week he’s coming to visit.

Sunday 2.4.23

I spend a very intense day working non stop on Masa’s tiger painting. The light is good in the studio and there are no interruptions.

Monday 3.4.23

Richard drives to Huddersfield for his cousin Garry’s funeral service. I’m pleased that it’s a bright sunny day for his long drive there and back.

Meanwhile I’m working in the studio on Masa’s commission as they are coming from London tomorrow; they’ve just got back from their trip to Switzerland on Sunday where I think he advises a watchmaking firm and there was also a trade fair. I paint some of the large blue butterflies that had become extinct in Gloucestershire but since they have been reintroduced to Daneway they now have one of the largest colonies in the world.

I’m pleased that Richard arrives home while it’s still sunny. It was so nice for him to meet up with several of his relatives including his cousin Pam and her two daughters Vickey and Louise and Pam’s two lovely grandchildren who R says have bright pale blue eyes which made me think of his father Stanley, who had clear pale blue eyes too. He also had time with Jean, Garry’s widow and Mark and Liz, their two children.

After supper I continue to work on Masa’s Tiger into the early hours.

Tuesday 4.4.23

Richard goes to collect Masa and Keiko from the `London train then takes them first to he Wilson to see my painting Portrait of the Artist Watching Her Two Children Grow in the Cheltenham People display. Then on to the University’s Pittville campus to see my three large paintings in the Laurie Lee building (just opposite the PJ Crook building) en route bringing them to our home here in Bishops Cleeve. It’s so good to see them both again and to hear about their latest travels - they have been visiting all the major cities of Europe particularly the art galleries and museums as Masa advises the Morohashi Museum of Modern Art, so he is learning and researching on these trips.

He explains that he did not know about Easter and I present them with two chocolate rabbits with salted caramel filled carrots and am delighted when Masa tells me that Keiko was born in the Year of the Rabbit. I explain that people usually give chocolate eggs as they symbolise rebirth and the resurrection

Richard had prepared gravadlax and a pomeganate salad with bulgar wheat and Keiko asks for the recipe. He luckily has a new bag of bulgar wheat for her to take home. After chatting over lunch we go over the lane to see Masa’s Tiger and again their reaction is wonderfully heartfelt and full of pleasure, which makes it very well worthwhile having created this painting for them.

Wednesday 5.4.23

Back to work in the studio. I always feel sightly agitated when I have several unfinished works but very few complete, so the desire to work further into them is very strong. But then so too is the impulse to begin newer pieces.

Thursday 6.4.23

A visit Martin who had left his expensive sunglasses at The Wilson so we e mail them to let them let them know and they them ready for him when he gets back there. It’s great to see him and he tells us more about the novel he’s writing and we also discuss some ideas I’ve been working on in the studio.

Friday 7.4.23

A visit from Jane. It is lovely to see her for the first time since the beginning of December before her trip back to Australia, so good to catch up over hot cross buns and Liquorish tea. She also collects the Owl drawing she bought at the Charity Open Studio.

Saturday 8.4.23

Henrietta and Nathan arrive late afternoon with Bea, who seems very excited to be here again. Nathan is bearing the most beautiful bunch of lilies and roses etc, a belated Mothers’ Day gift and Henrietta has spring flowers -  hyacinths, narcissus and tulips. It’s such a treat to see them both and their journey has been a good one although Nathan had to drive from Ramsgate to Blackheath where Henrietta made him lunch before they set out to Gloucestershire. Fortunately it has been a lovely sunny day so it was nice when they stopped to give Bea a walk. They both look very well. Nathan has given up alcohol, coffee and tea. I light the fire and we have hot cross buns and tea (liquorish for N).

Richard has prepared pommegranate salad, jacket potatoes and gravadlax for dinner. We sit around and chatter before Nathan takes Bea for a walk and they turn in at my studio over the lane. Nathan lived there for the final year of his time at university in Bristol so always stays there when he’s back, which is good as he likes to meditate.

Sunday 9.4.23

Henrietta and Nathan take Bea for a long walk on Cleeve Hill. When they return, Nathan cooks us all scrambled eggs on toast served with fresh avocado and slices of gravadlax. In the afternoon he goes back to the studio to meditate, Henrietta does some writing for Art & Design magazine and I continue working on the commission for Dr Matt.

I glance out of my upstairs large circular window from time to time and after a while see a car as pull up in the Lane which looks like Kev’s so start taking my painting togs off, wash my brush etc then hear footsteps coming up my wooden stairs and there is Samuel with a  big smile. He’d asked Grandad where I was and had come up to find me. When he gives me a big hug I notice he’s even taller - we chatter about him and the paintings. He points to a brown bear and wonders how tall he’d be if he was on his hind legs. Then I’m delighted when he points to the other easel were I’d been working on Dr Matt’s commission and says ‘I like that”. I guess it looks a bit sci fi with the computer screens and electronic medical equipment, which makes my day. Dr Matt will have been younger than Samuel when we first got to know him. He and his brother were neighbours and friends of Nathan. We go back downstairs and I go through to the living room to say hello to Isaac then Kev.

They are watching the Arsenal v Liverpool match as Arsenal are the team Isaac particularly supports. Richard’s cooking a turkey. It’s a bit like a second Christmas as I’ve also bought a box of Waitrose Easter crackers for the table though not sure how well they will go down but I’m very very pleased that when Kev has brought them back from a scootering session at the skateboard park they all seem rather pleased to pull the crackers and even wear the rabbit ear hats that come with them. Even Isaac has a second helping of turkey and when we are following it with fresh fruit salad served in a pineapple half with ice cream, he and Samuel have ice cream and the Easter egg cake that Tammy had sent and the Easter egg biscuits that she and Sandra also sent. Tammy is a dear friend who we met many ears ago at the National Star College when she was a student there; she lives with her Mum in Birmingham and even came to Henrietta’s wedding.They never forget a birthday or special occasion. The boys then start agitating for Easter eggs pointing out that they haven’t had one yet and it is already Easter Sunday evening. They have the most enormous Reece eggs from Henrietta - from us they each get a mug continuing yellow paper straw, two small eggs and a rabbit plus a twenty pound note. Sadly they have now outgrown Easter egg hunts. Henrietta gives me a beautiful pink bag from the Courtauld Institute that she visited last week to see both their collection and the Peter Doig exhibition. So inside the bag is a wonderful large catalogue from Peter Doig’s exhibition. Richard gets a box of Panjandrum Bird sugar coated chocolate eggs also from the Courtauld.

The boys then play chess with each other and then each has a game with Richard with predictable results.

Monday 10.4.23

Henrietta, Kev and the boys leave to travel down to Devon to be with Kev’s parent and family at their holiday apartment. Nathan stays on and cooks a brunch of scrambled eggs and avocado which we have with gravdlax then he sets out mid afternoon. I recommence on Dr Matt’s commission in the studio. It is quite different to any of the other pieces I’ve been working on as it is a composition made up of medical equipment.

I had written a Foreword as Patron of Cheltenham Open Studios’ guide last week but hadn’t managed to edit which I now do and send off.

Tuesday 11.4.23

Continuing on Dr Matt’s painting.

Wednesday 12.4.23

Ditto

Thursday 13.4.23

Richard takes a photograph of Dr Matt’s commission and very soon a response comes saying “…amazing, when can I collect it?”

Friday 14.4.23

R has put together the artwork for the back cover of the COS guide using the arched painting and sent it off to Niki. So we are just about keeping to those deadlines.

Now back on the large Ark painting.

Saturday 15.4.23

Recommence on John and Ali’s smaller angel, tiger and dove painting which I had begun in mid January, at the same time as Dr Matt’s

Sunday 16.4.23

Monday 17.4.23

Invitation from Claire Mander, (Nicky and Karin’s daughter in law) who is the director and curator of the CoLAB an art initiative based at Somerset House, who enable women artists to create sculptures outside the confines of the ‘white box’. Each year they do a project involving ten artists , tutors etc to create within the landscape ie having a life model as they have done at Owlpen this year where they have a model posing and walking within the landscape. It is to a dinner at Owlpen with the workshop’s artists etc.

Tuesday 18.4.23

Richard photographs a smaller Angel and Tiger measuring 16 x 18 inches so that I can send it to John and Ali and am delighted when his reply comes back saying “wow, wow, wow” and that they are already discussing where they will hang “…this little piece of loveliness…” So I am once again so pleased with their response.

Wednesday 19.4.23

Early evening we set out to drive to the University having been somewhat held up by the Racecourse traffic. We’re walking up towards the lecture theatre when we see Stephen (vice chancellor) escorting Lord Michael Bichard the new Chancellor and his guest speaker Darren Henley CEO of Arts Council England. Stephen spots us and stops and waits, gives us a big hug and introduces us to Michael and Darren. We sit near the back and listen with interest to the lecture entitled Happiness as a Public Policy Goal. It was good but I wish there had been a few illustrated examples of this theme as mentioned by the President of the Dymock Poets. The head of UCAS asks whether she should advise students to do degrees in the arts obviously making reference to cuts in subjects such as music education and Dame Renné enquired whether it might be a good idea for Ofstead to measure Happiness in schools. Afterwards we go over to supper in Fulwood House which is where the VC has his office etc. It was good to catch up with people like Angus who is  Dean of the arts - we chat about the Wilson and also the RWA with whom the University has a particularly good relationship. After chatting and filling our plates we join Stephen Renné, Roger Head and Emma Jane who runs Strike a Light, which organises arts events at a table.

Thursday 20.4.23

Into Cheltenham to the Park Gallery to judge the finalists for the art competition that they have organised. Daren and Hazel seem very nice. Then back into Cheltenham in the evening to award the prizes at the reception at the Queen’s Hotel where all the finalists’ works are now on display. It’s a lovely atmosphere; there are quite a lot of people we know, like Nikki who organises the Christian Arts Festival and her husband Dave and her brother Jim whose PhD is in the performing arts. He often does workshops with the Artshape students. And Kate Dove who is an artist and has a gallery in Winchcombe but also shows with Darren and Hazel at the Park Gallery. The lovely first prize winner in the schools category, Chenai’s painting was amazingly mature for someone so young, it showed her mother smoking a cigarette and blowing out smoke whilst she was blowing a dandelion clock with the seed blowing all over. She travelled down all the way from Newcastle. The second prize in the Open section was awarded to Louise Saward from Hull for her beautiful watercolour, ‘Disengaged’ of two children a teenager, a newborn baby and a grandmother who seems to be almost looking into space, possibly contemplating her own mortality in the presence of new life. It was very touching awarding her prize as she was tearful with emotion. First prize went to Jonathan Luxton for his oil painting ‘The Meeting Place’ which was powerful and compelling, the self portrait in his dream of rebirth was almost cinematic. Afterwards I speak to another of the shortlisted, Vincent Louis Stokes who had come from Birmingham and has an MA in Fine Art and compliment him on his exquisite and meticulous drawing ‘Adoration of the Siblings’ which was full of warmth and humour. He tells me he has two little daughters, the younger only weeks old and that he get up before everyone else so that he can do a  little drawing before they emerge. When the finalists all move on to the gallery for further celebrations and discussions with Darren about showing their work there, Richard and I come home so that I can do more work in the studio

Friday 21.4.23

Good to have a day working on all fronts in the studio in the house, whilst the plasterers are doing the bathroom ceiling in the studio across the Lane. They were just doing the dividing wall between it and the bedroom but a bit of the old ceiling plaster fell off so they decided they really need to take that down and redo the whole of the ceiling. All the team are hardworking, helpful and very good craftsmen so I ask R to give Ian, who seemed to do a lot of the woodwork as well as plumbing and Jon who did the plastering, a bottle of wine each and Richard is quite moved as they tell him we are the nicest people they have ever worked for which is very touching because they are so very pleasant to have had working for us and were very helpful in adapting to our requirements.

Saturday 22.4.23

Start a large canvas ready for a newspaper painting to celebrate the Coronation and also a smaller one.

Sunday 23.4.23

Gradually filling up the two new canvases with newspaper and the preliminary painterly sketched in heads of readers.

Monday 24.4.23

Spend most of the day and evening writing the article for Dr Louise Reid who lectures at the University and who is compiling the Bishops Cleeve Street Fair programme with images of a few appropriate paintings. So don’t get as much done in the studio.

Tuesday 25.4.23

Start two new paintings, a smaller one on which I paint a Acteaon as I’m thinking of calling the exhibition Shapeshifters I feel I ought to have some subjects of that nature I haven’t painted before. He fills the central area. And a larger canvas with vague figures around a table.

Wednesday 26.4.23

Listen to and watch on Zoom Masa’s lecture from SOAS, Leveraging the Strengths of Japanese companies (and you): To Profit From Doing What You Love

Thursday 27.4.23

Start working around the centaur adding one on the left entering and another on the right exiting the picture. In the evening add a further two, one male and one female centauride.

Friday 28.4.23

Dr Matt came for tea and to collect  his commission this evening. He’s a very interesting person having also been in the Special Boat Service as he actually did most of his medical training in the Navy. The visit is all a bit cloak and dagger as the painting is a surprise for his wife, who is also a doctor. We decide on the title Morpheus

Saturday 29.4.23

Beautiful sunny day so good light in the studio and makes it warmer too. Working on the larger of the two newer pieces for the exhibition, trying to resolve the composition and the players.

Richard cycles into Cheltenham twice, the first time calling in at the bike shop and the second to change something for me.

Sunday 30.4.23

The last day of April, a third of the year already consumed. I set myself tasks to try and achieve by the end of each month. I’ve made many changes on the larger of the two paintings started six days ago, trying to crystallise the idea which for me often grows or clarifies with the working of it. I only have five months left before my London show opens and I know that the closer it gets the less time there is for procrastination or floundering between ideas. Like many, I’ve always needed a deadline to increase the motivation. When I was young and setting out I would impose deadlines on myself by entering competitive and selected exhibitions.I have been much reminded of this recently as Richard is compiling the catalogue raisonné and thus shares with me images of early works from such exhibitions. Also articles giving people’s thoughts on the paintings like the tiny work Patience which was awarded the purchase prize so is in the collection of The Wilson, Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum. The then curator wrote about it and more latterly Adrian Barlow, chair of the trustees of the Friends wrote another piece. So thanks to Richard’s diligent work one can compare Gaynor’s and Adrian’s perceptions separated by many years.