FEBRUARY 2023

Wednesday 1.2.23

Sad, sweet email  from Nick saying that his lovely Mags’ dear mother had died on Sunday, surrounded by all her family but that Mags was being very philosophical about it. They were very close and Mags had been caring for her for the past few years as she had Alzheimers. Mags always did it with such warmth. love and affection and often told me quite touching and humorous stories about Kathleen (Cassey as she was known to her friends).  Once when Mags and Nick were here at a dinner party and Casey was giving an eye to Joe, Mags’ beautiful boy; she ‘phoned to check that all was OK her Mum said “we’re having a little party here”.

Thursday 2.2.23

Started a new alternative painted panel for my triangular painting.

Friday 3.2.23

Henrietta ‘phones from the bus on the way back from Goldsmiths were she had been lecturing to her students. We discuss the Bauhaus, a topic brought up by one of them and I remind her that we bought Kev a just published large book on the bauhaus at Christmas and Richard sends her a link to an In Our Time radio 4 programme that talked about it recently.

Saturday 4.4.23

Nathan rang. he’s off to Scotland next week to do a reccy for a film

Sunday 5.4.23

working on the triangular pieces.

Monday 6.4.23

A terrible earthquake hits southern Turkey and Syria with huge numbers of dead and injured

Tuesday 7.4.23

A hand delivered envelope addressed to Dr PJ Crook arrived in the porch. It contained two beautiful chap books written by Belinda Rimmer, a local poet. They have been published in the USA and were inspired by the writings of Tillie Olsen a wonderful black trade unionist who campaigned for human rights. Belinda’s poems are beautifully crafted and sensitive to her subject. The chap book wears a reproduction of my painting Oh the joys of motherhood on its cover.

Wednesday 8.4.23

Working hard on starts for two or three paintings for my exhibition with P&H that opens on 3rd October.

Thursday 9.2.23

Continue on the triangular starts exploring ways to best use the shape compositionally.

Friday 10.2.23

The black satin rosettes I ordered for my costume  for Martin’s party where I am going as Christina Rossetti arrive. Richard has drawn a rather moving albatross on stiff card which he will cut out and wear around his neck as the Ancient Mariner; he’s also made a large paper sailor’s hat on which he has written the rhyme by Samuel Coleridge.

Saturday 11.2.23

In the day I position the black satin rosettes which in the centre of each I have written the title or first line of a Christina Rossetti poem. I have pinned six to my jacket and added three to my hat, one at the back and one either side as I have a big red rose adorning the front. Richard cycled into Cheltenham to buy a plant for Mags and Nick Park, both as a house-warming for their new home and as a gesture of sympathy as she has just lost her dear mother. When we are just about to set out R goes to print out one more of Christina Rossetti’s poems for me to read at the party and while he’s waiting for it to print takes the opportunity to look at Facebook and is somewhat surprised to see that Martin has already posted thanking everyone for coming to his birthday party! with photographs of them all in costume. He checks out the diary and I have written the party in for today but on looking up the e-invitation discover it wasn’t on the 11th but on the 10th. I feel really sad and cross with myself for not having rechecked it. So we e mail Martin to apologise, sending photographs of us in costume and the entry in the diary. But it did allowed us time to reread a lot of Rossetti’s poems and Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner so all good.

We change back into our working clothes  to work our sorrows out and I take the opportunity to edit Januarys diary which is long overdue.

Sunday 12.2.23

It’s bright and sunny so we take advantage of the warmth to check out the garden which is looking wonderful in parts - all the ferns still green and the bulbs burgeoning forth. But alas I’ve lost three palms and a cheese plant from a little courtyard under the marquee. They had all thrived through the past two or three winters but are now looking as if it was just too cold for them to survive. Likewise with my beautiful big house leek (a present from Gill last year) and I again kick myself for not having brought them in. But other plants that are less succulent and as mentioned the ferns put in last year in a shaded area under the horse chestnut tree, have all done exceedingly well. All bar one of the hydrangeas have small new green leaves appearing. I’d really come out to admire the fact that Richard had finished painting the windows at the back of my studio across the Lane.

Monday 13.2.23

Richard cycles down to the post with the little painting I’d created for Martin’s birthday, after he’s done another stint in the garden.

Nathan rings in the evening for Oban in Scotland where he has been doing a reccie. He’s got a cold from where he got drenched to the skin. He travels back by train tomorrow

Tuesday 14.2.23

Today is Valentine’s Day and Isaac’s birthday. Henrietta was going to Facetime us in the evening so that we could say ‘Happy Birthday’ to him but the poor boy has developed a cold so they are going to celebrate it tomorrow.

Also our plumber came to show us different flooring options etc for the new downstairs shower room which he and his colleagues will start building on Thursday.

It’s good to be painting in oil today, on one of the smaller ideas for the exhibition.

Wednesday 15.2.23

Martin rings to say thank you for the tiny painting made for his birthday. He obviously enjoyed his party and had cooked for forty five people himself.

Thursday 16.2.23

The four man team arrive at 9am to commence work in my old studio. Meanwhile I’m working at the other end of the house although when I do come down I have a chat with Ian.

Friday 17.2.23

Nathan rings from the airport on his way to New York.

We meet John in the Lane and he comes in for a cup of tea. He’ commented on all the vans and vehicles parked outside our gates thinking they were for other people so I take him in to see the works in progress were the plasterer is gently skimming the new stud wall. It is of course a hive of industry as again there are four of them working here. They are making good progress.

Great to see John and be able to thank him in person for the beautiful frames.

Saturday 18.2.23

It’s quieter here today as the team of four builder/plumber/plasterer in the old studio are not working over the weekend.

E mail from Paul in Perth asking if we’ve noticed any ads in pubs trying to entice skilled workers - nurses, doctors, teachers etc - to Western Australia as the government there are having a big campaign wanting to attract to their sunny climes and beaches as he’d read an article in The Guardian saying MPs here weren’t very pleased that they are trying to poach the people we also need more of. They would actually get higher pay plus gas, electricity, houses and cost of living are all cheaper but Perth is called the remotest city in the world so one of the people The Guardian had interviewed said it took her friend five and a half hours to drive her son to a twenty minute hospital appointment. Perhaps because of the enormous distances the people are friendly and look out for one another but you can’t buy a coffee out after 3pm and shops don’t open on Sunday - rather like the UK twenty years ago. So there are pos and cons to all these situations.

Sunday 19.2.23

Have been working on Masa’s tiger.

Henrietta ‘phoned; they have just flown back to the UK from Austria and are waiting for their taxi. They have had a glorious time (apart from Isaac not feeling well on his birthday - Valentine’s Day. He’s also been fitting in a couple of hours revision each evening for the pre A level exams next week) and both boys now ski faster than she does. All immensely enjoyed it.

Monday 20.2.23

Thinking about Isaac doing his A level preparation exams, hoping they will go well for him.

Tuesday 21.2.23

The government has said the Treasury have received  huge unexpected tax receipts from the self employed which hopefully will help them make pay deals with all the many bodies including nurses, ambulance drivers, teachers and soon junior doctors. Deals that will help them with their cost of living.

I’m working on a tiny painting for Richard’s birthday.

Wednesday 22.2.23

Busy working on the big commission for Masa

Thursday 23.2.23

Sad sad news when receive e mail from Mark that dear friend, Rory Young, sculptor, artist, letterer and conservationist has sadly died in the Sue Ryder hospice where he had only been since Friday. Such a talented man who created a brilliant legacy of work that adorned churches and cathedrals, country churchyards and secular Buildings. Rarely have I met anyone so dedicated to their work and such a perfectionist with a beautiful vision. We first met him at dinner at Nicky and Karin’s with Judith who was his partner for about twenty years. Nicky was godfather to one of her sons and Rory was like a father to the other. He had grown up and lived in Cirencester all his life. I still have wonderful memories of when we visited his outdoor studio in Cirencester when he was working on the seven life-size stone figures (which he then painted) of martyrs for St Alban’s Cathedral. They were exquisite and took him five years to complete.

Friday 24.2.23

Ian and his team have made good progress but will still need to come back next week when the plaster is dry to tile one wall and fit the radiator.

Saturday 25.2.23

We set out to London at lunchtime, arriving in Blackheath at about a quarter past five which is perfect timing. Samuel and Kev are there to open the side gate for us and help us carry in the luggage and Masa’s painting.

I persuade Richard to have a little sleep-o whilst I change.

When we go next door at 6.30 Nathan is already there with Bea. He’s flown all the way back from the USA today especially for R’s birthday and must really be very tired as he has driven all the way to Ramsgate to pick up Bea who is very well behaved and spends part of the evenign asleep on the sofa near the new log burning stove. It’s lovely as we enter the dining room as it is decorated by two large beautifully coloured balloons marking Richard’s big birthday. Gill and Ian arrive at about half past seven having been directed by their sat nav to avoid the Blackwall Tunnel so were very surprised to hear that we had managed to come through it without any difficulty or hold-up. Henrietta has cooked a feast, making a mixed fish lasagne with us in mind and a regular one with the boys in mind. It’s such a delightful occasion, everyone’s very happy and Richard receives a magnificent limited edition Folio Society book of Thomas Hardy’s poems which he’s fascinated by particularly as he had read an article about it in the Times Literary Supplement last week. Then the lights are turned down and Kev proceeds to the table with the most magnificent chocolate hedgehog birthday cake that Henrietta has made for Richard with a golden firework roaring on top of it. The hedgehog is covered in half chocolate flakes for the spines. It’s such a wonderful evening celebrating this special birthday for Richard surrounded by all our family.

Sunday 26.2.23

Today Masa and Keiko are coming for lunch at Henrietta’s to see their commission Masa’s Tiger which Richard has place covered up at the end of the luncheon table. I get there just after Masa and Keiko arrive and  Richard has introduced to Henrietta. There is some common ground there as she lectures at Goldsmiths whilst he is over here for one year lecturing and researching at SOAS both part of the University of London. Kev and the boys have gone to watch a football match. Before lunch we show them a little film Richard has made of their commission in progress then we unveil the painting which is not quite completed as I haven’t yet finished the outsides top or bottom of the frame. I am so happy that they are very pleased with it and Masa says he prefers it even to the one he had originally hoped to buy but that had already been sold by Trinity House.

Over lunch of tuna steaks, pomegranate salad, jacket potatoes and salsa, Masa says they would like to buy another of my paintings, perhaps one full of people and he asks Henrietta what she thinks of as being a typically ‘PJ Crook painting’. She agrees that perhaps one full of figures might be most evocative so Richard proceeds to show them different images on the laptop but they are all of paintings that are already owned by other people until he comes to one that is out with a gallery. But we know the gallery have interest in the painting and are currently negotiating so I have the feeling we might be in the same situation as with the tiger.

Monday 27.2.23

After lunch with Henrietta and Kev, we travel back via the Citibank in Canary Wharf as my Citibank account from the USA has been locked, not having used it for some time. The bank had written from the USA to say that if I went into a Citibank branch they could witness my signature for unlocking the account. But the branch has closed and there’s only the headquarters that we reach through a vast shopping mall full of exceedingly expensive shops like Rolex and Breitling. Most of the people passing through it look perfectly at home and not wearing outer clothes so probably work in buildings connected to this mall. It felt almost like a futuristic underground city. Eventually we reach the Citibank headquarters tower which appears to have three male receptionists who when I’ve explained what I’m hoping to do pass us on to the inner reception. A very nice young black man takes us from suite to suite finding a vacant room that will give total privacy whilst feeling plushly comfortable. He dials up the Citibank number in the USA and then leaves us so that he is not listening in. The first call says they don’t actually deal with that so when he comes back he speaks to them and they give him the number of another department in the bank but it seems that my signature can’t be witnessed here as this is Citibank UK and not USA even though it has the same logo etc. They inform me that I need to go to the American consulate of embassy to have my signature witnessed. I explain that we’ve travelled all the way up from Cheltenham but after filling in a satisfaction survey for the young man we depart no better off and feeling we’ve now missed the opportunity to do an exhibition of Donatello at the V&A or look at the Titians in the National Gallery. Ah me, such is life; we remember when we were last in Canary Wharf in the Telegraph building as guests of the late Sir Frank Rogers for dinner with his family and Professor Ken and Nancy, a lovely memory to savour. We recall marvelling at the rather futuristic train that traversed the area on a lower region. It was then all very new.

So we drive out through the city and back home.

Tuesday 28.2.23

Send off a quote requested by Camilla Foster a reporter on The Wilts & Glos Standard for a tribute to Rory that she is writing on him.

Ian and his team are back and get most of the work done but still have to grout one wall and fit the radiator tomorrow.

Start painting on the arched frame piece towards my exhibition

Shape shifters in London in October.