FEBRUARY 2024

Thursday 1.2.24

Richard is due to have the telephone appointment with his consultant Dr Bailey at 3pm but I am just washing my hands in the bathroom when he comes upstairs at about 2.15 to tell me that she has already ‘phoned and I am elated to hear that she told him she felt rather pleased with herself as the lymphoma tumour that had wrapped itself round his right lung had completely gone after the radiology treatment that she had planned so carefully for him. And that there was no sign of the lymphoma anywhere else. What a clever team Dr Bailey and the other radiologists who carried out the treatment are; it seems miraculous to me and we are so fortunate.

Friday 2.2.24

Nice e mail from Helen at Brian Sinfield enquiring about Riding High, the painting I made in the 90s for an exhibitions both here and in Paris. Ultimately it was Brian who sold it to a client who was a friend of his. Very sadly Brian died last year but I could furnish Helen with details

Saturday 3.2.24

Busy working in the studio on a set of  four oil paintings

Sunday 4.2.24

Working further into the oil paintings.

Monday 5.2.24

E mail from Fabio Gygi as chair of the Japan Research Centre at SOAS (University of London) officially inviting me to speak for 20 - 25 minutes about creativity and art from my personal experience at the launch of the course that Professor Masa - Creativity through Art: Creative and Critical Skills for Personal Development has devised. Fabio is senior lecturer in anthropology with reference to Japan. After the launch they will be serving saki and sushi.

E mail from Anne Jessop saying thank you for framing and mounting the National Churches Trust plaque saying they are so grateful and it looks good where Richard had hung it.

Tuesday 6.2.24

R goes to London to collect some of the works I needed from the gallery, after his abortive attempt on Saturday. I am busy working in the studio

Wednesday 7.2.24

Working on all fronts

Thursday 8.2.24

Call from Pilar at Panter & Hall to ask if I still have the Hare painting which Richard collected two days go as they have a client who would like to buy it. I tell her I’ve just painted the frame a different colour but that I will return it back to its original grey - I go over to tell Richard who had just that moment hung it in the studio across the Lane

Friday 9.2.24

It’s Martin’s birthday and I’m busy painting a little picture for him.

In the morning Richard collects Florence who has come down from London from the station; she’s coming for lunch and to see the work in the studio. Whilst we’re chatting over lunch Richard notices another e mail ping up to say the client who’s buying the Hare has also bought And through the bluebell woods.

Saturday 10.2.24

Go to Bristol to help celebrate Martin’s birthday. He’s asked us to arrive a little early so I can sign the giclee of Preserving the Species as a thank you for writing the introduction to the catalogue. It entails him standing on a ladder in front of the door which it is hanging above he hands it down to me and I take it into the bedroom to sign and return it to him to hang back up. It’s wonderful, you can hear the live music coming from upstairs  where a friend of his is playing the grand piano and next to him is sat Adrianne with seven month old Charlie who have travelled down form London on a National Express coach. Adrianne is bridge engineer and has a PhD from Exeter. All sorts of fascinating people arrive including our lovely friends Sue & Andy and David & Sue Sproxton and Luke the film producer/vicar who performed the marriage service for Mags ad Nick. There are several of Martin’s tango class friends and a cinematographer called Doug who has filmed a lot in the Antarctic. As with all Martins’s Parties it is such fun

Sunday 11.2.24

E mail from Barbara at the Small Paintings Group with the dates for their exhibition at Mandel’s Gallery in Norwich.

Monday 12.2.24

Thomas Lee comes to repair two of the side gate posts and replace two of the metal curved question mark like decorations on the centre of the wrought iron gate. Also cutting back the ivy and wisteria from the front and far gable end of the house.

Richard has made a beautiful box over the weekend especially for the Hare which he posts today.

Tuesday 13.2.24

E mail from Gill saying that Ian’s sister Hilary has now been discharged from hospital into palliative care at her and Ian’s house and how good the social services etc. have been in supplying a hospital bed  and various pieces of equipment that are required. Sadly Hilary is too frail to have surgery or chemotherapy. Carers come in three times a day and Ian is managing the visits from Hilary’s large family. And Great Aunt Molly is visiting - she is a hundred!

Wednesday 14.2.24 Valentine’s Day

Today is Isaac’s birthday so very much more meaningful because of that special gift. We will be going up to celebrate at the weekend.

Still working on a group of smaller paintings. I like to change medium from time to time to keep me on my toes and I’m using slightly purer colours. I need work for quite a few different projects.

Thursday 15.2.24

Continuing on the small oils. Speed is all important and allowing certain parts to dry before I start applying opposite colours next to each other where I want a cleaner edge but blending others whilst wet that I want to merge or react to others while still wet.

Friday 16.2.24

Trying to semi-complete these two particular smaller works so that they have time to dry whilst we are away.

Saturday 17.2.24

Richard drops me off outside The Wilson so that I can go in to visit the penultimate day of The Frozen Continent, an exhibition based around the expedition of Dr Edward Wilson with Captain Scott etc to the Antarctic in which they sadly perished in 1912. In the first of the two galleries there is an installation of a replica tent with sandbags weighing it down at the edges. And replicas of the clothes they wore, manufactured by the likes of Jaeger; enormous snow shoes made out of seal skin with the longer boots using reindeer skin for the tops. I then made my way up to the top gallery where Dr Wilson’ s magnificent fur suit that has been recently restored. Also a sled and long wooden poles/paddles. Many touching photographs and sketch book items from Wilson’s early years growing up in Cheltenham; he was such a clever man, a doctor and a scientist as well as explorer and artist. He worked in the slums of East London with patients who had TB which he contracted himself but such was his dedication he  is much loved here in Cheltenham where our Museum is aptly named after him. We still enjoy his sketchbooks and analytical studies. Whilst I’m there I watch a group of small children sat cross-legged in a small a semi circle around a lady who is pointing out on a globe the route they took. I think it would have delighted Edward Wilson to know that over a century later, Cheltenham’s children and those from much further afield would be enjoying the story of this heroic man and all his achievements, who so sadly lost his life along with the rest of his team on that Frozen Continent. The life sized bronze statue of Wilson created by Captain Scott’s widow (mother of Sir Peter Scott) can be  seen in Cheltenham’s Promenade.

We then continue on our journey to London, arriving about half past five. We see Isaac briefly when he comes into the studio on his way out for the evening with Izzy his girlfriend. We have a lovely supper, Kev has cooked salmon on top of new potatoes and spinach covered in a Korma paste. Samuel, who had been revising all week for his GCSE exams that he will be taking next term, is eating with us although he has been out at football training and the gym today. It’s a delicious meal and lovely to catch up with all that has been happening in their lives.

Sunday 18.2.24

Henrietta comes round to ask Richard’s advice on a project before she and I go out to meet the Uber which will then be going to collect her friend Sue & Kev’s cousin Steve ready to take us to Peckham and we pass Camberwell School of Art which near our destination, the South London Gallery. Their cafe is lovely, just the sort of place I like to eat in especially as I as able to have an egg on top of my avocado smash and toast. Henrietta introduces me to Suzy, Frank Bowling’s daughter- in-law and a bit later to Ben, his son, a professor of criminology who is giving a talk on Frank’s huge collaged canvas which is an amazing 4.5 metres tall by 3.5 metres wide made up of five maroufléed canvases, the last one painted on the floor as his studio wall was not big enough to accommodate it. He says the painting needs to be looked at up close to appreciate the texture of the paint and the objects within it. This one had a cannula and a medical bag given to Frank by one of his assistants who had recently been in hospital.  So Frank threw the cannula into the paint and did the same with the bag after cutting it into strips. There is also gold and silver powder paint splashed over areas and round red shapes which were painted round a bucket. Ben tells us that Frank really loves going into the studio three days a week now and woking at about two hours a time. When asked about assistants, Ben says Frank has always had assistants and particularly loves his grandson and great grandsons to participate. This painting is called Skid which was remembering seeing a female student skid in her car in the snow when he was teaching in the USA.

In the evening we go next door for a delicious meal cooked by Henrietta, chicken fajitas followed by birthday cake as we’re celebrating Isaac’s eighteenth birthday. We’d sent him money on the actual birthday on Wednesday and bought him a St Christopher and his main gift is a painting that he’d decided was his favourite painting when they slept over in the studio during lockdown. I tell him we will look after it until he’s older and has a place of his own. It’s a lovely evening and Izzy, his girlfriend is there too. We’ve bought a book for dear Samuel who just before we left, was cooking food for his lunch at school next day.

Monday 19.2.24

Henrietta comes in at 12 ish, on her way into Goldsmiths, to say goodbye

We leave the flat at about half past one to drive into London and pop into the gallery. We’re there for a couple of hours before retrieving the car from a nearby underground car park going via the Chelsea Arts Club to collect the canvas to paint for their charity exhibition in aid of the Artists Benevolent fund and student bursaries, arriving home about eight thirty.  Manage to do a couple of hours work after unpacking and supper.  The oil paint that I applied on Friday is still a little tacky !

Tuesday 20.2.24

Back in the studio, working on all fronts.

Wednesday 21.2.24

Call from Nathan in the evening; he’s back from the Dominican Republic where he was working on a Bacardi ad and is now preparing an Armani ad which will be filmed in New York. It’s lovely to hear from him and catch up.

Thursday 22.2.24

The landline rings which Richard goes to answer to no reply  and then my mobile rings , again to no avail. But then a text from Jane who says she has tried to ring several times so ‘phone her back for a chat and to catch up on each other’s news.

Friday 23.2.24

Working on all fronts in the studio trying to finish the two oils so that I can move them over to the other studio to dry off.

Saturday 24.2.24

Am continuing work on two small interiors, one for the SPG whose next exhibition is in Norwich in April and which almost coincides with  showing with the Paragon at the art fair. Also working on a tiny circular painting for Richard’s birthday tomorrow which I started in December.

‘Phone call from Lee in Florida who was for some years my New York dealer, saying that she and Jim are going to make the journey down to Broadway so that they can see us as part of their travels in September.

Sunday 25.2.24

Richard’s birthday and my sister has driven all the way down from Blunham in Bedfordshire for a birthday lunch, bearing gifts for him and a Cala lily for me. It’s lovely to see her. She and Ian are having a difficult time at present caring for Ian’s sister who has come out of hospital to their home for palliative care. She had wanted to go back to Cyprus where she was living. She and her husband John have two dogs there but Ian suggested she would be better cared for here. I sent her a basket planted with spring flowers and in her thank you reply she said they were being wonderful and she would never be able to thank them enough. I have invited Gill to stay for the night and join our gathering in the evening but under the circumstances she thought she should drive back to be there for Ian. We wave goodbye about 4.30 and Richard starts to prepare the feast. The first to arrive is Jane W bearing the most amazingly beautiful strawberry and chocolate cheesecake. She then goes back out as she has spotted Martin searching for something in his car with the light of his phone. He’s looking good and yesterday went to Watchet so sent us a photograph of a statue of the Ancient Mariner with a large albatross and said guess where  am. Shortly after them, Jane my friend from student days arrives with her artist friend Matt - then Jenny all the way from Weston super Mare, followed by Wallace from Banbury then dear John who makes my frames and last but not least, Richard and Lesley.

Monday 26.2.24

Back in the studio after my day off for Richard’s birthday, working on the second of Paul’s metre square commissions as it needs to catch up in progress to reach the semi-finished state of the first. Exchange emails with Tiffany.

Tuesday 27.2.24

Message from the SPG administrator asking if I can get images to him this week. But it is unlikely or in fact impossible to get images of six new works by the weekend as I haven’t painted them yet! though have started two new small paintings

Wednesday 28.2.24

A little further work on the black cat in oils and more to Angel and Tiger in the Long Grass. Then need to start the charity canvas for the Chelsea Arts Club. It’s always a conundrum knowing what to paint even though they give a theme but think I’ve got a bit of an idea now. Payment from Panter & Hall for the Island Hare & Butterfly Blue and Through The Blue bell Woods.

Thursday 29.2.24

Karen and Anoushka from the hospital charity come for lunch. It’s the first time I’ve met Anoushka who seemed to  have taken over the art administrator’s job from Niki Whitfield at the hospital, though I have known Karen for many years as she used to work for Linc. I think they are wanting me to painting a lion for them.