OCTOBER 2023

Sunday 1.10.23

Preparing things to go up to London on Tuesday. Richard has some respite from the radiotherapy yesterday and today being the weekend.

Monday 2.10.23

Richard had a meeting with the dietician at 11 and radiotherapy at 12.40. I’m still doing some work on the Little Theatre.

Tuesday 3.10.23

Richard goes into Cheltenham for his final radiotherapy session where they also warn hm that the fatigue and pains will increase over the next couple of weeks and last up to five. So it’s good that Kev has come down on the train where Richard picks him up from the station so they both arrive at the house together about lunchtime.

We set off paints, brushes and all, about 1.30. It’s a lovely sunny day and Richard semi reclines in the back seat to rest. We stop in Burford en route for me to deliver The Little Theatre to Helen in the Brian Sinfield Gallery. She takes a photograph of me with the painting to show her client and says she’ll like that. Helen tells me she has been studying for a diploma in art history which she has really enjoyed; when I congratulate her I add that most mature students want to study more once they have one achievement under their belt. When I leave she stands outside so she can wave to Richard as we drive off.

Kev does really well getting us to the gallery by 4.30. I have impressed on Richard that he could go back to Blackheath with Kev and although it is nice to have him there I would be able to manage. But he’s insistent on coming. Tiffany’s there and sets about hanging up the four new paintings I have brought along, one of which Walking on the World’s Edge has already been snapped up by our lovely friends and collectors Jill and Trev Turley (the bass player). She makes us tea and then begins to arrange the champagne flutes for the evening etc. Matthew has hung the exhibition beautifully and Tiffany knew just where to place the new works.

Stephen Clapham comes in early as his wife’s away and he’s in charge of their two boys. Some of the first to arrive are Henrietta’s friends Alain and Daniella who is a doctor originally from Bulgaria - Alain is French. They are going on to the opera afterwards. The gallery seems to fill quickly after I’ve chatted to two of Henrietta’s other friends Maria and Clinton, I start to see lots of familiar faces including lovely Sue and Andy, Wallace, Martin who introduces me to his friend the CEO od Jellyfish and his wife Shirani, also Lily who is studying at the Courtauld Institute. Tiffany introduces me to John who had been a friend of her father who bought Jardin du Temps from my last exhibition with P&H although I hadn’t had the pleasure of meeting him then. He’s very receptive to what my paintings are about, he tells me he bought it shortly after he lost his wife and thinks of her whenever he looks at it. I find this so very moving and somehow feel that painting was meant for him. Also Hans and Hillary who I first met when they came to my meet the artist on the Saturday at my last exhibition here such a delightful couple they had bought one of my Extinction Rebellion paintings from P&H at the Art London Fair. It’s great to see Jill and Trev again and so pleased when they tell me they prefer the Tiger ad Angel I painted with them in mind as they missed the first one, as it resonates with their collection. It’s lovely to see Dorianne and Tim Congdon who have come up from Huntley. They say they very much like the big Street Party painting and Dorianne suggests it would go well with the Birthday Candles painting that they have; he also mentions the commission/s of the Four Seasons that they would like me to paint. Richard and I seperately spot Lucy, Bob and Jacquie’s daughter. Although I haven’t seen her since she was a child, I recognise her due to the strong resemblence to Jacquie. An Oxford graduate she’s now a diplomat and has worked in embassies in many parts of the world. Likewise I recognise Hannah who is the granddaughter of my friends Janet and David - she’s now a student at Camberwell with a couple of her friends. Also meet a third year student from Goldsmiths studying Fine Art, Bill, he’s with his Mum Philippa. They got to know of my work through Jilly and Stephen Drucker and fairly recently bought my self portrait from Broadway. Bill is such a charming young man who tells me he loves my work and says he wishes he could have created the paintings. I’m now aware that Gill and Ian are also here - Gill persuades Richard that he has done very well by me this evening but that he should probably now have a rest so with help from Milo she sets up an Uber app on her ‘phone and gets a car for Richard. We then go to dinner at Zadels a large French Art Deco restaurant in Piccadilly;  ChiChi joins us so we have my sister Gill and Ian, Martin, Shealagh, Sue and Andy, Wallace and me. It is a lovely place to dine and was Shealagh’s Suggestion.

Wednesday 4.10.23

Lunch and supper with Henrietta  Kev and the boys we are so very fortunate to have got this beautiful Little garden flat (as my London studio) next door to them so that we could also share our gardens

Thursday 5.10.23

We were going to dinner with Martin and Alison this eveningBut sent a note of apology last night as poor Richard is feeling very fatigued at the moment which is very understandable.

Friday 6.10.23

Whilst Richard is resting in the evening Henrietta, Kev and I go For drinks At their Friends Daniela and Alains who I had met at my openingwe are all so busy exchanging  fascinating life stories that that it is !.30 am when we leave.

Saturday

My second less formal opening  Marcia Wheeler the television Producer is there when we arrive. Lots more of Henrietta’s friends, Hannah Green Ronald and Margaret’s granddaughter and her boy friend, and beautiful Clare Charlton  who has been undergoing chemotherapy and her lovely husband Gavin and Jai Henrietta and Nathan’s younger sister It is  such a joy to see Isabelle who is going back to Paris this afternoon she buys the circular painting that Ihad been working on this week. As we are  leaving the Gallery my dear friend Sheila appears (she had got the Timing wrong

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Sunday

Monday 9.10.23

Richard drives us back, feeling less tired and suggests we stop when we get to Tate Britain so we can go and see an exhibition. It’s a beautiful sunny day ad we park on the opposite side of Millbank by the river. I know there’s  Sarah Lucas exhibition as I heard it reviewed on Front Row the week before last and I’m interested to see her use of materials, namely lots of chairs and shoes and her use of cigarettes with which she has cleverly covered the front half of a car, the back half of which is burnt out and not covered. Like several other works using the same cigarette technique looks like South American basket work. There are huge photographs of her around the walls, portrait heads with smoke emanating from her mouth or nostrils. In the first room the large self portraits are of her eating a banana in a “Carry On” suggestive manner. All the works are based on very distorted female forms in high heeled shoes or as in the first exhibit, two chairs one with a penis on the seat, one with a pair of false teeth entitled Old Couple. Sometimes there are armchairs or sofas pierced through with flourescent light tubes. All a continuation of the two fried eggs and a kebab piece in the Sensations exhibition thirty years ago.

Tuesday 10.10.23

It is as always good to be back in the studio now working on Pauls two commissions

Wednesday 11.10.23

They are somehow much larger than I had imagined a meter square to be

Thursday 12.10.23

Tiffany rings as the editor of Eye on London has just rung her. The magazine apparently has an article on m exhibition inside but on the cover they have used a manipulated version of my painting Carpe Diem and she suddenly realised she needed to give me a credit so we’ve ended up saying “from an idea by PJ Crook” as Richard felt the painting had been too altered to say “from a painting” though if you know the painting it is still recognisably from that and I guess it has become even more prescient with the terrible situation in Israel and Gaza. It’s so sad that the Israel/Palestine two state solution has never been put into place. It nw seems like an almost hopeless situation after the horrendous attack on Saturday on Israeli kibbutzim and festival etc and the kidnapping of over a hundred amongst whom were children elderly and disabled Israelis. But now the Israeli retaliation has already killed almost twice the number and are displacing over a million Palestinians, many of whom have been killed on the freedom routes. And so it will go on and on until they realise, if ever, that violence is not the answer - negotiation and the hand of friendship is the only answer across the globe.

Friday 13.10.23

Stayed up until the early hours finishing the ‘Secret Postcard’ painting for the RWA to auction online for charity …

Saturday 14.10.23

… which Richard posts Special Delivery this morning.

Sunday 15.10.23

It’s a nice sunny day although cold if you’re in the shade. I sit in the studio garden to have my brunch whilst Richard mows its lawns and trims around the borders and horse sculptures.

I’m still working on pieces as guest artist for the Small Paintings Group exhibition.

In the evening Henrietta rings and says that Isaac and Izzy are walking down the red carpet this evening at the premiere of The Kitchen which Nathan was the Production Designer.  But he was going to the cast and crew screening this afternoon so he gave them his tickets. which will have been very exciting for them. It is the closing movie of the BFI London Film Festival.

Monday 16.10.23

Continue on the small paintings

Tuesday 17.10.23

Richard takes the small paintings up to Panter & Hall

Wednesday 25.10.23

Up to the National Star College for the opening of the beautiful new high tech living accommodation for the students, opened by the screenwriterJack Thorne and his wife Rachel Mason an agent who represents the stand up comic Rosie Jones. The accommodations are state of the art high tech and custom made to suit the students who live in them. It’s a great achievement on the part of all the trustees etc and fundraisers and College as a whole to have managed to raise the over £6m to complete this stage.

Then we drive over to Burford to deliver three paintings to Helen at the Brian Sinfield Gallery

Thursday 26.10.23

Statement from  Bridgeman Art Library with my royalty fees for the past month. Interesting this time one, a self portrait, have been used in an art book and another in a French educational book.

Friday 27.10.23

Working very intensely on Pauls two large commissions - still resolving the compositions.

Saturday 28.10.23

Off to Cheltenham Races as guests in the Royal Box, where we meet up with Paul, chair of the trustees of the National Star College and his lovely wife Viv who also runs their own charitable trust. It’s a beautiful bright day though does rain heavily as we get out of the car to walk to the course though it stops as we arrive.  It’s great fun deciding which horses to place bets on - unfortunately we didn’t arrive in time to get the expert recommendations for the punts. The horses are of course exquisite and elegant and the jockeys brilliant in their silks.

The Jockey Club are always very generous in their wonderful selection of food, starting with prawn cocktail and smoked trout. In between punts Paul and I discuss the National Star College and how hard working the staff are.

Then back home at tea time to continue work on Paul’s two large commissions.

Sunday 29.10.23

Non stop on the two commissions for Paul they are both on dark back grounds so take a lot of working up to bring them up enough for him to read tomorrow

Monday 30.10.23

Paul and Erick come to lunch. It’s four years since we saw them last and they only arrived from Australia yesterday. They are staying at Foxhill Manor just above Broadway. It is such a joy to see them again and catch up on all their latest news. Erick tells us how he orders huge numbers of trucks both on the road and the railway for Gina Rinehart, the richest person in Australia - she has them all painted pink for breast cancer awareness though they quickly change to orange because of the iron ore they are carrying. Paul now only works one day a week as he’s gone back to university to study for a PhD in economics.

Richard has prepared gravadlax with  pomegranate salad and salsa and served the dressing in the little jugs that Paul and Erick had sent us a couple of years ago with different little Australian sbirds itting on the handles.

It’s lovely chatting to them over lunch after which we walk across the Lane to the studio to see their commissions in progress. Each measures a metre square and is on a nocturnal theme. I’m really pleased as Paul seems pleased with them, whilst Erick is busy looking at all the other works in the studio, where I also have Professor Masa’s three paintings hanging as I’m still refining them but hoping to send them off next week. Whereas Paul’s still require a lot of work so won’t be going off until the New Year

as I also have to paint the miniatures for the charity open studio.

Tuesday 31.10.23

E mail from Paul saying they have just been to the Brian Sinfield Gallery and purchased Les Pommes Magiques from Helen.