SEPTEMBER 2024

SUNDAY 1.9.24

On seeing it again notice I want to do more work on the small Peacocks & Cats in the Library and also on Along the Lagoon  both of which I painted in Italy and the London studio.

MONDAY 2.9.24

Samuel starts back at school today but hard to believe he’s now in the sixth form having done so well in his GCSEs.

Richard sends all the images, titles and dimensions to Ellie at the gallery. He also goes in to collect a painting I want to make some alterations to. So stay up late altering it. I often do this with paintings, after a time lapse I see  in a new way.

TUESDAY 3.9.24

Nice e mail from Fabio, director of the Japanese Research Centre at SOAS thanking me for my talk. He’s off to Japan this week for the course in Tokyo and at the Morohashi Museum of Modern Art - I will be joining them via Zoom on 20th to give a talk at the Museum

Richard goes into the Paragon Gallery as I think I want to do a little more work on one of the painting they have but on seeing it I decide it does look right. I start a new work on one of the panels and frames I have already prepared waiting for that purpose, Poet & Bear. It’s an idea I have had for some time and by burning the midnight oil I might just manage to finish it enough for the catalogue by the end of the week.

WEDNESDAY 4.9.24

Working into the Poet & Bear although it fell into place quite quickly the whole of it needs working into to give more depth and form. I’ve reworked the bear trying to get his expression and demeanour right, shortening his nose slightly and moving his eye.

THURSDAY 5.9.24

Although most of the berry fruits in the garden are almost over, for the second day I have a fresh fig with my breakfast.

Still working on the new Poet & Bear, trying to complete it in time for the catalogue which the designer is currently working on! Today I add more new smaller elements to the painting as well as intensifying colour and form, adding an ink well, a pencil, a red admiral butterfly and another moth.

FRIDAY 6.9.24

Send off image of Poet & Bear to the gallery as well as beginning to paint some bookshelves and books on the side of the box-like frame of Bear in the Library plus the start of windows on the side of Along the Canal. I return to work on one of the commissions for Dr Margus Laidre

’Phone call from Nathan who came back from Venice yesterday where Harvest the film that he worked on had got a 7 minute 50 second ovation at its premiere.

SATURDAY 7.9.24

E mail from Ellie saying the new painting Poet & Bear will make a wonderful addition to the show.

Richard’s doing some big cutting back of the wisteria on the front of the house whilst I’m collecting some dead wood and weeding.

SUNDAY 8.9.24

Working on another small painting, The Two Poets in the hope that it might be able to go on the invitation card!

MONDAY 9.9.24

Have an e mail from the Royal West of England Academy telling me that I’ve been awarded a Tony Steele Prize for a painting about contemporary society for The Sisterhood, saying congratulations and can I let them know if I can be at the private view on Friday evening at 6.45 when it is announced

TUESDAY 10.9.24

Receive a proof of the invitation from Ellie saying she has sent the proof of the catalogue back as she wanted to rearrange the order. I’m amazed that the designer has managed to fit a small reproduction of The Two Poets on the back of the invitation card as he had already planned it with Along the Lagoon on the front

WEDNESDAY 11.9.24

We get a proof of the catalogue. A couple of them look rather dark on the lower part of the frame but decide I’ll actually do some more on the painting of that area of each where the painting is rounded and curves underneath which is also where the painted shadow in the paintings falls. So lighten the grass in the shadow on each

THURSDAY 12.9.24

I’m amazed to see that on the proof of the catalogue the designer has managed to fit The Two Poets in.

FRIDAY 13.9.24

Go to Bristol for the private view of the RWA Annual Exhibition where I receive a Tony Steele Award. Many years ago, before I was an elected  Academician, I was awarded the top prize which for the last several years I have been contributing to as it is now called the Academicians Prize which is awarded to  non member.

SATURDAY 14.9.24

Priory Lane Street Party; lovely to see so many friends & neighbours.

Busy trying to finish tops bottoms and sides of the frames

SUNDAY 15.9.24

Now working on the parts of the frames that the camera doesn’t see

MONDAY 16.9.24

ditto

TUESDAY 17.9.24

ditto

WEDNESDAY 18.9.24

ditto

THURSDAY 19

Up early to be ready for a trial Zoom call with the Morohashi Museum of Modern Art in advance of my lecture tomorrow. All was good apart from the fact that we couldn’t hear them even though they could hear us. They had to go off and teach but we decided we could probably manage by using the chat facility for questions etc. Whilst I was upstairs working on the sides of the Canal and the Bear in the Library and Along the Lagoon, the first two being box-like constructions, Richard reads online manuals and troubleshooting guides so we e mail Henrietta to see if  she can try hosting a meeting with us this evening so we can try it out. Lo and behold it now works perfectly although he’s not quite sure why, having tried all the suggested solutions.

Also today copy of October’s Cotswold Life arrives with the article by Sue Bradley on my forthcoming exhibition Byron’s Bear & Menagerie to coincide with Cheltenham’s Literature Festival.  There’s also a full page ad for the exhibition in the front of the magazine that Ellie has taken out.

Work until late trying to get as many of the sides of the paintings done as I can.

FRIDAY 20.9.24

Up early  again to do the actual zoom talk to the Morohahsi Museum in Japan.

Richard goes into Cheltenham to collect Lee, who was my first New York dealer and her friend Carmencita (who with her husband publishes Miami Today, a business newspaper). Lee is very excited to see Richard’s gardening  and views through the arch  in the studio garden. Then show them the studio with the works for my forthcoming exhibition. Lee is taken by the canal paintings and asks how much it is whilst Carmencita very much likes Paul’s commission and Lee likes the painting within the painting on his big painting. Lee says she’s pretty hungry so we go over to the house to eat the lunch Richard has prepared and they both ask for the recipe for the pomeganate salad. Carmencita is very excited about the house too perhaps because she’s Cuban and has lived in many countries such as Argentina and Columbia all countries that had dictators and lived in New York too.

Spend the rest of the day painting a small round painting as a gift for Nicky and Karin.

SATURDAY 21.9.24

Finish the little round painting and Richard puts a wire on the back for hanging it. We drive over to Owlpen Manor and when we get out of the car we can the hear the sound of kettle drums emanating from the garden. It’s a lovely evening and it’s steel band entertaining the guests as we mingle and sip champagne. It’s great to Stephen Davies and his lovely wife Jane who shares a birthday with Richard. I originally met Stephen and Nicky when  we were all on the Honourable Company of Gloucestershire’s arts & Heritage committee. Stephen is a very talented writer who worked on Waking the Dead and Silent Witness but is a very versatile man who is also interested in cabinet making and architectural history on which gives talks. He met Nicky when they were at Trinity, Cambridge together with Anthony Gormley and the King. Also chat to Nicky’s delightful daughter Sara who is looking beautiful in a costume adorned with peacock feathers and headdress which she tells me she had made last night using glue and hundreds of safety pins. Nicky tells me later that she had been interested in becoming a costume designer or a ballet dancer which she did until she was nineteen. As it becomes dusk we are ushered to the magnificent pole barn which was constructed with trees from the estate using no nails, just dowels to hold everything in place. It looks magical with three very long tables and a seating plan. Richard’s sitting next to Nicky’s wife Lady Karin and opposite Jane whilst I’m on another table sitting next to Stephen who is opposite Sir Nicky with a delightful man called Olaf on my other side who was in the Swedish airforce as a pilot and then studied at the Stockholm Business School. He and his wife and two boys lived in Ireland for twenty years were they bred racehorses but now live here in the Cotswolds on a farm but also have a business that makes lighting systems for cattle and horses that helps their circadian rhythm, benefiting their well being. Opposite me is Roe who I think studied textiles; we had rather more trouble communicating as we couldn’t really hear each other very well but then with a hundred and thirty five guests that not really surprising This occasion is celebrating fifty years of living at Owlpen which they have lovingly restored and grown at the same time as nurturing their beautiful family and a son & his wife’s Clare’s special birthdays.

SUNDAY 22.9.24

Start addressing envelopes in readiness for the catalogues arriving.

MONDAY 23.9.24

Still finishing the works and addressing envelopes.

TUESDAY 24.9.24

Catalogues arrive from the printer.

WEDNESDAY 25.9.24

Hear from Hans and Hilary that they  would like the Bear in the Library

THURSDAY 26.9.24

E mail from Maxine and Brian to say that within five minutes of receiving their catalogue they were on the ‘phone to Ellie to put a red spot on the Owl and the pussycat painting In The Pea Green Boat.

FRIDAY 27.9.24

About 10.30pm receive a very nice text from Philippe in Marseille saying they have received the exhibition catalogue and are interested in one or possibly two of the paintings and is still keen on a commission - when can he call me. So I say tomorrow afternoon or evening though I am available this evening as I’m a night-owl and have just finished dinner. Lo and behold my mobile rings. Lovely to hear him as we haven’t spoken for some time. Both their boys are now over here at boarding school. We talk for some time about two of the works in the catalogue - Virginie his wife particularly like the Dance of Life but he is interested in Winning Weekend and asks me to tell him about it. I tell him it’s one of my history paintings and particularly celebrates the England team getting into the final of the Euros and also that week there had been the General Election in which Keir Starmer and the Labour Party won and have formed the country’s government. We then also discuss ideas for commissions. I think the thing that always worries him is that he doesn’t know beforehand what it’s going to look like which of course is impossible as I don’t either as even commissions tend to grow of their own volition, a journey of discovery  rather than it being totally planned out in advance as that would not be as challenging and would certainly prohibit ideas that I might get during the creation.

SATURDAY 28.9.24

Still finishing off on some of the paintings as they need to go into the gallery next week. Also hear from Ellie that Seema has contacted her to say that they would like Punting the Bear and Along the Canal which is very touching and wonderful to know they will be going to such a good home at the end of the exhibition.

Sunday 29.9.24

Monday 30.9.24

Phew!