Own work: Another Collage

     The second of my recent experiments with collage.:  ink, watercolour and wax pastel background, 'homemade' marbled paper, news print and magazine photos, watercolour paper (trees).

Own work Life Drawing L

   Last week's two life drawings (an hour pose each).  Pencil-crayon, current my medium of choice, yet again.  I think plenty of us found it a challenging pose.  I seemed to get lost in the depiction of skin somehow.

Own work: Collage

     I've been experimenting with collage again in the last few weeks, using news print to suggest masonry.  Not entirely sure that the resulting image has been entirely successful....

St Peter, Wilburton

     Well, last weekend was the final one I spent with the bf in Cambridgeshire before he made the move to south Wales.  In a process that is too involved to explain but did, as you can see, include snow we ended up in Wilburton Sunday lunchtime.  We had been past the rather beautiful village church any number of times on the way from Sutton to Cambridge, but never stopped and had a look round.  Frozen fingers not with standing I'm so pleased that this time we did.  It is a delight, small, very architectural and quite atmospheric.  It stands happily in the midst of a small triangular churchyard towards the top of the village street.  Of the houses that surround the church is the best is Bell Gable House to the north. The whole grouping is quite picturesque, rather ideal of what an English village should look like.

     Ignoring the base of the tower (EE) the church really all of one period: Perpendicular. The work of one generous late Medieval patron, Bishop Alcock of Ely.  It - west tower with spire, a broad, aisle-less nave and a narrower chancel - is built of rubble and has a lovely texture.  On the south side is a two storied porch.  In addition there is a small north transept, Victorian by Sir G G Scott, who restored the church in there 1860s. (There had been an earlier restoration by Pugin, and later work in the church by Scott's eldest son George Gilbert junior).

     The interior is spacious and light filled, the architecture is very sophisticated and elegant.  It's also well furnished in Late Victorian style.  I particularly liked the benches running the along the nave walls.  The rood screen is apparently medieval though it looks Victorian, and there are a number of brasses and robbed matrices. There is clutter, alas, looking back at the photographs more than I realised, but apart from the N transept it is kept in check.  However in the north transept it rather robs the sculpture on the east wall of any dignity.  Not the sort of work that either us of liked but it deserves better treatment.  In the chancel the floor tiles around the altar are likely to be by Pugin, though to be honest we really didn't take much notice.  I blame the cold.

Own Work: Life Drawing XLIX

   A better week this one with three better drawings.  Two half hour poses and after the coffee break one pose of an hour's duration.

Own work: Life Drawing XLVIII

     A New Year and a new 'term' of life drawing classes, and a shaky start for me.  However the second drawing was much stronger, and I'm pleased with that.

Ss Peter & Paul, Gosberton

     A little jaunt on Saturday into the fens. We ended up at Gosberton on the silt fen between Spalding and Boston.  The church is large and sprawling (like the village), cruciform in plan, and crowned with a massive and elegant crocketed spire.  It is almost entirely Curvilinear Decorated and Perpendicular - the east window is Victorian in best Middle Pointed.  In all a fine piece of architecture.

   The inside is wide and multi-vista'd, reminding me strongly of St Peter and Paul Algarkirk, though there is none of the Mid-Victorian richness of the latter. In many ways however the interior is a disappointment - there are no fittings worthy of the architecture, and chancel is impossibly dark thanks to indifferent Victorian glass. Impossible, in fact, to photograph. And also - regular readers may guess what's coming - it is full of well meaning but awful modern clutter - notices, things. How many of our churches are slowly being wrecked by all this, submerged under all that dross? Another example: before Christmas we drove over to Ketton, and I was hoping to take some photos of the interior for social media, but it was a pointless quest. The place was a mess. A superb building like that deserves better.  Back at Gosberton, Pevsner says that the east window is by Comper. It isn't.

     But on the west end of what is a very large parish and amidst a very bleak stretch of fen sits something that is by Comper.  Well Comper & Bucknall to be correct.  A small rather charming mission church dedicated to two Lincolnshire saints St Gilbert of Sempringham and St Hugh of Avalon, of 1904, with a half-timbered nave, porch and vestry and masonry chancel.

Happy New Year and 'Follies' at the Royal National Theatre

     A New Year and another year of blogging ahead.  So wishing you all a Happy New Year I'd also like to apologize for the trailing off of this blog at the end of last year.  There's quite a bit going on here, but more of that as the year progresses.

      Last Wednesday the bf and I went up to London for the last night of 'Follies' at the Royal National Theatre. For those who don't know 'Follies' is the work of the New York composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim. It was first staged in 1971 in New York and has had twelve revivals since.  It is a massive and complex work and for these reasons it is not perhaps performed as often as it deserves.  Briefly the musical takes places at a reunion, 'our first and last', in the Weismann Theatre, New York, a building scheduled for demolition. The host is Mr Weismann himself, legendary theatrical impresario and producer of the 'Weismann's Follies' 'between the Wars'; his guest are his former artistes, in particular the famous 'Weismann Girls', and their partners. The drama focuses on two of the former girls in particular: Sally (Imelda Staunton) and Phyllis (Janie Dee)and their respective husbands, Buddy (Peter Forbes) and Ben (Philip Quast). The show is in part an affectionate tribute to the Broadway musical written at a time when New York was beginning its slide into decline, and in part a exploration of the space between dreams and reality, between the perfection of the theatrical world of, say, Florenz Ziegfeld and the muddy imperfections of everyday life, as we watch the lives of the leading characters unravel. Bitter sweet may be an apt description of the tone.
     And here I may just begin to run out of superlatives for this production was such an overwhelming experience. It is no exaggeration to say that I've never encountered anything in my theatre going to rival this; wonderful song followed on wonderful song. (Twenty-one of them all told. Sondheim has the most breath-taking fluency.) Acting, direction, choreography, design were all superb. (It's invidious to single out a particular talent but I have to mention the designer Vicki Mortimer, being a visual sort of guy. Set and costumes were stunning.) In all then an incredible ensemble work, demonstrating British theatrical talent at its best.  To be honest it's had such an artistic and emotional effect on me I've been playing recordings of it over and over again on 'Youtube' since then.   As I'm doing now while I write this.  Thankfully a cast recording is in the offing.  I can't wait.

   We had lunch at a favourite of mine 'Dishoom' (Shoreditch), and dinner at 'Canteen' at the rear of the Royal Festival Hall.  Both very good.