God Save the Queen! Platinum Jubilee pt 2

     Another Jubilee delight for you! This time a delightful, rather spiffing poster from the good folk of Cambridge Imprint. God Save the Queen!

Bristol

     My first visit. A week ago now, and I'm not at all sure what to make of it. Perhaps a weekday would have been preferable to a Saturday, but there you go. There was family to meet. It was overwhelmingly busy and noisy, and I was, I have to admit, very tired. There was a sort of restlessness if not aggression in the air. Everything was brash, and a little scuzzy. It remined me in places of Camden Town, and that isn't a good thing. The urban layout difficult to comprehend, even in those areas of the city that hadn't been bombed or razed to the ground in Post-War redevelopment. Redcliffe was particularly wrecked through the co-operation of the Luftwaffe and urban planner. Not exactly the New Jerusalem. In common with most British cities the twentieth century was unkind to Bristol. And, I presume, that attitude to the City is only bound to continue. I think it only fair to add that I'm becoming increasingly disillusioned with urban life in general. The market town and now the village are much more preferable.  

     I should also now say that as I was there with both the bf and my brother I didn't take that many photos - there are, for instance, none of the cathedral. I know I shall have to return, for all that said above about the deleterious effect of Modernity on the city there is some very fine architecture in Bristol, too much to take in in one day, and in particular all of the buildings I'll discuss warrant a post of their own. This post then, alas, is a rather cursory view of the architecture of the city. 

      St Mary Redcliffe was our first point of call. It is a dazzlingly suave and sophisticated piece of Late Gothic architecture, almost without parallel amongst the parish churches of England. I can think of no other that is so thoroughly and consistently vaulted. Church as reliquary. Quite spectacular, and, I wonder, an influence on Robert & William Vertue's design for Bath Abbey. Just s of the church is Colston Row which gives a glimpse  - a tattered fragment, alas - of what the urban fabric was like in Redcliffe before the 20th century. 

     We walked w from St Mary Redcliffe to the cathedral via the restored Queen's Square - hard to comprehend that the planners actually sent a dual carriage way diagonally across this wonderful green space in the 1930s - and the Floating Harbour. (A quick diversion to the Arnolfini Gallery and its aggressively noisy café.) And so to the Cathedral, and somewhat muted response from us even though when built it was one of the most sophisticated buildings in Europe. Almost next door is Charles Holden's rather good 'Free Style' Bristol Central Library (under the influence of Charles Rennie Mackintosh), design that seems to presage what would be the growing froideur, if not outright anomie, of architectural design as the 20th century progressed. Across College Green is Vincent Harris's gargantuan Neo-Georgian Bristol City Hall where the rear façade is much more interesting, and inventive, than the official front, which is understated almost to the point of boredom. More froideur, but at least he attempted a monumental classical building without recourse to the cliché of a pedimented portico.

     From there up Park St, where the architecture is as fine as Bath. And there we took  lunch at Pinkmans Bakery. Crowning Park St is the colossal Wills Memorial Tower designed by Sir George Oatley as part of the University of Bristol. What can one say about this extraordinary structure? It quite dominates the other parts of this complex of buildings that Oates designed to go with it. It is a building of superlatives, beautifully massed and detailed in a free Late Gothic style with a nod to the Arts and Crafts movement. Next door is an equally massive, substantial piece of architecture the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery; Edwardian Free Style Baroque and like all the buildings discussed here built of the lovely local stone.

God Save the Queen! Platinum Jubilee pt1

     Just had to have this! Perhaps one of the best designed the new commemorative items issued for this remarkable Jubilee - yes, I know I am biased! And it is a snip too. God Save the Queen!

Own work: Aberglasney:

      Ahead of my forthcoming exhibition at Aberglasney I've created this mixedmedia image of the house. All rather John Piper, which - I have to be honest - was not quite what I was out to achieve, however I do seem to have regained a more confident approach than the hesitant approach I took in that painting of St Cathan's church recently uploaded here.

Own work: Tree Study

     I really like this little study I made on a recent trip to the wonderful Aberglasney Gardens in Carmarthenshire. Watercolour - pure and simple.

Own work: St Cathan, Llangathen

      Finally, finally, started painting again! It has been months of emptiness. The consequences of Lockdown here in the UK - not the epidemic, but Lockdown. And here is what I've managed to produce - a bit laboured I'm sad to say. The 'usual' mixed media. All this activity as I'm exhibiting in next month at Aberglasney: 10-06.22 - 16.06.22