Work in progress: map of Woodstock
Posted on | August 28, 2010 | No Comments
I’ve been so busy since I last blogged, with work, life, family, reading and watching Big Brother; but during the bits in between I’ve been working on my map of Woodstock, the third in my map series. Woodstock has so much history and so many outstanding buildings that compressing it all into a sheet on A1 has been a real challenge. It’s about half finished but I thought I’d let you have a sneak preview.
Woodstock is dominated by the grandeur of Blenheim Palace and its Great Park, so I have drawn some of its main features, including the lakes, and perhaps its most famous son, Winston Churchill.
For all its formal architectural and historical wonders, the palace is just one small part of the town. Woodstock has some gorgeous architecture of its own; gabled cottages, buildings in the local vernacular, Georgian town houses, and a disproportionate number of hostelries for a town of fewer than 3,000 residents. Many of these cater for the thousands of visitors who flock to the town every year. What is especially noticeable is the complete lack of thatch. Most of the roofs are slates or tiles with a good number of split Cotswold stone. Anyway, while I mourn the lack of thatch, here’s a sneaky peek at the town centre so far:
Map of Stanton Harcourt and Sutton
Posted on | August 3, 2010 | 2 Comments
I so enjoyed making my map of Eynsham last month, I thought I’d have a crack at the beautiful neighbouring villages of Stanton Harcourt and Sutton, where my family live. Click on the map to enlarge it.
I have emphasised the natural history of the place, as well as the many gorgeous historic buildings, ancient cottages and prehistoric sites.
I have included the Devil’s Quoits stone circle, which is now re-constructed after almost being lost in the 20th century. And I have put back on the map – quite literally – the remarkable bronze age burial mound of Gravelly Guy which was destroyed after it was excavated to make was for gravel extraction and subsequent landfill.
I’ll be getting some copies made in the very near future, both as flat maps and folded.
Map of Eynsham
Posted on | July 7, 2010 | 2 Comments
To amuse myself while recovering from a trapped nerve, I thought I would do a little gentle doodling in the form of a hand-drawn map of Eynsham, the village where I live.
Click on the map to enlarge it.
It’s my Eynsham and my drawing, so I make no apology for it not being to scale.
It’s not even accurate; huge chunks of the village are not shown, but you could use it to navigate your way around the village.
I drew what I think are the nicest or most important buildings, shops and houses; sketched in some of activities, history, nature and things you can find here or that stand out for me.
Here’s the title with the all important factual geographical information: click to enlarge
.
I could probably do a bit more fiddling on it here and there but it feels pretty much complete now.
If it’s not too pricey, I’m going to see if I can have a few reproduced.
Here’s the area by the river. Click to enlarge. What’s that highwayman doing there?
Winter hare Christmas card
Posted on | July 2, 2010 | No Comments
I have painted a new design for a Christmas card, ‘Winter hare’. Gratifyingly secular and with lovely strong colours to brighten up a dull grey winter’s day, I really hope you like it!
I now need to estimate how many to get printed. If you like the design and you think you might want to buy some when I’ve had them printed, please can you let me know how many you might want? I will be selling them in packs of 10 (with envelopes) later in the year and sending them out to you in early November. I don’t need paying until then, and of course, you can always change your mind.
I anticipate one pack of 10 will cost about £3 to £3.50 or as near to cost price as I can produce them, plus a few pennies for postage.
Doctor Who and Vincent van Gogh
Posted on | June 7, 2010 | 7 Comments
I just don’t get Doctor Who, the much-loved BBC TV series. However, I was curious about this weekend’s episode because it featured as its central character Vincent van Gogh, who regular readers will know is a particular favourite of mine. So I watched it.
I suspected that actor Tony Curran would make a rather good Vincent – which he did – and that the script, by Blackadder writer Richard Curtis, might offer a rip-roaring story of vision and illusion, passion and pathos (in a Blackadder Goes Forth sort of way) and perhaps even tackle some of Vincent’s internal demons. But I was seriously disappointed.
The script was so weak and went nowhere, and as a van Gogh aficionado the shocking errors in the chronology and geography of Vincent’s life were glaring, irritating and lazy. For example, the church in which Vincent, the Doctor and his sidekick end up to defeat the monster is not even in Provence. And where in Vincent’s life was this rustic farmhouse where much of the action took place?
Historical inaccuracy apart, the script went nowhere, which is such a shame, because there is so much fascinating stuff in Vincent’s life which could have made a rich seam for a great storyline. How about a monster which turns colour to monochrome? Or sunflowers which through Vincent’s vision become alive and dangerous on the canvas? Or Vincent’s inner demons which force him to do violent things like ear-mutilating?
There were some nice touches; actor Tony Curran made a cracking job of Vincent’s unstable, explosive fragility; the cackling Arlesienne women outside the café at the beginning wore the correct costume; and the mock up of Vincent’s bedroom was great. And the CG which made the crows flap over the cornfield was wonderful as was the CGd starry night at the end.
But the overblown, syrupy, tear-jerking bit at the end where Vincent is seen in a 21st century gallery overhearing Bill Nighy sing his praises as the greatest artist of all time had me reaching for the sick-bucket.
The review in The Telegraph considered it weak. The review in The Guardian was slightly more generous.
Exhibition ends
Posted on | May 31, 2010 | No Comments
My Artweeks exhibition is now finished and I’d like to sincerely thank everybody who turned up to see my paintings and visit us: especially those who braved the rain on Saturday – all 74 of you!
As well as regular visitors, friends and family from all over the UK, I was privileged to welcome into our home a truly international bunch – we had visitors from South Africa, the Netherlands, Pakistan and Germany. And the prize for the most determined goes to two guests who had travelled all the way from Texas to see my work and hang out for a few days in our beautiful village. Thank you.
Here’s what people said:
“Finally got to see your paintings in the flesh! Delighted to be taking Tree of Life home with me” – Ruth, Oxford
“Only seeing the actual pictures can do them justice” – Matthew, Oxford
“My favourite artist of Artweeks. Outstanding!” – Julie, Abingdon
“Beautiful. Living, breathing pictures” – Ivan, Gabriel and Joan
“You win the sweep of art awards” – Gwendol, Texas
“‘Endless forms most beautiful‘, I bought this little beauty ” – Mark, Swindon
My walls are now looking much barer than two weeks ago – a great reason to start planning my next paintings and fill up the spaces ready for next year’s show!
If you missed the exhibition, or saw something when you were here that you liked and are still considering it, if you’d like to come for a private view, then please email me.
Artweeks continues
Posted on | May 23, 2010 | No Comments
After a really busy weekend welcoming a total of 88 visitors to my exhibition we’re knackered (and hot)! That’s not a bad figure for an obscure artist in a little house tucked away in a small village! So many terrifically interesting people turned up; friends, family, families of friends, fellow-villagers, repeat visitors and lots of new visitors – and not enough time to talk to them all! To all everyone that came – a BIG thank you.
Visitor Rupert Molloy of Woodstock , Oxfordshire says: “You have captured something of the art and science of nature.”
If you missed it, don’t worry, the show continues next weekend.
Invitation to my exhibition
Posted on | May 6, 2010 | No Comments
My next exhibition, part of Artweeks – Oxfordshire’s visual arts festival – is on Saturday 22, Sunday 23, Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 May 2010 in Eynsham, just 6 miles west of Oxford. And you’re invited! There’s more information for you on this page.
I’ll be showing lots of paintings of the natural world: animals, birds, pebbles, landscapes including this one, Life on Planet Three, which I’m particularly pleased with.
It’s free to come and look and there’s absolutely no pressure to buy. Just knowing people are looking at and (I hope) enjoying my pictures makes the whole event worthwhile. Come and enjoy a cup of tea with us, ask me about my pictures, and see my paintings properly; they look so much better in real life than they do on the web.
But don’t just take my word for it. Visitors Charlotte and Prakash said: “I finally got to see your work ‘in the flesh’ and it was a real delight! Thank you so much.”
And at the same time as my exhibition, there are another nine exhibitions going on nearby, all just a short and very pleasant stroll from each other in our beautiful village of Eynsham.
Sketches from East Africa
Posted on | April 2, 2010 | No Comments
As usual while on my travels I made a few sketches, though not as many as I would have liked. Here’s a few from our recent trip.
This sketch is of the Ngorongoro crater, the largest complete caldera in the world. It is surely the real Eden. We stayed in a lodge on the crater’s rim with views sublime enough to make stones weep.
The wildebeest at Ngorongoro were permanent crater residents and have become habituated to vehicles. So you can park very close to them and they don’t run away. This gave me a chance to make a few scribbles.
The grounds of the lodge we stayed at near Lake Naivasha were one of the few corridors left for wildlife to access to the lake from the surrounding hills. There was a resident population of waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus) here, which if you sat very still indeed, would graze around you. They really are extremely handsome antelopes.
I was impressed with the yellow-barked acacias (Acacia xanthophloea). They’re also known as fever trees, due to their habit of growing in damp, and therefore malarial, places.
The Twiga gift shop on the beach at Mtoni Marine Hotel in Zanzibar was just a flimsy shack, but looked so colourful with all the paintings hanging outside.
The lodge we stayed in at Lake Manyara was incredibly posh! This was the view from our room.
Vincent’s DNA exposed in a letter
Posted on | January 29, 2010 | No Comments
Note: The F and JH numbers in this blog are standard references used by van Gogh scholars to refer to specific works, rather like scientists use Latin names to refer to species.
Today I went to see The Real Van Gogh: the Artist and his Letters exhibition at the Royal Academy in London and OH MY GOD, it was absolutely incredible. I got some real surprises and met some old familiar friends.
There are 65 paintings, 40 drawings and 40 letters on show. The letters are so fragile they rarely if ever get exhibited.
Most people are familiar with one or two of Vincent’s works; the sunflowers or the starry nights, perhaps. But for many people, when they see a van Gogh for real for the first time they are knocked out by the vibrant colour. I know I do. How can colour be so bright?! But Vincent gets me with a second punch to the jaw I every time when I consider his drawing. For me, to even attempt to paint without getting the drawing right is a mistake. Vincent knew this – indeed I learned it from him. So to see so many of his acutely observed drawings, some accompanied by the painting that they refer to, was extremely revealing. The spontaneity, the sheer force of line, the accuracy, the expression… what a draftsman! I could bang on for thousands of words about it, but instead have a butcher’s at this:
It’s Road with Pollarded Willows (F1678, JH46) drawn in 1881 in Etten. I spent AGES looking at it. This has everything in it that a good prog rock song should have: contrast, rhythm, tone, narrative, simplicity, skill, all ultimately leading to a wholesome and satisfying beauty. I love the cottages on the far right hand side with their red roofs. Like the ting of a triangle in a Steely Dan tune.
Later, in Arles, Vincent would take to using a reed pen, making marks with it that Japanese printmakers do using woodblock printing techniques. The drawings look like handwriting, and are as spontaneous and ‘legible’ almost in the same way. I’m absolutely BONKERS about Vincent’s reed pen drawings. Here’s one of boats near Les-Stes-Maries-sur-Mer:
There were many paintings hanging that I’d seen before in the Dutch or French collections, but to see them hung together was delightful. Take for example one wall in which featured a series of portraits of the Roulin family that Vincent made friends with in Arles in 1888. Here’s Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin (F432, JH 1522)…
…which was hung alongside portraits Vincent made of his wife Augustine, their young son Camille and baby Marcel. You could really get a sense of just what his friendship with this family meant to him. It was very moving. These were pictures I was familiar with. But there were others on show that I’d never seen before, from private collections.
For example, here’s Snowy landscape in Arles (F391, JH1358 ) painted in February 1888 just a few days after Vincent arrived in Provence.
The delicacy of colour, lots of high key whites and pastel tones which he’d been using in Paris, spill out.
Another surprise was White farmhouse among olive trees (F664) which I’d never seen before and sprung out at me like a pouncing leopard.
It hasn’t been exhibited for 109 years and now lives in Japan. The luminous colour in the sky left me gasping ‘how does he do that?’ Having been into the Provencal landscape close to where this was painted I understood every brushstroke, each wiggle of blue that makes the mountains, each slash of brown that makes the trees. For reasons I can’t explain, this one moved me to tears.
And how about this for piece of genius from someone who hardly yet considered himself to be any more than a student of art? It’s Cottage with Peasant Woman Digging (F1669, JH825) painted in Nuenen in 1885.
See what I mean about the drawing? Brilliant. Just bloody brilliant! My feet feel muddy just looking at it. Look at the white bricks around the door – Vincent has even managed to express the detail of the lime leaching out from the mortar.
And so to the letters…
Even if Vincent had never painted a stroke, he would surely be known as a writer. His written observations of the world around him are as fascinating and profound as his pictures. But Im not going to tell you about the content of the letters because you can read them – every single one – online right here. Instead I’m going to tell you about their physical appearance. The first shock is that they are tiny! Really tiny. Vincent often folded a sheet to make four pages from one leaf the size a little smaller than A4. His handwriting changes from mood to mood, from sentence to sentence. Sometimes it’s scrawly, sometimes neat, sometimes he uses too much ink so it blobs. Other times you can see him rushing to the end of sentence as he hurries to get a thought down on paper. Often it’s really tiny writing. You can see the folds, the dog-eared corners, greasy marks, the pencil markings that Vincent’s sister–in-law Jo and others used to number the letters into some kind of comprehensive order.
And then there are the sketches. To better describe what he was thinking Vincent would draw little tiny sketches; of recent paintings he’d made, of ideas he’d had, or in this case (above) to show how he imagined his pictures might one day be hung together. They are so revealing.
It got me thinking about how people today don’t write letters anymore. It’s all email and Facebook. I still have all the letters my mum wrote to me when she lived in Hong Kong and I missed her so much. My dad keeps all the postcards that I have sent him from all over the world. These human documents have a tangible magic that tell a fascinating personal story. It makes me sad to think that perhaps today’s iPod generation won’t ever have such treasure to look back on. I’ve digressed! Sorry.
These were just a few of the fascinating and exquisite things I saw today. I could have mentioned the sensitive portrait of Sien, the woman he lived with in The Hague; or the letter Vincent’s friend Paul Gauguin wrote to him from Pont Aven; or the ‘last’ letter … the unposted one found on Vincent’s body with great dark blobby stains on it. Blood stains perhaps? A gunshot wound to the stomach is likely to bleed. So here you have it. Vincent’s DNA exposed in a letter.
The curators of this exhibition have done an heroic job of getting this lot together in one place at one time. I think Vincent would be very proud.
Comment from David Brooks of Toronto, Canada
Wonderful commentary, Jane. Pen strokes or brush strokes, there’s something so moving about seeing Vincent’s work in person, isn’t there? What an amazing opportunity to see this incredible exhibition–the first major Van Gogh exhibition in England in forty years. And to rave reviews I might add. I’m so glad that you got to see it and that you could share your passionate insights with us.
And I agree about the demise of letter writing. The Helene Hanff “84 Charing Cross Road” days are behind us I’m afraid.
shopping basket
