Mankell’s Wallander
Posted on | September 1, 2010 | No Comments
I read a lot. Mostly books about things. Mostly things like natural history. I hardly ever read fiction. So it comes as a surprise to me to find myself engrossed in a crime fiction series by Swedish writer Henning Mankell featuring detective Kurt Wallander of the Ystad police.
I first stumbled across Wallander in the British TV series starring Ken Branagh. I had never heard of Wallander or Mankell before but I knew I liked Branagh so we thought we’d try it. I was immediately sucked into the rolling and empty landscape of Sweden’s Skåne county, the beauty of the little town of Ystad and gripped by the imaginative crimes, usually a grisly murder, Mankell devised for the melancholy Wallander to solve.
So when the Beeb started showing the Swedish series tucked away on BBC4 I was thrilled. To hear it in Swedish is superb and reading subtitles makes you concentrate even harder and pulls you into the action even more. Krister Henriksson is Wallander superb.
So now I’ve seen them all, and although we have the lot on DVD, I wanted to read the stories for myself as Mankell intended them, and not to see them interpreted through the film company’s eyes. So far, I’m gripped. And I long to visit Ystad and those wild bleak landscapes of southern Sweden.
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?
Cornbury festival 2010
Posted on | July 5, 2010 | 1 Comment
Cornbury Park lies deep within the gently beautiful bucolic landscape of west Oxfordshire. On the first weekend in July each year it opens its doors and throws a rather splendid, laid-back, family-friendly music festival: Cornbury. We went for just the Sunday.
The Blockheads
We’d seen The Blockheads live before but I couldn’t wait to see them again! We stood right at the front, my little eight-year-old step-son Cal leaning up against the crash barriers to see this extraordinarily funky and playful band make foot-stomping sing-a-long music. My brother Paul, who came to Cornbury this year with us, and like me was a big Ian Dury and Blockheads fan in their heyday had never seen them before and he was deeply impressed.
‘Oi oi!’ shouted vocalist Derek the Draw, to which everyone reponded ‘Oi oi!’ The crowd lapped up song after song (all penned by the late great Ian Dury), starting with Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll, working their way through Sweet Gene Vincent, Reasons to be Cheerful, Clever Trevor, Wake Up and Make Love, and finishing with Hit Me with your Rhythm Stick. The band worked their funky, jazzy, reggaey and rocky socks off, bouncing around, sweating profusely, smiling and having a wonderful time. ‘Very good indeed’ is to put it mildly.
My step-son Cal said he loved them but wished he’d known the words. We all agreed that it was a probably a very good thing he couldn’t understand them, what with them often being very rude.
Reef
I was mildly curious about the next band, Reef, whose name I had heard but I couldn’t think of a single song I knew by them. They played pretty good balls-out melodic rock with lots of very catchy riffs, including Place your hands which was a big hit for them and I recognised when I heard it.
But to me, the lead singer’s voice got a bit wearing after a while, and half way through their set I was willing him to shut up so I could hear the musicians better. Most of their songs had the same rhythm and quality, which is great if you like that, but I crave more variety than that in a band, and Reef never sprung anything unsuspected on me. However, I still ‘put my hands on’ when instructed to do so.
Newton Faulkner
Distinctive be-dreadlocked singer-songwriter Newton Faulkner was next to take to the stage.
We weren’t especially interested in Newton, so we sat half way up the field where we could still hear and see. For the standard one-man-and-his-guitar format, he sounded pretty good, but he didn’t blow me away. It takes someone of genius and originality to adopt that format and do that, someone like Neil Young, Roy Harper, Nick Harper, Bob Dylan… I did enjoy Newton’s cover of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody though, a real crowd-pleaser to end on and certainly got me, and everyone else, singing along.
The Feeling
The Feeling is a band that rocks my world. Again and again. I just LOVE their harmonies, their energy, their variety, their carefully crafted, ingenious tunes and that huge, huge joyful sound.
We saw them play a couple of years ago from high up in the gods at Hammersmith Apollo but this time I was determined to get close up.
The crowd demographic was very different to The Blockheads. This time we were surrounded by young girls screaming for poptastic, heart-throb frontman Dan Gillespie Sells to take his clothes off despite the fact that Dan himself prefers blokes. (I don’t blame him – so do I.) 
He sings, straps a guitar on and struts around the stage like a proper pop star should, putting on a fabulous show for his adoring fans.
My brother Paul and nephew George stood with us; they had never knowingly heard anything by The Feeling, but they were soon singing along, grinning wildly, jumping up and down and joining in.
They were delighted to discover that they knew so many of The Feeling’s songs including Join with Us, Sewn, Fill my Little World, Never be Lonely. My step-son Cal managed to jostle his way right to the front again – I don’t think he’d ever seen anything like it before, or felt what it was to be in the midst of such a massive, loud and up-for-it crowd.
The Feeling’s songs draw on their love of 1970s and 80s power pop. Despite their impressive array of self-crafted tunes, they played four covers, including Ah-ha’s Take On Me, Buggles’ Video Killed the Radio Star and Glen Campbell’s Wichita Lineman.
Squeeze’s Glenn Tillbrook, clearly a big fan of The Feeling (we could see him in the wings, singing along), came on to do the guitar solo in Wichita Lineman and played Up the Junction with them.
Seth Lakeman
Multi-talented folk singer-songwriter Seth Lakeman drew a huge crowd to one of the smaller stages, and it was impossible for us to get very close.
Nevertheless we could see and hear Seth and his band rocking it up on stage, hammering out narrative-lyricked folk songs on guitars and electric fiddle. With his boy-next-door good looks, expressive vocals and rock ‘n’ roll energy it seems to me he has brought folk music into the 21st century. He sounded wonderful.
Jackson Browne
Top of the bill was legendary American singer-songwriter (and peace activist and environmental campaigner) Jackson Browne and his band.
As the sun set he took to the stage with his band and produced a beautiful slick, professional, smooth and mellow sound which sounded everso slightly dull to my ears. Don’t get me wrong, I like Jackson Browne, but it was almost too slick. My nephew Alex noted that the guitarist looked rather bored. Perhaps he was. Jackson, though, ever the professional, sang sweetly working his way through selected tunes from his enormous back-catalogue.
To avoid the nightmare of getting out of the car park, we left before JB had finished. And as we walked back to the car, his wonderful song Doctor, my eyes drifted through the night air beneath the mature trees of the park. The perfect end to another wonderful Cornbury.
Photos: Moth Clark
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.
We and Jimmy Page spellbound by Roy Harper
Posted on | June 6, 2010 | 1 Comment
It’s three years ago since I first saw Roy Harper, the singer-songwriter folk rock guitarist. Everything I said about him in the blog I wrote after that gig still stands. The man’s a genius. As well as being very, very funny.
I knew I wouldn’t be able to stand up for the whole gig at the Camden’s Jazz Café, due to my current stubborn back problem, so I upgraded our tickets so we had seats in the restaurant. Moth and I found ourselves sitting at the table next to Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin’s guitarist, who is both an old friend and big fan of Roy.
Above: Jimmy Page watches his friend Roy Harper play
Roy sang and played his way through a set lasting just over an hour and half, but felt like five minutes, highlights of which included Hangman (surely the best anti-capital punishment treatise ever written), Commune (which had me blubbing only a short way through the first verse), Green man, Me and my woman, finally finishing up with the haunting When an old cricketer leaves the crease. I was spellbound, and as expected, moved to tears.
I love everything about this man: the chiming purity of his guitar sound, the magical chord sequences, the intensity of his voice, his uncompromising values (all of which I share) poetically expressed in his lyrics, his intelligence, integrity, honesty and humour.
If you haven’t heard any Roy Harper before, I recommend you try his albums Stormcock, Folkjokeopus or Bullinamingvase. There’s a massive 40-year back catalogue to choose from!
Photos: Moth Clark
Short blog due to difficulties using a computer
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.
shopping basket
