May Diary

I haven’t been to as many exhibitions as usual in May because of so much art seen last month in Germany, so I’ll include some more Cologne & Dusseldorf art in this diary.

Back in London we went to the Victoria Miro Gallery to see a show called ‘Surface Work’ – its title from a quote by Joan Mitchell who said ‘Abstract is not a style. I simply want to make a surface work’. The handout says the exhibition reflects the way in which women have been at the heart of abstract art’s development over the past century. I particularly liked Helen Frankenthaler. There were so few women artists In the 60’s and she was one I became aware of when I was doing my fine art degree at Coventry School of Art. In our final year we followed, & were influenced by, Abstract Expressionism and in particular the New York School of painters. So in this exhibition it was a shame only one of Frankenthaler’s was on show, done in 1959 & called ‘Winter Figure with Black Overhead’. She was known for her soak-stain technique of painting – pouring thin paint directly onto raw unprimed canvas laid on the floor, this eventually to be known as the Colour Field School of painting with such artists as Morris Louis & Kenneth Noland (see images with this month’s diary).

The next exhibition we had particularly wanted to see, a favourite artist of ours – Christian Boltanski at the Marion Goodman Gallery. Called ‘Ephemeres’ (Mayflies), we entered through a printed veiled passage called ‘The Crossing of Life’, about his personal memories.Then into a room of torn suspended veils documenting the fleeting lifespan of the mayfly. In the downstairs galleries were two beautiful film pieces, reminding me & giving me a similar feeling I get with Bill Viola’s films – such peace and quiet and an inward feeling of how transitory one’s life is. The first video installation called ‘Amitas’ (Blank), made in a bleak snowscape of Ile d’Orleans, Quebec. The other, ‘Animitas’ (Small Souls), created in the extreme conditions of Chile’s remote Atacama Desert. Anima meaning soul and animitas the Chilean meaning for ‘roadside shrine’. Each video showed hundreds of small Japanese bells with plexiglas tags attached to tall stems planted in the ground, the chiming bells creating eulogies for lost human souls. Upstairs an extremely large video installation called ‘Misterios’ showed the rocky uninhabited coast of Bahia Bustamante in Patagonia. Three colossal trumpets generated a sound similar to that of whale song when the sea winds pass through them. I preferred the two smaller installations.

   

   

Also visited that day Sadie Coles Gallery. How strange to see an artist Wilhelm Sasnal using similiar historical art reference to me. Born in Poland, he mixed present day reality and memory with art history.

Art from German museums that I loved but did not show in my last diary:

   
Ludwig Museum, Cologne                                  Duane Hanson

   
Donald Judd                                                          Kenneth Noland

   
Jackson Pollock                                                     Franz Kline

   
Robert Rauschenberg                                          Anselm Kiefer

   
Fernand Leger                                                      Rene Magritte


Giorgio de Chirico

 

April Diary

Lots to write about this month, with our trip to Cologne to see some of my favourite artists’ work. But first, before Cologne, we visited exhibitions in London.

The Wellcome Collection to see ‘Ayurvedic Man: Encounters With Indian medicine’. A fascinating exhibition in which I loved the gouache paintings in particular.

   
I hadn’t heard of the American artist Eric Fischl, but my husband knew of him and as this was his first London show I wanted to see it. What a surprise – first a beautiful gallery space, the Skarstedt in Bennet Street, St James. (another gallery I could easily live in!). I really loved the work, the handout explains that Fischl likes to freeze the moment of suburban life, leaving the onlooker to decide what has or is happening or about to happen! Large canvases with wonderful brush marks & paint used so confidently, it was so good to stand and take the experience in.

   
Next to the Royal Academy to see ‘Charles 1 King and Collector’. Very crowded! Looking at paintings four people deep is not the way to appreciate them. But what a collection the King had – Titian, Mantegna, Holbein, Durer, etc. It was also fascinating to see what the King paid for them…a shame I didn’t make a note of the prices. I liked two paintings by Hans Holbein the younger of Charles 1st and the other of Anne Cresacre. Another by Anthony van Dyke of Charles V with his dog. In another a wonderful interpretation of dress fabrics in Queen Henrietta and Jeffery Hudson. Sadly, with blockbuster shows, the major London galleries are often no longer enjoyable to visit.

   
On the 11th April, one of my favourite artists sadly died – Gillian Ayres. I have managed to see most of her London exhibitions and I have lots of her catalogues. It has always been a joy to see her love of colour, dancing shapes and brush marks which make me feel so happy. I will really miss her.

   
Now for our trip to Cologne to see so many of my favourite paintings. Where to begin….we visited three museums. Museum Ludwig in Cologne. Kunst Sammalung in Dusseldorf. and Kunstmuseum in Bonn.

  
Ernst Kirchner                                        Alexej Von Jawlensky

   
August Macke                                   Franz Marc

   
Francis Picabia                          Pablo Picasso

   
Pablo Picasso                           Paul Klee

   
Pierre Bonnard                                                       Henri Matisse

   
Wassily Kandinsky                                                                   Natalia Goncharova

   
Max Beckmann           Jean Dubuffet

   
Ernst Wilhelm Nay                   Gerhard Richter

   
Arman                                                                     George Segal

   
Antoni Tapies                                                  Marisol


Jasper Johns

Cologne was one of the most heavily bombed cities in Germany during World War II, reducing the population by 95% and destroying almost the entire city. The resulting post-war rebuilding is extremely mixed, not attractive at all and somewhat brutal. The Cathedral was badly damaged but it remained standing in an otherwise flattened city. It’s the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe & has the second tallest twin spires. While we were there the exterior was being cleaned and it desperately needed it, looking so black – I guess from pollution. Inside there is a beautiful modern stained glass window by Gerhard Richter and while we were there, with such good weather, the sun shining through created a colourful ‘carpet’. on the floor.

   
   

We visited the Cologne art Fair, but didn’t enjoy this at all. We felt that viewing art as if in a market on unending white screens took away the artists ideas and it all became as if one, with the galleries seeming more important than the ‘art’.
It was a good trip & I would highly recommend going away by train. It’s hard to believe once on the train at St Pancras we were in our rented Cologne apartment 4 hours later.

March Diary

The first exhibition visited was at the Simon Lee Gallery, to see Michelangelo Pistoletto’s silkscreens on super polished stainless steel. I have grown to like his work, initially finding my image in his mirrors unsettling, but this is Pistoletto’s idea, drawing the viewer and the environment into the work creating a virtual space where both interact. In this show he has taken his idea further with industrial storage units laden with tools showing different trades with more emphasis on the static object.

   

We next went to a Rene Magritte exhibition at the Luxembourg & Dayan gallery, a large house in Savile Row where an attendant unlocked a door on the first floor, explaining there was no photography. While we looked at the work, he stood on guard! A strange experience as we were the only two in the gallery. I was not familiar with any of Magritte’s early work done when he was in Paris in 1927-30 taking part in the activities of the French Surrealists circle. I really enjoyed it, as it seemed more serious and less jokey than his later work. The blurb explained it being to do with semantics, hence the title ‘Rene Magritte (Or: The Rule Of Metaphor)’.

   

Spruth Magers gallery was next to see Anthony McCall, someone my husband met years ago when in New York. He had warned me I possibly wouldn’t enjoy the show (he was right, I am not a lover of shows in darkened rooms, Bill Viola the exception). When in this darkened basement room, again unlocked by an attendant who came in with us, I felt extremely disorientated besides a projected light creating partial ellipses at different speeds expanding and contracting. There was also a cold mist haze machine in operation. The notes encourage visitors to manipulate the changing light by physically passing through it. This was not for me, I passed and left!

Next was Hauser & Wirth gallery and Matthew Day Jackson. I didn’t like the work at all at first, finding the silkscreen imagery on formica very slick and unpleasant. On further looking, especially close up, the effects were fascinating. Different qualities of textures had been created using lots of materials together. This series of still life paintings, so the blurb read, are direct representations of Jan Brueghel the Elder and Younger’s genre-defining series of flower paintings from the 16th & 17th centuries. Unfortunately I found the overall effect too manufactured and couldn’t spend enough time fathoming out the total idea.

   

Lorna Simpson, also showing at Hauser & Wirth, was interesting, her work was to do with the representation of identity gender and race, using painting, photography, collage and sculpture. I best liked her ice blocks made of glass – underneath were stacks of Ebony and Jet magazines, distorting the cover images of women. Something I learned from her work was that the expression to be ‘on ice’ is to do with being in prison. No more exhibitions were visited this month.

Having what I think has been a block with my own work, trying out different subject-matter, at last I have gone back to my love of various paintings of the 20th century & I have started to paint again.

   

Aside of my gallery visits & my painting, I have always enjoyed writing and poetry. Throughout my childhood I remember poetry books belonging to my parents. My father liking Rupert Brooke, typical of many men during the 2nd world war. My mother’s being ‘The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam’, a beautiful book she had with hand painted illustrations. Her favourite lines were, ‘The moving finger writes; and, having writ, moves on’ which she could recite, as she could with so many poems that she was taught at school.

At art school in the 60’s, along with my student friends, we really enjoyed the Beat Poets. I particularly liked Alan Ginsberg, Frank O’Hara and Jack Kerouac.

My husband recently gave me a book of Langston Hughes, who I didn’t know of. This is one of so many I like called ‘Heaven’:

Heaven is
The place where
Happiness is
Everywhere.

Animals
And birds sing –
As does
Everything.

To each stone
“How-do-you-do?”
Stone answers back,
“ Well! And you?”

Having never had any poetry tuition, I have so wanted to express thoughts I have had, & this is me having a go with ‘For Mr Klee’:

Lines of colour
Maths and more
A Puppet yet
Death’s at the door.
All for Felix
Dots and Dashes
Mosaics Italian
Tunisian splashes.

So the end of my March Journal with clocks gone forward, here’s to a lovely spring & summer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

February Diary

What a good month for art exhibitions, making me realise how fortunate I am to live in London and to be able to visit shows so easily.
The first show we visited this month was the National Gallery and Edgar Degas’s drawings and pastels on loan from the Glasgow Burrell collection. Sir William Burrell collected Degas’s work throughout his life. This show was beautifully presented in quiet dark rooms, with very few people giving me lots of time to think about the work: the different cross hatching effects, the lushness of the rich pastel. It was almost possible to feel the satin and net of the ballet costumes. None of his dancers posed and it was interesting to see jockeys and tired women in workhouses. While at the National Gallery we couldn’t resist visiting the permanent collection. We chose the rooms showing Berthe Morisot’s ‘Girl on a Divan’, ‘Madame Matisse au Kimono’ by Andre Derain, ‘The Forest at Fontainbleu’ by Henri Matisse. An artist I wasn’t familiar with was Vilhelm Hammershoi – such a moody ‘Interior’, so mysterious & memorable.

   
Edgar Degas                                      Andre Derain

  
Henri Matisse                                                      Vilhelm Hammershoi

We decided to see various exhibitions that looked interesting. The first was Hans Hartung at the Simon Lee Gallery – such beautiful colour and texture. He had had a dramatic sad life, having to flee Germany as he was classed a ‘degenerate’ by the Nazis, his work at that time being Cubist – a movement incompatible with German Ideals. While in the Foreign Legion he lost a leg fighting in North Africa. At the gallery there is a very moving video of him in later life in a wheelchair painting with an air brush, an assistant changing the paint for him. This technique, along with non-traditional tools, olive branches, garden hoses, etc. were how he achieved the fascinating effects.

   
Hans Hartung

Next we went to the Spruth Magers Gallery to see ‘Kauffman, Judd and Morris’. I didn’t know Craig Kauffman’s work but really loved his use of colour – very seductive & a little like a perspex/plastic Rothko. Because the sun was shining into the gallery the shadows on Kauffman’s and Donald Judd’s works were so pretty and magical.

   
Craig Kauffman & Donald Judd

We went on to the Alan Cristea Gallery to see Sol LeWitt, but were passing the Tornabuoni Gallery showing Piero Dorazio which looked extremely colourful. We decided to have a look – he had spent time in New York associating with the abstract expressionists Motherwell, De Kooning and Newman, all great favourites of mine. Sadly Derazio’s work didn’t attract me in the same way. I found his colour very raw and in some works quite crude.


Piero Dorazio

At Alan Cristea, being much more used to LeWitt’s room installations, I was a little disappointed in this exhibition of his prints. For me they lacked drama and didn’t have the same impact. Also at the gallery were black and white prints by Richard Sierra which I really liked – lots of processes using paint sticks, pigment, linseed oil and melted wax.


Sol LeWitt

   
Richard Serra

Finally to the Thomas Dane Gallery to see Phillip King’s ‘Colour on Fire’. This was so impressive – a large perforated geometric sculpture in vibrant contrasting and competing colours against different coloured gallery walls. This installation was happy and uplifting, something to enjoy unlike our country and the world at the moment.

   
Philip King

Another day when in the West End, we couldn’t resist when passing the Atlas Gallery to check out the show of iconic black and white photos by Mark Riboud, Henri Cartier-Bresson to name two. A really well selected show.

   
Mark Riboud                              Henri Cartier-Bresson

We also saw that day Edwina Leapman at the Annely Juda Gallery. I have a problem with minimal art, which is strange as that is the sort of environment I ideally would love to live in. But anyway, I do like the delicacy and I understand the process, but this particular show lacked impact for me, a little too understated. Also at the gallery was Roger Ackling who uses a magnifying glass with the sun to sear freehand lines across found pieces of wood. An interesting idea but the imagery I found very simplistic. I so wanted to see more – I guess I felt the idea had taken over from what was being done, but perhaps the process was more important.

   
Edwina Leapman

Roger Ackling

We were invited to Yvonne Crossley’s private view at the Chelsea Arts Club. Walking through the front door was like going back into how I imagine a 40’s drinking club, quite an old fashioned feel to the place. I think Yvonne had the best exhibition space. I liked her large wire figures, made up of lots of overlaid netting.


Yvonne Crossley

To finish February, what a treat. Christie’s and Sotheby’s wonderful sales of impressionist and surreal art. These places are my favourite as, all on your own, you can get as close to the art as when the artist did it. Sometimes it’s hard to believe the painting you are in front of – a Picasso or Matisse selling for many millions of pounds. Another point about viewing days at these sales rooms, you aren’t aware of someone having chosen what you are looking at, there is no curating of the work. Often when reading reviews of popular art exhibitions it’s irritating that the curator seems be as important as the work on show. There are now curating courses at art schools. I don’t get it – I just want to see the art. If someone has a strong view about a collection – write about it in the catalogue or exhibition notes.
We first visited the Rockefeller Collection at Christie’s. What money and taste this couple had. A collection beyond belief, every room in their house with mouthwatering pieces. To name a few (so many favourites of mine): Picasso, Matisse, Lebasque, Monet, Vlaminck, Schiele, Van Dongen, Rouault, Jawlensky, Degas, Dufy and so many more. I have no words to describe what I saw. Speaking with a saleswoman, she asked if I was enjoying the viewing. I said I definitely was, especially as so many of the works I’d never seen as they had been in private collections, to which she replied once they were sold I’d never see them again.

   
Henri Matisse                           Egon Schiele

   
Claude Monet                                                       Marie Laurencin

We finally went to Sotheby’s where their impressionist sale, although enjoyable, didn’t seem as strong as Christie’s. It would be difficult to match the Rockefeller Collection.

   
Pablo Picasso                                                       Marc Chagall

   
Jean Dufy & Raoul Dufy                                      Joan Miro

I want to finish by saying how disappointed I am that, looking forward to going to the newly opened Hayward Gallery to see what seemed an interesting Andreas Gursky show, I was shocked to discover that a single ticket cost £14.50 & I was advised to book for a further £2.50, and no concessions.
So a great month for art, but not for weather. We are experiencing the coldest February since 2009, the country covered in snow and Storm Emma on it’s way, with the media giving constant updates. I can’t wait for the clocks going forward next month.


Our back garden.


Tony’s Valentine card to me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

January Diary

January 2018.
New Year’s Day and, wanting to get out after all the festivities of Christmas, we walked to Tate Britain to see ‘Impressionists in London French Artists in Exile 1870-1900’. A fascinating exhibition. Besides learning a lot about the Franco-Prussian war, which was so dreadful, with each side losing 100,000 people and later around 20,000 more women & children. The show was of the artists who fled to London. James Tissot stayed as a stretcher bearer in the National Guard. His very beautiful painting ‘The Wounded Soldier’, a soldier with his arm in a sling, seemed to me to portray the mindlessness of war. Another painting by Claude Monet, ‘Meditation (Madame Monet Sitting on a Sofa)’, I looked at for some time, fully imagining sitting beside her – its atmosphere created quietness & contemplation. Camille Pissarro’s paintings of South London, fascinating as they are all areas we are familiar with. Monet’s paintings of a foggy Thames and a painting I have always loved because of it’s heightened colour is Andre Derain’s ‘Charing Cross Bridge’.
Having recently watched a programme about the gallery owner Paul Durand-Ruel, I learnt that because of his supporting these artists, we have so much to thank him for as, unlike those who ridiculed these artists at the time, he saw something he really liked which means we have these painting to enjoy today.

   
James Tissot                                          Claude Monet

   
Camille Pissarro                                                    Andre Derain

Our second trip out to galleries.
‘Basquiat Boom’ at the Barbican. Not a building I enjoy going to – so vast, brutal and unattractive. Once inside I was annoyed, as were others, that I couldn’t take my handbag into the show & had to carry my purse/credit cards around by hand. Once inside the show we may as well have been in a school playground, the noise and out of control children so distracting. I could only think Basquiat’s childlike imagery and graffiti had parents thinking their children would relate to it. In fairness some did seem to be looking quite intently, but the majority were obviously bored. Basquiat is self-taught, and there is a freedom to his mark-making and colour. Lots of social and political references and his love of boxer Sugar Ray Robinson, jazz musicians Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and many more. His collaborative paintings with Andy Warhol I didn’t respond to, finding them very contrived & lacking the spontaneity of his own work. How sad someone showing so much commitment and enthusiasm to his work died at such an early age of 27.

   

Jean’Michel Basquiat

Our third trip out to exhibitions.
‘Aspects of German Art’ at the Ben Brown Gallery. I particularly liked Max Beckman’s work. It’s not attractive and quite frightening, depicting life in the First and Second World Wars, the rise of Nazism, his exile in Amsterdam and finally his emigration to the U.S.A. Exaggerated dark, distorted human features, strong colour, extremely personal and memorable. Also Sigmar Polke – he showed lots of experimentation with materials and processes, especially with colour, using stains, blemishes, pigments, solvents and resins. Looking at his work I get a feeling he so enjoyed the act of creating. Finally I liked Albert Oehlen. I enjoy the processes he seems to be able to show, I find myself not looking at the finished work but fascinated by various close-up textures and effects, possibly because of my years of textile designing.


Albert Oehlen, Sigmar Polke & Max Beckman

What we had really come to see today was Peter Doig at the Michael Werner Gallery, an artist who seems to be revered by so many art critics. Thinking I must be missing something, I keep hoping to be convinced. The gallery is yet another private Georgian house in Mayfair. I cannot imagine why such a place would be suitable for an art exhibition of this style and size – the rooms so distracting to the work. Once we had managed to open the ridiculously heavy door we were confronted by a woman instructing us which rooms we could enter. Sitting the other side of her desk were two women embroidering with their coloured silks in a line on the desk…. was this part of the exhibition? It’s hard to know these days! Inside the first room, what a shock to see so many visitors. I have so many mixed views on the work. Doig now lives in Trinidad and his work, according to the notes, covers personal memories, photography and historical paintings. In some of the works I like the gestural marks he makes, but find the results too busy as if it cannot be resolved and he’s given up dissatisfied. Apparently some of it is meant to be dreamlike, but I have always had problems with dreams as subject matter. My final thoughts are that something’s missing (which in many of the paintings is the feet!). If I had to pick one of his paintings that held my interest and liked, it would be of his Trinidadian friend Emheyo whom he shared a studio with. We left the Gallery with the embroidery being packed away – we will never know if this was part of the show, somehow I think not.

   

Peter Doig

On the 18th of this month we celebrated our 11th anniversary with a lunch at the River Cafe. I should add we have been together for 51 years, quite a record – thank you Tony for your patience.


River Cafe

November/December Diary

I am combining November with December. Sorry for this, but I had a difficult November & decided it made sense to do both together.
My love of art exhibitions was reduced to only two visited.
1st visit: Royal Academy to see ‘Jasper Johns’. This artist, along with Larry Rivers, was always a favourite of mine – someone I discovered in ‘Art International’ magazine, bought in ‘Better Books’ off the Charing Cross Road when I visited London as a student at Coventry School of Art. I was looking forward to the exhibition and seeing ‘Target’, a painting which so influenced the way we worked in the 60’s, using stencilled letters and numbers. Although it brought back such intense memories, I didn’t feel it had stood the test of time and now looked quite dated. Nevertheless, for nostalgic reasons, living at home without any responsibilities & the fun of being at art school, I enjoyed the show.

  
Jasper Johns

2nd visit: Pace London to see ‘Impulse’ – American Abstract painting in the 1960s & 70s. On entering this exhibition we were taken aback by a woman on a mobile phone across the room talking extremely loudly (later we noticed she was a member of the staff working behind reception!). After us both glaring at her in disgust she got the message & left us to look at the work in peace. It was an interesting show & I particularly liked Kenneth Noland, Morris Louis, and Sam Gilliam. Their work, unlike J.Johns, had worn well. Noland’s shaped canvases & Morris Louis’s use of acrylic paint on unprimed canvas all so new to us when first seen in the 60s. Interestingly mentioned in the notes was how jazz was a source of inspiration to these artists. We were also well into jazz after hours in the art school painting studio, playing records while we worked on our primed hardboard with house paints. A fellow student, Frank Fennell, played with his father in a small band at various Warwickshire clubs . Our favourites at the time were John Coltrane (who  I was fortunate to see in concert at the De Montfort Hall in Leicester), Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis and Ornette Colman.

   
Kenneth Noland                                                   Morris Louis

We now come to December. Before Christmas we went to Tate Modern to see the Modigliani exhibition, an artist I have always loved. An extremely well displayed show, especially a room showing many sculptured heads on plinths, which was fascinating to walk amongst & get such a powerful close-up of the facial features. Being troubled by the after-effects of childhood tuberculosis, dust from carving aggravating his breathing, he abandoned sculpture. Another room was full of his famous female nudes. He made these paintings for male buyers & their sensuality suggests changes in the lives of young women who were increasingly independent in the 1910s. The models making eye contact with the viewer, their make-up hinting at the influence of female film stars. Apparently the nudes proved shocking in 1917 & at one showing a police commissioner wanted them removed on grounds of indecency, finding their pubic hair offensive. Traditionally, in fine art, nudes were hair-free.

     

Amedeo Modigliani

We also saw ‘Red Star Of Russia’, an extremely well displayed show featuring work collected by graphic designer David King. So much to see & read – various visits would be needed to take it all in. There was an a very good video at the start with David King explaining how he put the collection together. I particularly liked a set of lithographs by El Lissitzky, one called New Man. Many of the exhibits had lengthy titles, these being as important as the work.

  
El Lissitzky                                                Nina Vatolina

Another morning in December, in a back street near Southwark Cathedral, we came upon the site of a burial ground called Crossbones. Back home I read that for centuries it was the outcasts’ graveyard for the area formerly known as The Mint, one of London’s poorest and most violent slums. By the time it closed in 1853 it held the remains of an estimated 15,000 paupers. It’s now a garden of remembrance & we were fascinated by the railings outside covered with ribbons & personal memorabilia, creating a curtain of colour & texture.

       
The second week of December we met with our friend Andrew from Norwich to see the Cezanne Portraits exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. This is such a wonderful exhibition with over 50 of his portraits from collections across the world. I loved the portraits of his son Paul whom he nicknamed ‘Le Boulet’ or ‘Little Dumpling’ – so beautiful & sensitive. This is an exhibition not to be missed & is on until February.

  
  
Paul Cezanne

After leaving the Cezanne exhibition we walked to a favourite restaurant for lunch, passing Notre Dame de France, a church off Leicester Square we had never seen before, although we lived in the West End for many years. Inside we were surprised to see an Ambusson tapestry called ‘Paradise on Earth’ by Dom Robert, a friend of Jean Cocteau who also had a beautiful mural he painted in ‘Our Lady’s Chapel’ in 1959 with simplified lines in very muted colours.


Jean Cocteau

The Sunday before Christmas we went to the candlelit carol service at St Peter’s church, Vauxhall. I so enjoy going to this service as it’s where my mother’s funeral was in 2014 & it always brings back memories of what a great mum she was. The carol service, lit with the congregation holding candles, is so beautiful and a very serious way to start Christmas. After the service mince pies and mulled wine were served.

We like to get out at Christmas, and on Christmas Eve we walked to and around Brockwell Park. The walled garden so quiet & still with various flowers still out.


Before our lunch on Christmas Day we drove to Battersea Park & walked through it to the River Thames, looking so grey. Beside the river the large calm ‘Peace Pagoda’ monument cheered us up on a rather dull drizzly day.

I loved getting a coffee bean grinder Christmas present this year. I have started to drink coffee after 40 years. In the past it always disagreed with me, raising my pulse. But cutting back on sugar I now find I can drink & enjoy it. Along with the grinder I got a milk frother, so I am set now for some great coffee.
The following week is a winding down & recovering time from a busy Christmas.

So the end of this year & my final 2017 journal. I wish everyone reading this a very happy & healthy 2018.

October Diary

The first day of this month I always remember as it’s my husbands birthday. This year we organised exhibitions to visit and, in between, a delicious lunch at the Elyston Restaurant in Chelsea. (which I can recommend).
First exhibition to see was the ‘Post-War & Contemporary Art at Christie’s, King Street. Unbeknown to us it was the opening of the exhibition & champagne was flowing along with delightful & very appetising canapés – a shame this coincided with our birthday lunch. What a wonderful collection of art. I loved to see Cy Twombly so close to his work – so much is going on: letters and sentences in which I can read so much of my own thoughts . I have never particularly liked frank Auerbach’s work, but to my surprise I found myself really enjoying his painting called ‘Pillar Box’. It had qualities of one of my favourite painters – Richard Diebenkorn, with a lushness of paint in delicate colours creating an atmospheric scene. There were so many great paintings but too many to write about.


Cy Twombly


Frank Auerbach

After our lunch we walked to the Saatchi Gallery off Kings Road. to see ‘Iconoclasts – Art out of the Mainstream’. Were we about to see nonconformist art, something challenging? I didn’t think so. I did find two artists interesting, but definitely not challenging or iconoclastic. First was Daniel Crewe-Chubb, obviously influenced by De Kooning & Asger Jorn, both favourites of mine. The other artist was Danny Fox – for the sheer scale of his paintings and their unfinished look. Having been disappointed by this exhibition our visit was saved by ‘Calder on Paper’ in the lower gallery. A lovely display of gouaches that Calder preferred to work in as the paint dried so fast & had a wonderful opacity. These had the fun of Paul Klee & Joan Miro.


Daniel Crewe-Chubb


Danny Fox


Alexander Calder

Now for something different. Another outstanding memory of this month will be a five-car crash outside our house. A stolen car hit another car at the junction of our street and skidded toward the first car of three parked outside our house. After hitting this car it ended up on its side against a tree. Had the tree not been there it would have ended up in our neighbour’s and our house. Thank goodness for the tree! The first car it skidded into hit the parked second car which then went into our parked car. All three cars had considerable damage & ours ended up costing the insurance of the stolen car £4000. To everyone’s disbelief who saw this, the driver of the stolen car scrambled out and ran faster than Usain Bolt up the street and away from the devastating scene. Police and ambulances arrived from nowhere. Fortunately no-one was hurt – the woman in the car that he hit, although in a state of shock, was miraculously not injured. After all this shock and inconvenience of sorting out statements and insurance we planned to get away from the house and street and the following day see some exhibitions again.

   

White Cube, Masons Yard was our first stop. ‘From the Vapour of Gasoline’ was the name of the show. In the late 1950s early 1960s, buying the American magazine Art International, I was extremely influenced by American Pop Art. Its content was all about the American Dream – imagery influenced by advertising and packaging, a land of hope and plenty. But the notes to this exhibition stated that by the late 1960s this group of artists had become completely disillusioned owing to political assassinations, civil unrest, escalation of the cold war and oil embargoes – hence the title of this show. My 1960s memories were also of colour and humour but this show was the opposite, and very depressing. Richard Prince stood out for me, his jokes about sex, mortality and aggression which, when taken out of the magazine format and onto a painted monochrome canvas, became more direct at getting this message across. An extra thought comes to mind when writing this & that is how much the TV series ’Mad Men’ relates to this show.


From the Vapour of Gasoline


Richard Prince

Next was the Cards Gallery, in Grafton Street. A gallery new to us promoting 1960s & 1970s Italian art. Six floors of exhibition space in this recently renovated 17th century London town house. Amongst many interesting Italian artists I particularly liked Michelangelo Pistoletto’s mirror pieces, where I was able to participate in the mirror, changing the composition. I wonder was this was the artist’s idea – I must read up about him.


Michelangelo Pistoletto

Next was Galerie Thaddeus Ropak, Dover street. Tony wanted to see Richard Longo, not knowing this artist I was very impressed with his extremely large graphite and charcoal drawings on paper. I have written before of my dislike of this gallery, finding it very unsympathetic to showing art – the interior being so decorative it detracts from whatever is on show. Intrigued by the building I did some research and found out it was originally built for a Bishop Keene of Ely and in the 20th century the Albermarle Club transferred there which became a meeting place for the women’s suffrage movement. It then became a famous meeting place for artists & intellectuals, including Oscar Wilde & the Marquis of Queensberry, until the American Red Cross moved in during the 2nd World War!


Richard Longo

   
Galerie Thaddeus Ropak

Alex Katz at Timothy Taylor Gallery, Carlos Place was next. There is something so different & skilful about Katz’s work – the scale and ability to simplify colour & imagery in such an individual way. It is so calming almost dreamlike. In this particular show there was a fascinating area devoted to drawings/studies of individual figures & groups, done in 1940 when, as an an art student at Cooper Union, he travelled on the subway.

   
Alex Katz


Alex Katz sketchbook

Finally we went to the Pace Gallery, Burlington Gardens showing Jean Dubuffet’s ‘Theatres De Memoire.’ WHAT a wonderful show! So Joyous. At the age of 74 Dubuffet composed these collages of overlapping papers, vast pictures made up of smaller paintings cut out & glued. These were the first paintings to interest Jean- Michael Basquiat.

   
Jean Dubuffet

Absolutely shattered after this exhibition we had a break from days out looking at art until a friend arrived saying she wanted to see the Soutine exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery. We organised to leave late morning, first to go to the Gagosian & the Brice Marsden show again. We had been disappointed when we first saw it, but having back home read up on what it was about, this time it made so much more sense. Near the Gagosian was the Almine Rich Gallery showing an artist I remember from my art school days – Ernst Wilhelm Nay. I wanted to see his show & wasn’t disappointed. What wonderful clean colour & bold simple shapes, so good. Again another show that made you feel quiet & reflective.

  
Ernst Wilhelm Nay

Finally we walked to the Courtauld Gallery & Chaim Soutine’s ‘Cooks Waiters and Bellboys’. What a treat this show was. Such fascinating paintings – their many layers of texture and colour. So atmospheric. To look at these paintings was to know the personalities very accurately observed. Being at the Courtauld we finished with a look at their permanent collection – Renoir, Manet, Cezanne, Seurat, Van Dongen to name just a few and a fitting end to October.

   
Chaim Soutine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September Diary

After 46 years of living in this house, September will be remembered as the month we ‘updated’ our cellar.
Down an old wooden ladder into a broken stone floor surrounded by earth underneath the house, we noticed a never-to-be-seen-before damp area, which needed to be dealt with. The cellar, besides storing Tony’s art, had become a dumping ground for things not thrown out.

  
A cellar company was hired to renovate. Before work was started, the cellar had to be cleared, during which we noticed a strong smell of gas. The emergency gas board were called out and, sure enough, we had a leak, which was from an old damaged pipe in the cellar. Our gas had to be cut off immediately and we were without gas for two days. We continued to clear the cellar but became more than concerned when we noticed smelly water all over the far end of the cellar floor. Sorting out the water took some doing: we contacted the water board, but they couldn’t come for anything up to 3 days. Worried that the cellar company wouldn’t be able to start work till the flooding was cleared, we rang them and they sent out someone who would be working on our job to have a look. He instantly worked out it was a main drain in the front yard of our house, which he undid and to our horror what we know as a 30 foot deep drain was full and overflowing with gunge and sewage. We organised having a jet wash company come to clear it. Unfortunately, after a good hour, they were unable to clear it – apparently we were told, like many houses in London, it was probably down to fat/hair/baby wipes and sanitary products. Furious at such an accusation I informed them we sieved everything that could go down our sinks and bath and there had never been a baby in the house and certainly no sanitary products have gone down the drain for a considerable time! While this discussion was going on the water board turned up. Out from his van stepped a middle-aged man with gold chain around his neck saying he hoped the job wasn’t going to take long as it was Friday and the weekend started here. He then said there was an extremely strong smell, to which we explained it was a sewer drain. He said it wasn’t a job for him he was CLEAN Water, we needed WASTE Water. He also wanted to know who owned this drain – was it us or was it shared by other houses. We had no idea. He got his laptop which showed a map of all the drains in our area…he told us it was private and was our responsibility. The first jet wash company were still here and explained they hadn’t been able to clear it – that wasn’t a problem, Waste Water would come and they would shift it. But we asked that if the drain belonged to us and not the water board surely they wouldn’t clear it…..No worries, he said, they would. Off everyone went and half an hour later WASTE Water arrived and without any questions they coned off the street and a giant plunger was used on our drain and it was instantly cleared. We were so surprised and said how the previous company hadn’t managed to shift it…They were not pleased at hearing this, realising straight away our drain was private and that they shouldn’t have touched it, we should have got another private company to come. Off they went, and we could breathe again.

Next episode was the cellar company starting and digging out over 60 black bags of soil. This followed by various wall and floor coverings of cement and plaster. Eventually the cellar was fit for new shelves to be bought and fitted & after a big sort through various household items went back down. BUT not the art………

       
We decided it was time to consider renting a ‘lock-up’ for all our art. We were lucky to find a place just a 15 minute walk away, at a very reasonable cost especially as we wanted to rent it for at least a year, if not forever. Various trips to the lock-up were our next activity, with still more shelves to be bought and more art to be stored.

   
Sadly, because of the upheaval of the cellar, I haven’t been able to go to any exhibitions this month. At the beginning of September I did manage to set up a large board in my studio and start an abstract idea, concentrating on gestural brush strokes of colour and was starting to think of all the influences of imagery I had seen on our trip away as well as all the gallery visits I had made….but this was brought to a sharp stop when the cellar took over.

   
Hopefully next month I will continue.

August Diary

My Birthday month – how the years pass so fast.

Last month’s journal covered most of my 3 week trip to Scotland except for our visit to the Pier Arts Centre in Stromness, Orkney. A beautiful gallery with great views out of the windows, as well as an extremely good permanent collection, showing many of my favourite artists. William Scott, who used proportion and arrangement of shapes and line along with controlled colour so beautifully, leaving me feeling quiet and calm. Alfred Wallis, whose paintings of St. Ives in Cornwall look so right in Stromness with the port outside. Another favourite is Roger Hilton, his childlike drawing and simple lines with added colour conjure up amusing and strange stories. I could mention other artists in the collection to many to write about: Sandra Blow, Alan Davie, Patrick Heron & Ben Nicholson.


William Scott


Alfred Wallis


Roger Hilton


Patrick Heron


Ben Nicholson

I now want to come back to London and the Royal Academy, where I saw ‘Matisse in the Studio’, a controversial exhibition with mixed reviews but I loved it. Matisse stated: ‘The object is an actor. A good actor can have a part in ten different plays; an object can play a role in ten different pictures’. So this small exhibition is a delight of his personal objects seen beside and in his paintings. A favourite was his Venetian chair alongside ‘Rocaille Chair’. Often when looking at his work I am aware of mistakes he’s made, but often leaves in, they never seem to spoil the enjoyment, but tell the story of what he was seeing.


The Safrano Roses at the Window (Showing Matisse’s vase)


Matisse’s Venetian chair


Matisse’s sketchbook


Chair study


Rocaille Chair

Another exhibition I enjoyed was at Blair/Southern called ‘Playground Structure’. An American artist I didn’t know of called Joan Snyder showed a wonderful use of colour and paint and mixed media.


Joan Snyder – New Squares


Joan Snyder – Untitled


Joan Snyder – Untitled (detail)

I should finish this journal by mentioning my birthday which fell on a Bank Holiday Monday, not an easy day to arrange a gathering, so with my husband I had lunch at a favourite brasserie ‘Zedels’. Most enjoyable and I was fortunate to have the hottest British Bank Holiday on record.


July Diary

Holiday time. My journal is of my trip to Scotland in July, a 2000 mile drive. Probably it helps to split the trip into the various places visited:
Saltburn by the Sea, where Sue, my husband’s cousin lives with her husband Ken. They were kind enough for us to break our journey from London with them on our way to Scotland & on our return.
Alloa, Clackmannanshire. staying with Kitty, my 87-year-old cousin.
Kingskettle cemetery. Family grave of my parents.
Collessie. Meeting with ‘Friends of Collessie’ to research the McLennans who all lived in the area in the 1800s.
Dunkeld. Visiting my friend Angela, known since the late 1950, and husband Akii.
Wick. Meeting my cousin Dorothy, her husband Dereck & her daughter Amanda.
Orkney. Staying with friends Ingrid & Duncan.
Lentran. Staying with my friend Dawn.
Tarbert. Staying with husband’s cousin Malcolm & his partner Sue.
West Kilbride. Staying at a hotel for two nights, to research the area my father was born & grew up in.
Saltburn. Back to Sue and Ken.
Home to London.

Last year we went to Italy & Portugal. On both occasions we got held up at the airport. Annoyed by the irritation of this happening we resolved to go away in the UK this year. I wanted to visit Scotland & donate various papers birth/marriage/death certificates of my family on both my father & mother’s side. In London, prior to our trip, I made contact with Stirling/Collessie/Ayrshire archive departments & set up appointments to meet. I then built the trip/tour around visiting the archive departments.

Saltburn

Our first stop was Salburn, a seaside town we have been to before & really like. We were fortunate to have very good weather & arriving at my husband’s cousin it was great to sit in her garden & unwind from our long drive. Saltburn is a seaside town in North Yorkshire, south-east of Middlesbrough. Like last time, we enjoy the walk through wonderful woods, down into the ‘Valley Gardens’ that lead to the Italian gardens, & finally to the sea front. On the sea front is one of the world’s oldest water-powered funiculars that’s so useful when wanting to get up the cliffs. A very pretty pier opened in 1869 which now shows on its railings ‘guerilla knitting’ – such fun & many pieces extremely skilfully knitted. I have to mention an exceptionally good place to eat called Brockley Hall, where we had a taster meal. It was so good & would have been four times the price in London.

Alloa


Gartmorn Dam


Kitty’s drawings

On to Alloa & my 87-year-old cousin Kitty. So wonderful to see her again – we last saw her 3 years ago. This time, unlike last time, we stayed with her, so I had a lot more time to catch up on family history. We spent time going out with her daughter & family & another time we took her to Stirling Smith Art Gallery & Museum. We had been before & it is exceptionally well done, starting with prehistoric whale bones, & Roman pottery. Lots about William Wallace. I should mention I was born & grew up next to Wallace’s Monument. Apparently one of my first words were ‘monnymont’…. as this was a place I loved to go & play in. The museum, also to my surprise when I first saw it, has the oldest ‘football’, supposed to belong to Mary Queen of Scots. My cousin was fascinated by all the domestic settings, bringing back so many memories of the house we lived in outside of Stirling in Causeway Head.
To get some exercise while there, one morning we were shown a lovely walk we could do around Gartmorn Dam country park. What a great place. It’s one of the oldest reservoirs in Scotland, looking more like a loch. Apparently constructed to provide water supply to John Erskine’s mines. We walked first through woodland & then up steps to views over the water.
I had a lovely childhood memory brought back to me when Kitty cooked a Scotch pie…so good. It’s a small double hot water crust pastry meat pie filled with mince. I noticed one day she often drew in a small notebook. When I asked her if I could look at them, I was fascinated to discover lots of strange drawings she said she did most days, to do with her innermost thoughts. There is an art form called ‘outsider art’ & her drawings fall most definitely into this genre.

Kingskettle & Collessie Church


Collessie Church

Our next destination was Kingskettle Cemetery, where mum & dad’s ashes were put in a family grave 3 years ago. Since that trip, I had their names engraved on the stone, so it was good to see first-hand how it looked. We were extremely lucky with yet another wonderful sunny day. It was good to be back at the cemetery again & to plant a lavender bush below the stone. I spent some time remembering both mum & dad with so much affection & gratitude as to how they had brought me up, the encouragement & love they gave me.
From here we drove to Collessie village. An ancient medieval hamlet in north-east Fife. I only recently had found out that this was the area that the Mclennans of at least three generations had come from and were sheep farmers. When looking more closely at my grandfather’s birth certificate, I discovered that my great grandmother had died giving birth to him. Having just visited the family grave, I was curious as there was no mention of her on the stone. Getting in touch with ‘The Friends of Collessie’, I found out she, with my great grandfather, were buried in the grounds of Collessie church, a few miles on from the cemetery. Sadly, no stone, but I was shown by two ‘friends’ where they were. I was told of a very comprehensive book just written by Angus H.Shaw, called ‘A Brief History of the People of the Howe of Fife Parish Church’. According to the history of the church, the site could have been used for worship in pre-Christian times & the churchyard has been a burial site since the 12th century where there is an important tomb of Sir James Melville, interred in 1617, who was a diplomat & courtier of Queen Mary & King James VI. I have since bought this book as, in Collessie. I was shown a 1874 photograph of the village school where my grandfather was a pupil. I was happy to give the ‘friends’ various old certificates belonging to the McLennans’ ancestors.
From here we were told of a lovely place where we could have a picnic of sandwiches that my cousin in Alloa had made for us. Birnie Loch is a nature reserve created from the restored Kinloch quarry. What a beautiful place, so calm & peaceful. Ideal for our picnic.

Dunkeld


Burnside Cottage


Loch Tay crannog

Next onto Dunkeld, to stay with a very old friend from when I lived in Coventry in the 1960s. She has had a very interesting life which, if you want to read more, go to https://www.angelajeffs.co.uk. She now lives with her Japanese husband Akii in this pretty cottage called Burnside which Angela inherited from her mother and can be read about on her website. They have transformed the garden from when we were last here three years ago, almost creating rooms for different moods to walk/sit in. Again we had lovely weather & Angela drove us around the local area so we could appreciate Perthshire, which is so picturesque. A particular drive she took us on was from Amulree to Loch Tay along a single track road with amazing views. We had a four-wheel-drive following us & at one stage a car was coming at a very low speed towards us – no way we would be able to pass. Out got Angela & the man from the car behind. Sadly the car coming toward us was a hire car with a flat tyre, driven by American tourists in somewhat of a state. They were helped to push the car into the side of the road onto a grass verge & then they were told how far they would need to walk for help. We had to leave them & continue our drive, as once on this road there wasn’t any turning back or around! The views from this road were breathtaking. At Loch Tay, we sat beside the loch in a modern restaurant & had coffee looking out at swallows on a railing sunning themselves. Outside beside the loch is a reconstructed Crannag, originally used as a dwelling as late as the 17th/early 18th century. After our coffee break, we walked to the end of the loch, where it drains into the River Tay, to the village of Kenmore, dating from the 16th century. The Kenmore Hotel is reputed to be Scotland’s oldest hotel.

From Dunkeld I had planned to call & see my cousin living in Lybster, Caithness, before catching the ferry from Scrabster to Orkney. Unfortunately, I had received a text from her daughter when with my other cousin in Alloa, that she had had a stroke! It was thought we would cancel our trip to see her, but as I had never met her daughter, she said she would love to meet up, so we decided although she was further on from Lybster at Wick Hospital, we would go. We stopped at Dornoch, such a pretty village & possibly known because in 2000 Madonna married Guy Ritchie in the nearby Skibo Castle. We had something to eat & then continued our drive along an amazing coast past Golspie, Helmsdale, Lybster & finally to Wick. It was thought my cousin was in a good enough state to be dressed & although on top of her bed, brought into the visitor’s lounge to meet me. It was good to see her after more than 50 years, and to meet her daughter. My cousin was doing well, but it was early days. We spent just under an hour with her, leaving to then drive to Scrabster & the ferry across to Stenness.

Orkney


St. Magnus Cathedral


Mull Head


Bonxie!


Rackwick Bay


Ring of Brodgar


Stones of Stennness

Ingrid, an ex-student of mine & now a close friend, comes from Orkney and lives there with her husband, the writer Duncan McLean & their daughter. Since we visited Orkney some years ago, Ingrid had been constantly asking when were we going to come back. So here we were in Kirkwall, staying in their beautiful holiday ‘let’ above their fashion & home shop called ‘The Longship’. A wonderful position for a flat opposite the famous St Magnus Cathedral, so convenient to visit. It is the most northerly cathedral in Britain. A great example of Romanesque architecture, begun in 1137, built of beautiful red & yellow sandstone quarried on the Island of Eday, giving a chequerboard pattern. At night it was beautiful to see the floodlit cathedral through the windows.
Ingrid & Duncan took a week off from their busy work. Duncan has a cheese & wine shop behind the Longship, an Alladin’s cave of wonderful produce. We spent many great days out with them & again were fortunate to have such wonderful weather. We walked around Mull Head, a nature reserve of heath & grassland at the north-east tip of Dearness. Information on this walk mentions Great Skuas, but we had no idea of what a risk we took on our walk. Deciding to take a short cut (not a good idea & to think we had two ex-scouts with us!), we walked across heather which was the place of a Skua’s nest and we were instantly dive-bombed by a very angry Skua, a very large bird constantly coming for our heads. In Orkney they are called Bonxies, apparently a Shetland name of Norse origin. Ingrid’s defence was to stoop low & to wave her shoulder bag in the air, as Duncan remarked, “never has a designer handbag been so useful”. Fortunately a distant helicopter seemed to distract the bird & by then we were through the bog. It was on this walk we saw our first grey seals.
Another walk started with a lecture by Nick Card (the boss) at Ness of Brodgar. An archaeological excavation at the heart of a neolithic World Heritage Site. The lecture was fascinating and, as we listened, the digging was actually going on which is revealing well-preserved monumental stone buildings, with walls six metres thick, occupied by people over 5,000 years ago. Decorated & painted stonework, as well as stone-tiled roofing has been found. Go to the website to see more.
After this lecture, Ingrid was keen we should walk the Ring of Brodgar along a beautiful grassy footpath with either side of us Lochs Harray &  Stennesss, eventually arriving at the Standing Stones of Stenness, believed to date around 300BC. On this walk, we saw beautiful redshanks.
Another memorable day was our trip to Hoy, to visit Ingrid & Duncan’s friends Jill & Max. They live in a very pretty house in an idyllic spot. It had been organised that we would have a picnic on one of my favourite beaches, Rackwick – once more a beautiful sunny & extremely hot day. A very desolate beach full of boulders with circular rings of varying colours. The Old Man of Hoy is the big attraction of Hoy, a red sandstone sea stack (450ft) which we saw on our last visit. Joy took us to the Crow’s Nest Museum, an old byre & croft with dry stone walls & turf roofs left as they exactly were when inhabited in the 1940s. It was interesting to see how crofters lived. We then sat in glorious heat, having a delicious picnic that Joy had prepared. On our way back to the ferry we stopped at a newly established Emily’s ice cream parlour – such fun to find in such an isolated place & a delicious treat before our return ferry ride.

Lentran


Dawn’s house


Inside Dawn’s house

A calm ferry-crossing back to the mainland & we are on our way to Lentran to see Dawn, an ex-student that I haven’t seen for over 50 years! It was difficult to find her house, but after various drives along single track roads & mobile phone instructions, we drove down a rough track to a beautiful haven of peace & tranquility. What a wonderful house & position. It was so lovely to see her after so long, living with her dachshund ’Sprout’. She took us on a tour of the gardens containing a large lily pond (when I asked how she looked after it, she said she got in to clean it wearing waders!) and a beautiful greenhouse with an old iron bed inside, while a hare bounded by in the next field.
Then a tour around the house. I couldn’t wait to take photographs, because every surface, room was full of colour & style. We sat in her kitchen dining area looking out of a picture window at a beautiful view, while she cooked a delicious risotto & we caught up, as much as we could, with our lives over the last 50 years. Eventually to bed, in a brass bed you climb up into and outside the window a family of bats living in the eaves. The next morning, at breakfast, we watched out of the window two pheasants that visit regularly, sharing seed she throws out for them. We then had to leave as we had quite a journey to our next place, but not before seeing a group of young deer in the next field – apparently regular visitors. I was so pleased to have met up with her again & what an inspiring place to live in. I’m looking forward to working from the photographs I’ve taken when I get back home.

Tarbert


View from Malcolm’s house


Beaver Trail


On Malcolm’s boat

Our next drive was from Inverness along Loch Ness, Fort William, Glencoe and Oban to Tarbert, a small sea port in Argyllshire. This is where Malcolm, my husband’s cousin lives – someone else we hadn’t seen for many years and lots to catch up on.
What a time we had here, it was hard to take in such an incredible view from the house, an amazing vista across to Arran. Amongst various trips he had planned, he took us with his partner Sue & his gun dog P.J. on a fascinating walk along the ‘Beaver Trail’ through a strange petrified forest caused by beavers. The walk took us around the whole of Loch Collie Bharr, beautiful waterlilies & beside dark forests. We were then driven to the Crinan Canal, where we stopped at Crinan port & sat in incredible sunshine heat & had coffee. This canal basin was full of activity with many yachts & boats. From here we were driven to Temple Wood, to the 3000BC stone circle of 13 standing stones – a funerary site that was in use for more than 2000 years. Another day, as he has a boat, we spent a great day, in glorious weather again, out on the Sound of Bute where we saw grey seals and porpoises. We dropped anchor & sat having tea & biscuits – so quiet & peaceful. The final day we went to Skipness Castle, the east side of the Kintyre peninsula. Built in the early 13th century, overlooking the Isle of Arran, we climbed to the top, to see incredible views out to the Mull of Kintyre. We walked down to the deserted sea shore where we collected coloured pebbles & shells. On our way back we stopped for coffee & cakes at the seafood shack. No need for us to have any seafood as Malcolm was an excellent cook – one morning we had freshly smoked filleted kippers complete with poached eggs on top. A wonderful stay in a great location.

West Kilbride, Ardrossan


View across to Isle of Arran

From Tarbert we drove to Ardrossan where my grandparents on my father’s side lived & where my father was born & grew up. Sue had told us to break our journey for a coffee at Luss, a pretty conservation village on the western shore of Loch Lomond. A lovely place dating from the 18th century. As it was lunchtime when we arrived, it was great to find a seafood cafe where we had lunch sitting out in wonderful sunshine.
We eventually got to West Kilbride to the Seamill Hydro hotel where I had requested a sea view, not expecting to get one. But we did, & what a view – it once more took our breath away and we were speechless just looking out for what seemed ages. Once we had unpacked a few things we went down to the beach for a walk – such a wonderful feeling, having sat in the car for so long, to get the sea air clearing our heads. The beach was full of wild flowers and wonderful rock pools. The hotel had a very good restaurant where we ate on both our two nights. This hotel catered for weddings which seemed to include, as we became fascinated with as we watched from our hotel window, photos taken on the beach with a drone.
I had come to Ardrossan to see where my grandparents’ houses were & also to see the Barony Church they & my parents got married in. We visited both of these places and it was a strange feeling to see where my grandparents lived but sadly the church was no longer in use & I wasn’t able to get inside. I had arranged to give various documents to do with my family to the Argyll archive centre & when we went to donate them I was pleased to be given a copy of a book to do with the church.

Saltburn


Saltburn sunset

The final drive of our Scottish trip back into England. Back to stay with Sue, my husband’s cousin in Saltburn once more. So generous of her and her husband to agree to us stopping once more on our way back to London and such wonderful weather again. We walked down to the seafront to a new fish & chip restaurant where we had a great meal, in such fun surroundings, with a great view out to sea. It was quite dark when we left & walked along the seafront & up the cliffs & back to their house. The next day we were driven to Guisborough where they wanted to get fresh fish and we were dropped off at the Guisborough Priory. Founded in 1119, it belonged to the Norman feudal magnate Robert de Brus, an ancestor of Robert the Bruce! Destroyed by fire in 1228, so not a lot to see, but what was there was an example of gothic style and it must have been quite amazing when in full use…with wonderful gardens.
After three weeks of driving around Scotland our trip was now at an end – so much seen & so many memories. Lots of photographic imagery that I am now hoping to use. I feel my next journal in August will be considerably shorter.

Jacqui Mclennan’s Journal

Welcome to my journal. Each month I will be posting about my work and things that interest me.