Open Studios June 2017

Looking forward to opening our doors in Bromley by Bow this weekend. Some fellow artists are showing work on the theme 'Small is Beautiful, More or Less'

Amongst lots of other pieces this Salmon Pink and rich Turquoise (it looks bluer in the photo) Duet for 3 candles will be for sale here. I just finished making this last week inspired by the colour combination.

Andrews Restaurant

This beautiful, old style cafe on the Grays Inn Road (near Theobalds Rd crossroads) is guess what? Yes - under threat of being knocked down and replaced with luxury flats. Are there any developers out there who aren't bonkers? I mean even the people who move into London's new flats might still like a bit of texture, character and places to go to.

So, pay them a visit and ask for the petition they keep behind the counter and sign it. Fingers crossed! A mug of tea and toasted cheese, tomato and onion sandwich was £3.50 - central London, that's lunch for less than a fiver. You can also drink in the atmosphere and character or sit outside and admire the mosaic frontage.

Lilac, Gold and Red

One of the things I love about big cities is the endless supply of visual feasts and contrasts in colour, forms, style, scale and age. Autumn and winter sunshine always enhance the views.

Tokyo is the place more full of contrasts than anywhere I've ever been with tiny old, wooden buildings next to new, high blocks, bright signs, traditional costume, millions of potted plants next to air conditioner outlets - I could go on. I've been there twice and both times barely slept in the fortnight because my eyes were overstuffed from the daily feasts.

The drinks machines punctuate and light up the city by night. I went in autumn and took a trip out of town where the red and orange maples are similarly overwhelming. One day I would love to go back in spring to see the blossom.

Open Studios

I'm very excited to be taking part in these Open Studios next weekend - see you there!

Art Auction

photos from Cancer Research UK website

I was lucky enough to be invited to an art auction at Christies last night. I've never been to a proper auction, only a more relaxed one at Pilchuck Glass School during a summer session, so I was really curious to see what these DNA form sculptures would go for. I hadn't seen this art trail in London but these sculptures were out and about before sale. All funds go Cancer Research UK at The Crick Institute due to open fully next year. So a great cause as this will be the largest facility in the world pursuing effective treatment for some awful diseases.

Two of these sculptures were by Ai Weiwei so I thought they would go for massive prices since he is a huge figure in the art world. They went for £32,000 and £30,000, I wondered if these were bargains. Of course if they were bought as investments and get resold I wonder if that profit can go to The Crick Institute?

Ai Weiwei has a major exhibition at the RA currently, I admire him as a political heavyweight but looking at his conceptual sculpture I couldn't respond to it without reading all the blurb.

It's definitely exciting to go to a big auction and watch the bidding, at Christies we were told to dress smart, the champagne was flowing and the canapes were top notch as you'd expect.

On the left: sculpture by Kindra Crick recreating the drawings of the workings out of the structure of DNA by her grandfather.

Slicker City

I always loved this tin church in Clapham, South London. Googling tin churches I found a great selection of pictures of more places like this here. I love corrugated iron as a material and rusted up in the countryside it is perfectly landscaped. I wish I'd photographed this palce before it was repainted too; it used to be more greeny. So many times I've kicked myself for not getting a photo of something that's struck me in London and then it's gone. This city is changing faster than ever.

And sure enough this place is supposed to be replaced at some point according to this article on the Brixton Society site. Of course the owners may be thrilled to get a new place - this looks hard to heat, but I'm a sucker for character and quirks and London is getting them ironed out at a rate of knots - how boring!!!!
I read a very sobering article on the changes in London here; 'London: the city that ate itself'. Very interesting and amongst other examples it tells how my previous studio provider ACAVA will have lost 200 studios to development. Most other providers are having similar losses. Hands up who's not under threat!?!

Included in that article is the sad tale of the A&C Continental Delicatessen on Atlantic Road in Brixton. Save the Arches is a massive campaign.

This is a lovely, much loved shop run by lovely people. They gave me a hug when I was in there one day feeling miserable that I was going to be evicted (them having no idea they were next) and my mum had had a stroke at the same time. It's a proper friendly, community shop that knows all it's customers. Go there now while you can before Pret a Manger crash in at quadruple the rent and where will we get all those lovely Mediterranean herbs and olives etc, and a slice of water melon on a hot day?

My former home in Brixton: I am proud of everything we achieved there as a housing co-operative. In How to be Bohemian (not sure which episode) Will Self mentions how Bohemia becomes commodified and then becomes hipsterdom and loses all edge....exactly what's happened to Brixton. It's significant that my chandeliers were born and nurtured in a self help co-op in an old building with tons of character and the scope to make our flats really our own environments.
Well I guess that the provinces will benefit from all this rapid change, partially squeezed out myself (split between several places now) I find the undeveloped corners of Plymouth - for example - really refreshing to see. Then in years/decades to come  I'm sure parts of London will be an urban wasteland again and we can all go and live in Billionaires Row (rotting mansions) or those luxury flats that are owned as investments and not lived in; in fact maybe ACAVA could run them as artists studios....

Capital Culture

I have seen loads of fantastic exhibitions in London over the past couple of months. I'm not able to be there all the time so I try to see as much as I can when I am. One of my favourites was Disobedient Objects (til 1st Feb 2015) at the V&A museum. It looks at the role of objects in affecting social change. I LOVED the Barbie Liberation Organisation; watch this short video - hilarious.

This tree in the V&A courtyard went from yellow up to beetroot and looked beautiful against the red brick.

I also loved: Egon Schiele at the Courtauld; amazing nudes, virtuoso drawing until 15th Jan 2015, Rembrandt at the National Gallery til 18th Jan, late Turner at Tate Britain til 25th Jan: all these guys were radical in their day. And Constructing Worlds at the Barbican Centre; fantastic photographs of amazing architecture and environments, until 11th Jan 2015.

I wanted to live in London since I was about 12, I thought that's where it's all going on, I still do and it's easy to dismiss the provinces; to be honest - by my demanding standards there isn't remotely enough going on in the Plymouth area, so I was thrilled to see Light Fantastic, a projected light spectacular in the city recently. Hats off to Illuminos who created it, enchanting. Below is the facade of the beautiful but derelict Palace Theatre with ever changing moving images and sound collage on a loop.

This gave us time to walk to another site, the Eddystone lighthouse on Plymouth Hoe.

This piece was simpler,  to suit the tower and so beautiful on a clear night by the sea. Both pieces incorporated historical snippets from the locale cleverly put together. Look out for Illuminos - they work all over the country and it's a treat to see really great public art.

And I took this photo of the Palace Theatre 3 years ago - check out the buddleia, must be like trees by now. I remember seeing a pantomime here when I was young, Aladdin I think with the late great Irene Handl. I wonder if the building really will be saved and used again for something.

Urban Sightings

In this wig shop in Brixton I spotted something I've never seen before........fake grey roots!

How inspired is that??!!

I have to wonder if this caught my eye because I let my roots go over 6 months ago, I just cant be bothered to henna anymore and don't want to have orange hair in middle age, and what do I find - grey hair is really trendy!

 

But back to redheads; near my studio in East London I saw this beautiful fox trying to sleep curled up in the middle of a landscaped area amid flats and surrounded by loud traffic. It seemed such a strange spot to choose but it beats public art (!) 'challenging your perceptions' of fox beds.

He had perfect markings with black tipped ears that twitched as I walked past him. Beautiful. I love him.

A Really Good Coffee

I've been working on a chandelier that I had to put on hold but I hope to finish it soon, it's called All Day Breakfast and uses little croissant moulds. I didn't know whether to add colour but then decided - since it was a breakfast theme - on different coffee colours from dark espresso through cafe au lait to a creamy colour. I am a lover of cafe culture and it's hard to beat the fix of a really good coffee mid morning, very often though you can get served a massive bowl of milky soup - yuk. Many years ago I met the designer Antonio Scarponi of Conceptual Devices when I was on a residency in Cork city during European Capital of Culture year. We were eating in a great wholefood cafe but never had the big mug of coffee there and I discovered he was even more particular than me about what a proper coffee should be. I think the Italians got the proportions perfect, the big cups are all wrong and the cocoa powder should go between the espresso coffee and frothy milk. 

Happily I had 2 really good coffees out and about in London recently so let me share with you a cappuccino that was less than £2 - yes! £1.70 in fact, nice and strong, perfect size at EATalia on Bermondsey Street. Another at £2 was in Waterloo, near Lambeth North tube at Perdoni's (also known as Riverside 2). It's amazing what we will pay for coffee caught with the urge - a powerful drug indeed. Do take a look at Antonio's devices: clever design with a social responsibility.

Barbican and Jean Paul Gaultier

Last chance to see Jean Paul Gaultier at the Barbican, this exhibition ends on the 25th of August. I'm so late to get to things otherwise I would have put this here sooner.

I didn't realise I was a fan but I loved alot of this. The variations on sailor stuff for men and women are so flattering to each, gorgeous shapes and lines; fat espadrilles on the men and big buttoned trousers and 30's shapes on the women. He really had fun with that. I also loved the stuff inspired by Mongolian costume: amazing.

I'm not at all a fashionista but I love creative revolutionaries. I think JPG loves men and women. I see so much fashion that I think despises women - I'm so sick of seeing women dressed up like men in bad drag - unflattering oversized everything, perched, pruned and pinched with sticky looking hair and eye lashes. This show was full of subtle, elegant detail - oh the old punks are the best!!!

Everytime I go to the Barbican centre I love it and wonder why I don't go more often. The residential bit always made me think of Star Trek from my childhood when they land in a strange place with no people - I am yet to see a human on a balcony here - or how I imagined Tokyo would be before I went there. I like the strange atmosphere. I went for morning coffee before the exhibition opened so it was very quiet, the centre opens at 9am, the gallery at 10. Membership looks like good value if you go to more then 3 exhibitions there a year.

I was taken to the front restaurant called the foodhall on the waterside there for a birthday lunch treat once - good choice, it's a great place to sit and eat and meet pals. I love the decor; lots of lights made from large jars, understated furniture and I really appreciated the unpainted columns left rough and ready - looked like a last minute idea to not paint them over as their texture and marks are so complimentary.

There - I think this ended up being an hommage to the Barbican Centre post - hope I sold it to you!

Vincent and Banksy

I think Vincent Van Gogh may have liked these hydrangeas; the intense purpley blue. They are are at the front of a house he spent time in. Did you know he lived on the edge of Brixton for a while? Yes, so the creativity of the area dates way back, he was there from 1873 -1874. I went into this house recently when an artist made an installation of the house based on it's history - more here - sorry this event is over now, but nevertheless interesting and you can pay homage at 87 Hackford Road, SW9.

So I really enjoyed walking up the stairs that Vincent did, holding the handrail he must have too.

I went to the Banksy exhibition at Sotheby's - and here is his homage to Vincent in this exhibition. Isn't it interesting that he ended up so Bankable, maybe he should update his name! I'm so curious how this has affected his stance and the sharp political insight of his early work.

And how do you know what's a genuine Banksy now? well obviously Southwark think this is one. It's quite painful watching everything become a commodity. As our community in Brixton is destroyed by Lambeth Council and our building will be boarded up this year (criminal!) I wonder that they will later want to capitalise on OUR history and the great old days when pioneers lived where others didn't want to, where residences were called 'hard to let' and where artists thrived creatively. 

And poor Vincent never saw the real appreciation of his work in his lifetime.

To See

I've been making a real effort not to miss exhibitions and had a binge of viewing on Friday. Here is Phyllida Barlow's installation at Tate Britain - amazing, she really knows what she's doing. Utterly uncompromising original stuff.

So that was a good start, then on to 'Boro' at Somerset House, also free. Not allowed to take photos, but these are patched and stitched abstract textile pieces in cotton from Japan. See here.

Then I went on to the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons in Lincolns Inn Fields. I had known about this place for years but not yet been. This is full of jars of specimens, normal and mutated for study etc. There was a 4 legged chick and a 2 tailed lizard and creatures with too many legs. I didn't really like all the preserved foetus's etc,(funny that) but the bones really fascinated me; some with huge growths and awful diseases or just clever mending. Funnily enough I went with a GP who'd never known of it's existence until now. Google it's images to see if it's for you and maybe don't go just before lunch!

London and Luxury

I had always wanted to see inside the old Midland Hotel, the grand railway building in St Pancras. It opened as the Renaissance Hotel after years of restoration.

So it was a bit of luck that my old pal JF from Paris, a travel writer, journalist and photographer invited me to share some London luxuries. This place is really beautifully done, the scale is overwhelming.

We made a tour of the place, had a drink in the guest chambers club then headed off to The Shard for dinner. I don't make a habit of this kind of thing - I really should have dressed better for the occasion, but you know how it is when you're cycling.

So I got my champagne towards sunset on the 31st floor at aquashard restaurant. This place is seriously swanky.

We watched the sun go down and the city lights come up over 3 great courses of beautiful food.

This city is impressive, look at St Pauls's from here. As the night fell I understood why this venue is so desirable, the views are breathtaking and the pleasure is enhanced with good food and drink. Must do this more often!

More Stairwells

 I saw these lovely old stairs in an old building in Kings Cross a few years ago. There was an exhibition there though this has possibly all been developed by now.

There is something so lovely about worn steps.

I found I'd taken almost the same photo of some other steps - these were on the Isle of Wight in the building where friends were getting married (great bloggers Artemis and Nao) There's something about stairwells....cinematic....symbolic....mysterious...

Stairwells and Wiltons

I realised that I have alot of photos of stairwells. They're often so photogenic and beautiful. These 3 stairwells are at Wiltons Music Hall. You may have seen Wiltons in films and TV as a location.

Visit the Mahogany Bar here; it dates from the 1700's. I went before Xmas, it's gorgeous, with layers of old textures, history and character.  Nice bar staff introduced me to the Moscow Mule! (vodka and ginger beer).

You can admire the patches of original plaster work over a drink and snack.

There are lots of rooms to explore. Here's a mechanical sculpture in an exhibition they had. I love the view from the old interior out through the geraniums in the window box to an east London modern block lit at night.
Wiltons always needs support for restoration. I became a friend a few years ago as it's such a special London gem we don't want to lose. Find it 10 minutes walk south from Aldgate East tube.