A Round on the Links

FTWeekend is a must-read for me. It is delivered in hard copy to my door and if I’m away I can usually find a copy. The overseas editions have most of the same content as the UK edition. One regular item that you will miss if you are an overseas reader is A Round on… Continue reading A Round on the Links

First Prize

William Morris is all around me; drying-up cloths, his Willow Bough pattern on a sofa, the William Morris Academy round the corner, a pub in Hammersmith and …

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Categorised as Art

Portraits

Painters’ Paintings is at the National Gallery until 4th September. I went this week. 

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Categorised as Art

Local News

Are you a regular? The sort that when you go to the bar the bartender says “the usual”? There isn’t really a usual post here anymore than Rachid, the cocktail barman at my club, can anticipate my order. However, there are a few bits and pieces to update you on.

Seven Halts on the Somme

It is easy to feel overburdened by history visiting Westminster Abbey.  It was founded in 940, the Lady Chapel was built in the early 16th century by Henry VII and is where he is buried but it is not a fossilised place of worship; it constantly evolves.

Lady Thatcher at Worship

Margaret Thatcher’s association with The Royal Hospital seemed to start in the 1990s. She and Denis were regular attenders on Sunday mornings sitting with the rest of the congregation. After a few years the Governor invited them to join him in his Stalls and this arrangement continued for the rest of her life.

Two Birthdays

St. Borchill is a now obscure Irish saint. She must have been better known 250 years ago as the church at Dysart in Co Louth (above) bears her name. The church was built in 1766, early as anti-Catholic legislation had not yet started to be repealed. The site is carved out of a corner of… Continue reading Two Birthdays

A Win-Winn Situation

In the ’80s I discovered from a friend that a few artists living along the river in Chiswick opened their studios one weekend a year. I got to know Mary Fedden and Anthea Craigmyle this way and bought some of their work.

Animal Art

This morning’s entertainment was to go to a complex of limestone caves. There is an electric train which carried us a kilometre into the hillside.

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Categorised as Art, Travel

The Big G

Opening later this Summer at the Royal Academy there will be that hardy annual,  the Summer Exhibition, followed by a David Hockney show that will help balance the books. Hockney’s latest riff is portraiture.

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Categorised as Art