points out our guest Martin sitting in the corner studying form. Like my Dad, Martin’s was also a keen racegoer and gambler. And lo and behold he picks the winner of the first race which is wonderful as he had decided this would be a sign of how good the year to come would be. We’re excited as we also backed Bobs Worth so we’re off to a good start too. We’re sat on a fun table with Donna Reeney and guests and Mark Heywood who will become High Sheriff after Ceri. I’m sitting next to a very interesting doctor who paints tableaux of small lead figures (which makes me think of the Chapman brother’s installation ) and later his wife Rosie who is an art dealer (who owns one of mine) and also paints. Edward finds time to visit the Istabaq suite twice during the day which is pretty remarkable as he has to co-ordinate the whole event which as usual runs superbly well. We briefly discuss the Horse Parade and Fine Form exhibitions. It’s fun going out looking at the bookies’ stands and making our bets; Martin’s very good at spotting the fast changing difference between the odds they offer. I’m surprised that now they are all electronic boards and I secretly mourn the loss of the chalked on blackboards as in some of my paintings. In the last race there’s a photo finish and some mention of interference. It turns out that it’s between Cinders and Ashes the horse we have backed and Keys that Martin has backed. I’m delighted that it is Keys who is eventually declared the winner as this means Martin has picked the first horse in both the first and last races and it will hopefully herald in a good year for one and all.
Sunday 2.1.11
New year’s resolution, like Martin’s poems for a Blue Planet, to be even greener. Have just switched energy supplier to Ecotricity (wind power) and green gas. I do consciously make smaller efforts to use my own physical power rather than electricity such as whisking egg whites etc, wash my clothes by hand and cut the grass with a manual push mower; not flying unless it’s work related. Do try to recycle as much as possible but I know there is much scope for improvement!!!
Monday 3.1.11
Whilst working on Edwina’s violin receive phone call from Lisa who has phoned several times in the last couple of weeks and through December. I usually ask how she is and often it’s not so good. But the wonderful thing about Lisa is that I can lift her spirits within very little time by just talking. It’s not surprising that she’s often not so good as Lisa, who was a student at the National Star when I first started going there, was born with spina bifida and hydroencephalitis. The spina bifida she explains, affects her from the waist down and the hydroencephalitis from the head down. Most often her treatment is to adjust the shunt that drains the fluid from her head into a pipe in her stomach. I gain far more from knowing Lisa that she does from me as I learn about what it is like to live with such conditions. She spent her childhood from the age of four at St Rose’s in Stroud which, like the Star College that followed it, she remembers with huge affection. She’s bright and articulate and talks at times about writing a biography which I try to nudge her into. But without the continuous encouragement that she would have received at the Star, I know it will be very unlikely. When I don’t hear from her for a while I know she’s either OK or alternatively in hospital where she spent Christmas two or three years ago. Other Christmases have been spent having lunch with the Salvation Army’s wonderful scheme for feeding the homeless etc. church connections or on her own. Lisa’s calls always become more frequent towards Christmas or her birthday. It’s an indirect request to be remembered with a card and present and I feel very guilty if at times it slips my memory and arrives late. She lives on her own in an adapted flat in a seaside town and sometimes has feuds with bus conductors and taxi drivers who complain about her wheelchair; but Lisa’s vociferous and makes her complaints loudly known and is probably quite difficult to deal with - likewise on occassions with her doctors and social workers who I’m sure are very patient and kind as are many of the people that she mentions in her conversations. The least I can do is offer my friendship and chivvy her out of it when she’s down. It’s a great joy to hear her laugh when I try to make funny repartee - usually at Richard’s expense. For some reason whenever I mention Richard it makes her laugh. I’m sure Lisa is just one of thousands of people who live alone with disabilities with little or no direct family support. Although many do have - two of the other former Star students that I met at the same time and keep in contact with [who have similar difficulties] are so very loved, cherished and supported by their families; but Lisa’s Mum had polio so it probably made it difficult.
Tuesday 4.1.11
John comes to supper. This exceedingly clever most generous and modest man and has brought with him an exquisite all frame construction that he has made out of some of the offcuts. It’s really beautiful, very sculptural. I’m tempted to drop all else and paint it immediately. he’s been very busy helping to make sets for the pantomime at the theatre where he also shows tours around it and is hugely enthusiastic for Matcham the architect. He’s visited others Matcham theatres, been to seminars and has also joined the local history society to try and glean even more knowledge. I suggest he should be writing a history of the theatre but he thinks someone is already doing that. I’m particularly excited that he’s going to be making me some more large frames and a couple of smaller ones too!
Wednesday 5.1.11
R delivers some of the long lengths of Italian Poplar I’ve had turned by Gloucestershire’s Wessex Timber, to John for making the new frames. I’m working very intensely on Edwina’s violin in the hope that Richard can send her photographs of it this evening. Poor man keeps coming into the studio to enquire whether it’s ready and I keep saying I just need another half an hour so it’s eventually about 1 am.
Thursday 6.1.11
Edwina rings; I am so pleased that she is so happy with the violin and that I’ve got it finished in time for them to take to Israel on Sunday.
Friday 7.1.11
Quite a lot of taken in correspondence today. Reworking a smaller piece and also more towards the Gandhi commission for New York. later we go over to rehang the studio in preparation for Rob’s visit tomorrow.
Saturday 8.1.11
E mail from Edwina to say she’s received the violin which she loves and it will soon be winging its way to Israel. Rob Whittle arrives early - probably a mark of his enthusiasm. We sit and have a cup of tea in the kitchen where he regales us with stories of wonderfully witty events of things that have happened to him or his friends recently, before gong over to the studio. He’s immediately very taken with the large Nightclub painting and asks whether Richard would be able to take it up to London for the art fair as the two cars they take aren’t big enough to accommodate it. He also goes off with a newspaper work and a corrugated horses.
Sunday 9.1.11
Working on all fronts in studio. E mail from Amer to say they have arrived at Cowley Manor - which we recommended - and how pleased they are with it. So its obviously baby friendly as well as beautiful. I’d suggested it as my lovely friends and collectors from New York, the Doctors Subramanium, stayed there when they came over for Henrietta’s wedding
Monday 10.1.11
Amer, Dita and their tiny baby Sana arrive in the afternoon. Sana is exquisite, only five and a half weeks old Amer commissioned his painting over two years ago and wanted something inspired by the banking crisis.
Tuesday 11.1.11
Busy on the horse again as it needs to go to the firm who are enlarging and casting it (many times) in London next week. The Museum are looking for businesses or individuals to sponsor each almost life size horse which will then be painted by an artist and auctioned for a charity of the sponsor’s choice.
Wednesday 12.1.11
Letter from Sharon at the Fosse Gallery who wonders if I will take part in an exhibition the Fosse Gallery is organising in May. She’d been thinking about me then seen the article in Cotswold Life. It is obviously a very popular magazine as a lot of people have commented that they have seen it and I have even received a letter from SW chauffeuring offering me their services - likewise after CL listed me in their top 100 movers and shakers in the Cotswolds I received one from another rather colourful chauffeur driven car with Indian decor and embellishments who offered to transport me on a journey for free!
Phone call from Peter Hogg who had visited the open studio for the National Star and having seen the horse maquette is very kindly trying to get the freemasons to sponsor one in aid of the College. Continue adding to the horse who was rather one sided ( that which we photographed for the brochure!)
Thursday 13.1.11
Up to London where we visit Tate Modern to see Ai Wei Wei porcelain sunflower seed installation in the Turbine Hall which is now cordoned off on all four sides so that you can walk around it but no longer on it and through it as the artist had intended. This Chinese political activist was art consultant on the Olympic ‘birds nest’ stadium in Beijing. His new studio in Shanghai was demolished by the authorities recently. It’s controversial - is it because as he had built it without planning consent in the wrong place or is it a bid on their part to quell a voice that speaks against them.
Then upstairs to the Gaugin exhibition, only just in time as it closes at the weekend. Luckily as we are members we bypass the huge queues. It’s wonderful to see so many of his paintings in one place; I’ve seen pieces in New York and Paris but never en masse although his images frequently appear in reproduction it’s never like observing the real thing. Consequently in reality they feel more honest and sincere; the colours often beautifully muted and lower in key than in reproductions and sometimes smaller in scale than I have imagined. A delicate draughtsmanship underlies these powerful compositions that feel very evocative of the period. One feels the influence of his contemporaries including dear Vincent with whom he lived for nine weeks in the Yellow House in Arles. Interesting to observe the effect each region he worked in had on his palette (from the traditional costumed Breton women to the sensuous naked forms of the Tahitians) and the often a strong sometimes religious or spiritual element as in the ancestors of the Tahiti paintings. The iconic way too in which he depicted the female form, sometimes more goddess, sometimes more demon but almost always sensuous.
Then on to Greenwich to join in the celebrations of Samuel’s third birthday where Nathan joins us later whilst the two little boys are in the bath where they displaced almost more water than is in the tub. Henrietta encourages Isaac to show us how well his pencil skills are developing although I think the Kitchen Chemistry set we brought for him may be a little advanced as he is still only 4 years and eleven months. But they both enjoy constructing the lego Toy Story 3 set ( with Kev’s help) we have bought for Samuel - on opening their books Isaac say 'Oh, another story’. It’s such a joy to see them all. Interesting discussion over dinner about films including “Exit through the Giftshop” by Banksey which I think Nathan had given to Henrietta and Kev at Christmas. It’s about 11.30 when we leave and about 3 am when we get back.
Friday 14.1.11
Phone call from Stephanie at the Hay Hill who runs Art Bridge, web site and organisation to help designers find art for projects they are working on, enquiring to see if I have a particular piece available.
Whilst I’m working on the horse I receive an e mail from Sophia at the Museum to say Wednesday is a good day for Matthew at 3Di to receive it.
Interested to hear on the Radio 4 news at midnight Boris Johnson announcing the artist winners of the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square. For 2012 Elmgreen & Dragset from Berlin who have produced a maquette of a boy on a rocking horse covered in gold leaf and 2013 the German artist Katharina Fritsch who will produce a fourteen foot high blue cockerel. She seemed to feel that the image and the ambiguity of the title were somehow evocative of the young men working in London. Having enjoyed recent works like the beautiful white marble sculpture of the disabled artist Alison Lapper pregnant by Marc Quinn and Anthony Gormley’s ever changing One and Other where members of the public could apply to stand on the plinth for an hour, both of which seemed to make a statement and be quite profound, I have to say I feel disappointed that these perhaps seems rather uninspiring to me. Richard’s comment when he s the images was ‘facile and shallow’. Should art aim t
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Saturday 15.1.11
E mail James at Hay Hill to explain why I haven’t got back to him re his question whether I’ve finished the other self-portrait yet as they have American clients who were sorry to have missed Doubla in my exhibition. Explain that I have been busy working on outstanding commissions. If only there were more hours in the day!
Still trying to tame my horse. When I add a bit more clay to one of his dimensions it means that all the others need balancing up also, although I am doing quite a lot of cutting away too.
Sunday 16.1.11
R’s gone to deliver the big painting to Rob at the art fair in London (where he helps him to hang it), whilst I continue sculpting the clay horse. The aspect that is so very different about sculpture is that being three dimensional it has to work from every angle and of course when one adds to one facet it can alter the view from others particularly above and below! Still adding and cutting away when R returns. A little later get call from Toyah who’s actually trying to ring Robert and got me by mistake. When I enquire about the pantomime she tells me that for the period of a week or so they were not able to get into the theatre and at one stage there was a film crew outside their house as it was at that time the coldest place in the country 19c below freezing. So the washing machine and toilets had frozen. We discuss meeting up at the end of the month.
Back on my horse!
Wednesday 19.1.11
Was sorry to have missed Val Gower, editor of the Friends of Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum Newsletter, when she called to deliver a few copies as I had written a little piece on making the horse maquette and they had included another column on the honorary Doctorate of Arts from the University of Gloucestershire. By coincidence an envelope from Sophia at the Museum also arrived with a few of the sponsorship leaflets on which my virtually painted maquette appears. It was supposed to go to London today but as I felt I still needed to do more work on the hooves and hind quarters it’s going on Friday instead.
Thursday 20.1.11
E mail from Andy Ginn (director of Creative Academies at Gloucestershire College) to say that I needn’t attend today’s meeting of the several schools who will be working on the Gloucester Station mural project but instead attend a photo shoot later in the month.
This gives me more time on my horse which proves to be really useful as I’m agonising about it until ....
Friday 21.1.11
....6 am when I call it a day. R drives the beast up to London to the workshops of 3D Eye who are going to scale it up to life-size. R texts me just after I get up to say that they both comment on how beautiful it is. He knows this will lift me, as hard as he tries to convince me of the same, I’m still not sure. I suppose its that endless desire to try and perfect that keeps the artist on the endless journey. He’s been reading me ‘The Yellow House’, Martin Gayford’s biography of the period when Vincent and Gaugin spent time there in Arles working, each on their own paintings. Vincent poor man suffered to the extreme with disillusionment. But my afternoon and evening are sheer bliss - I don;t turn the radio on or reply to e mails, just enjoy the solitude and quietude of my studio, starting some new works. On my fourth attempt an idea begins to fire my imagination and creative energy- now the desperate plight to bring it to some vague resemblance before R returns. When he calls from Cornellissens, (my suppliers), where he’s collecting new stretchers and paints, he replies when I tell him I haven’t yet come up with anything I consider worth pursuing I have about two and a half hours to do so before his return. But actually he gives me longer as he then goes to Cork Street to the Hay Hill Gallery for me. It works and on his return he is enthusiastic.
After supper we reply to the most important of the e mails; including one from Helen at the Museum asking if they can reproduce Portrait of the Artist Watching her Children Grow on the website and postcards that they are making in collaboration with three other Museums in the County for school children. And one from St Peter’s High asking if I might go and visit the teacher and students who are working on the Gloucester Railway Station mural project. I’m really touched as they are identifying with my work for the project. Also that Sarah the head of art had been to see my exhibition at the City Museum on Gloucester in 2006.
Saturday 22.1.11
Busy working on all fronts.
Yesterday a piece of music came into my mind as a title for a piece I’d been working on ‘Remember Me’ and today I realised it’s the Jeff Buckley recording of Purcell’s ‘Dido’s Lament’ sung with such passion and sincerity, made all the more poignant by the fact that he died in the Mississippi aged only 30. R plays it and I find the tears rolling down my cheeks. He then plays the Janet Baker recording which although exquisitely beautiful and measured, does not have the same compelling rawness of the Jeff Buckley.
Sunday 23.1.11
R goes to met Rick Rumrell, great friend and collector from Oxford; he flew in from Florida this morning where he practices in St Augustine and Key West as a high powered lawyer, his speciality being maritime law. They are back in time for a late lunch. It’s great to see him in his baseball cap sweater and jeans looking more like the adventurer and avid rock concert attender that he is but tomorrow he will be immaculate in his suit and tie for meetings with clients and solicitors. When we look round the studio he reminds me of all the works he and Jo have, dating back to the early 80s. His eye alights on one work that he say if I decide to sell it he would like first refusal. In the evening R drives him up to London.
Meanwhile whilst working I receive a phone call from the husband of a dear friend/dealer and collector who tells me that there has been a tragedy - she sadly took her own life last week. I find it impossible to believe as she was always so vibrant and happy. When they came into a room it really did light up. He adored her and even bought her one of my paintings for a birthday recently, threw a wonderful party and took her to Paris; they were due to go away tomorrow but we suppose that at the moment she took her life her inner anguish and turmoil was too great to bear. It’s very difficult when you are balanced and of right mind to understand that at the time of such action the mind isn’t functioning in a rational way. It seems all the more poignant as Richard has been reading the Yellow House to me late at night and we have both empathised with poor Vincent’s own inner struggle and now I wonder if my shedding of tears at the Jeff Buckley recording of Remember Me was some sort of premonition. How does one begin to convey the empathy one feels for her husband who is the most delightful man. She was a wonderful woman who did so much to help others, being a trustee on two very special charities. I first got to know her when she was working towards the Women's’ Art Library many years ago.
Monday 24.1.11
Just doing the diary when the phone rings. It’s John Childs Head of Art at Chenderitt School who tells me that he will probably be retiring at the end of next year and so wanted to choose exhibitions that would be meaningful during that time. he asked his wife which previous exhibitions she felt had most impact on the students and she said the PJ Crook; likewise when he asked his staff. He tells me students often use my work in their projects. I’m so touched, my show there at the Michael Heseltine Gallery was in 2006, which was a VERY busy year with exhibitions in Morohashi Museum Japan, City Museum Gloucester, Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum, Melton Carnegie Museum. He suggests some dates for a six week show all of which seems to overlap other proposed exhibitions but I’m sure I can work something out with the generous help of Professor Ken and Nancy Simmonds’ collection. We’re used to juggling!
Tuesday 25.1.11
Go to get a health check for my health insurance; really pleased as he tells me he would be pleased if he got my score of 91. It measures things like BMI, blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose and looks at diet, exercise and lifestyle. Then we go and look at spectacle frames for R. It’s interesting how they can alter the way you look to such a degree. There are some really nice round ones that he has his eye on but when he tries them on they are rather small and I comment that they tend to make him look cross which is very out of character. He thinks I am exaggerating until I put them on and he sees what I mean.
Back to work in studio. Receive lovely film
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