I have uploaded this head by Dame Elisabeth Frink on the right-hand side deliberately. It seemed better composition-wise, to have the piece looking towards the text rather than having turned his back on it.Not everyone is such a Frink fan but the first one I saw was, I think, called Bullet and I guess I saw it in the National Gallery in the 1960s. It was so beautiful and powerful that I was an immediate convert. If I won the 'Lottery' I would buy a Frink straightaway. But it is unlikely because I don't do the lottery.
In my online camera magazine the picture won praise, but someone said they didn't like the highlights. It is a valid point. But I wanted to bring out in a two-dimensional representation that it IS a bronze and not a drawing
On the left is one of the pieces on display in the corridor of the Visitors' Centre and makes a delightful Bungus picture, particularly so through glass.The artist had a display cabinet devoted to her work which is created from driftwood and found objects. They were all beautiful and expensive. But that's the way of the world I suppose. William Morris's dictum was that you should have nothing in your house unless it is beautiful or useful - preferably both.
The final picture today is by Glaswegian Sculptor Kenny Hunter and his exhibition is at the Longside Gallery which is miles away across the valley. My 'blue-badge' allowed me drive
there and it was well worth it. There is a shuttle-bus for visitors but the helpful YSP staff directed us in the car. Some of Hunter's work is abstract/modern and some is realistic. This lamb for instance is outside the gallery and looks back across the valley to the YSP buildings and college. I infinitely prefer it to 'Monarch of The Glen', which, apart from being chocolate-boxy has always seemed to me to have fascist overtones. Hunter's Lamb is the absolute opposite and I wouldn't be at all surprised if the artist intended that connection to be made. Photography inside the gallery was forbidden but a super piece called 'Reclining Youth with a Split Apple' so took my fancy that I photographed it from outside with a most pleasing result. Due to the 'ban' I emailled YSP and attached a copy of the photograph which they thought was lovely and the reflections in the glass 'added a new dimension'. They thought that, provided I wasn't going to sell it or anything it was OK. Can't make my mind up whether to Blog it or not.............Just spoken to David and although he obviously still has a lot of pain he doesn't complain and sounds quite perky. When he came back from the Hospital, Brooke was in the kitchen with her head down; when asked what was the matter? she said tearfully "I don't know if I can give my Daddy a snuggle" bless her. Sky was also a little tearful but both have been so helpful at picking things up etc. Poor Helen must be getting tired out with all the driving to do and all the other things in the house to do. But she is such a resourceful and hard-working girl, she will manage one way or another.
The picture problem was eventually solved by uploading the pictures to Walagata (the image hosting site) and then using the URL method of putting them in the Blog. Don't ask why a straightforward download doesn't work. 'Cos I don' know.
That's all for today folks...............
I love the lamb one, and the Eliz. Frink head.
ReplyDeleteOff topic, today we went to see friends in Ringwood, who are Lancs born and bred, and she made a most marvellous traditional from her mother's recipe meat and potato pie. In the very pot her mother used, round, brown-glazed, about 15inches high? Stewing shin of beef, potatoes, onions, beef stock, browned on top and then covered in pastry? Cooked for three hours without the pastry. I feel sure Bungus would have approved....
Unlike G, I Frink these pieces (there is a matching pair on display) look better in illustration than in reality. And, as a portrait of Jimmy Hill (whom I saw play inside-right for Fulham Reserves against the Stags Reserves at Field Mill) only the chin is a decent likeness (he wasn’t a great player but, as Chairman of the PFA, he managed to get the maximum wage abolished). But I do like the picture and really cannot understand criticism of the highlights.
ReplyDeleteMaybe my pernicketyness is taking over but I feel the need to explain that the appealing little driftwood, wire, newspaper and various metals models were in a glass case (ie, G does not mean that you should look at it through a sheet of glass. Although, if you normally wear spectacles for close work then it would be a good idea to have them on).
I’m not sure that Bill Morris is quite right. It can sometimes be a mistake to allow something beautiful into the house – my second wife for instance.
I have already given my appreciative view of Kenny Hunter’s work in yesterday’s comment. Re ‘Monarch of the Glen’, I’ll agree that lambs are adorable little creatures when alive, but give me venison any time when it comes to plating up.
I think the reclining figure should be blogged – (it is a cracking photo which you would be publishing to a restricted group of people and not for commercial gain and anyone with a camera and the desire would stand a fair chance of producing something very similar themselves.
I won’t even pretend to understand the putting of pictures into blog. I think I just won’t bother …
(Is it just me or is the apostrophe in ‘won’t’ a bit odd? Shouldn’t it be ‘willn’t?)