BOXING DAY BETWEEN THE RAINS.
Page 14 of 45
DREAMING OF HAPPIER TIMES.
In these dismal and often depressing times of dark nights, cold weather and Covid a thought of warm summer beaches wouldn’t go amiss in anyone’s dreams. This is an old acrylic from the past of my twins Archie & Amelia building sandcastles on Woolacombe Beach on a hot summer’s day. A treasured composition in my personal collection.
AT THE BURTON 2021.
A pleasurable way to spend time at the Burton Gallery in Bideford Park. It gave me time to walk around the exhibition and closely look at the magnificent work there. So today I’ve been stewarding the Christmas Exhibition with yet another stinking cold! Exhibition ends on the 31st December.
BLACK ARTS.
The return of BLACK ARTS, a project I’m involved in with artists Adrian Beasley and Stephen Raff. We create our images in black and white using Photography, the Wet Collodian process and use of Bideford Black pigment, hence the name BLACK ARTS. We aim to undertake this three day residential experience later this year. Below is a link to the webpage with more information to follow!
Below is a link of our first collaboration in 2019 on the closing night of The White Moose Gallery.
https://albrownartist.com/2019/11/02/last-night/
NEVER FORGET THE DAY!
A wonderful poem and video by Dr Emma Fisher, an anaesthetist, who I have had the pleasure of working with at North Devon District Hospital. As a registered Staff Nurse who works in the Operating Theatre Department I have worked with Dr Fisher and many of the healthcare practitioners featured in my sketches in this video. This poem sadly describes one profound experience a team had to deal with during this Covid Crisis!
Below is a link to the original pen and ink images.
BURTON GALLERY 2021.
The start of the annual Christmas show at the Burton Gallery in Bideford North Devon. I am pleased to have been selected again for this wonderful event which will run from the 4th to the 31st December. The paintings I’ve submitted are Bucks Mills and Lee Abbey! Al
Roborough Hill.
I’ve finally mounted this Bideford Black painting of Roborough Hill in Barnstaple, North Devon 40 x 25″ on thick cartridge paper. Throughout the pandemic and various lockdowns I’ve found this area of Roborough to have been a great escape from all that mayhem. To look out over North Devon from this wonderful highpoint is a view to behold. I think this painting would be certainly a talking or focal point to any room! Al
A Night in Bodmin Jail.
My wife and I spent a wonderful time in Bodmin Jail. This jail has been fully renovated to accommodate a four star hotel. We spent the night in the Naval Wing in room 125.
Within the Jail’s walls is the only working Victorian Gallows in the UK and has claimed the lives of 55 prisoners. Each of the Hotel’s rooms has a plaque of an inmate who spent time there, ours was John Hoskins who stole of bushel of wheat and walked into the fresh air for the last time on the 11th August 1796. The prison closed in 1927.
Here is a video on my YouTube channel https://youtu.be/bz3Gx402co0
A visit to Padstow & Rock for inspiration.
I took an early morning walk along the quay in Padstow and it was wonderful to see the boats coming in during a quiet sunrise. Below is St Enodoc Church just a fifteen minutes walk out of Roc, the spire is actually that bent. On the way there we fed a tame robin by hand, the poet laureate Sir John Betjeman is buried here too. To get to Rock you have to take the ferry from the quay at Padstow which takes you across the River Camel giving you views out to the Doombar and down the Estuary.
We stayed two nights at The Old Custom House in the harbour and from our window had marvellous views out over Padstow and across to Rock; who needs a television or iPhones when you have such a view. It was wonderful to see Padstow without the throngs of tourists and after four at night was almost a ghost town. We ate at Rick Stein’s Seafood Restaurant and Paul Hainsworth’s Caffe Rojano and The Mariners at Rock, we had superb meals with friendly staff at all.
Linhay on the Marsh.
An acrylic of mine from a few years ago. As Picasso once said, ‘Ever now and again one paints a picture that seems to have opened a door and serves as a stepping stone to other things!’ The painting above is one such picture for me.
Al Brown Artist. 