OCTOBER - DECEMBER 2019

Reviewing my work over the past year as the year draws to a close I’ve been continuing the process of completing any unfinished art work and making plans for the year ahead.

A watercolour I particularly enjoyed making this year was a painting of my son and daughter-in-law’s house in Shalden. This Victorian building is made of traditional Hampshire red brick and I’ve painted it from the perspective of flower beds at the lower end of their sloping striped lawn. I love this house, as while builders were renovating my own house in a nearby village, I stayed with my family in the Shalden house for six weeks. This painting was made for them in gratitude as we escaped the chaos of the building work going on in our own refurbished home.

Another painting I made is of my own little back garden being inspected by a neighbour’s cat. This needed finishing, and is now mounted and framed. It  began as a watercolour but morphed into acrylics as I needed more depth of colour. We spent five years designing and planting this formal cottage-courtyard garden and are now enjoying the fruits of our labours. I include a picture of our first gooseberry harvest!

Then I completed a watercolour of a still life with irises that I’d begun earlier in the year, a painting in pastels of a muddy lane with reflections of leafless trees that I’d begun in February and an oil pastel painting of red garden chairs I’d started last summer. And to cheer myself up I completed another unfinished experimental watercolour of the beach with sea grasses and teazels that I’d begun earlier in the year, reminding me of warmer days. A new winter scene with doves of peace gliding over a moonlit snowy garden added to the contrasts in seasons.

And at last I’ve finished making my embroidered wall hanging Heavens’ Embroidered Cloths. Inspired by the night skies and W B Yeats poem Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven, I made this from gauze, cotton embroidery threads and sequins, completed with a tie-tied cotton backcloth. It is weighted with aluminium suspension rods.

And finally I made a trip to the Watts Gallery Artists Village in Surrey, to see my favourite landscape artist Phil Greenwood’s beautiful prints in the current exhibition Capturing Light, which inspired me for more work in the year ahead. I particularly liked his River Light Cobham etching with aquatint. I do recommend a visit. Open until 5 January 2020. Contact them at info@wattsgallery.org.uk for more details.

More work is in progress, which I’ll share with you next year. So a very Happy Christmas and peaceful New Year to everyone who reads my blog!

AUGUST & SEPTEMBER 2019

Writing in September, the light has already begun to change from high summer’s dazzling brilliance to the cooler clarity of the first hints of autumn. Looking back to August, when I visited the Vyne, a lovely National Trust property one hot and stormy day to see a performance of A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, it was oppressively sultry. See www.nationaltrust.org.uk/the-vyne

This show, presented by The Lord Chamberlain’s Men was excellent - www.tlcm.co.uk and luckily the weather improved at the last minute. It was an evening performance that began in daylight and ended at dusk, with a traditional all-male cast. Crowds of Shakespeare aficionados with deckchairs, camping gear, portable picnic tables and cocktail cabinets gathered around the stage. As the evening progressed, flocks of water fowl flew overhead from the nearby lake. Geese and ducks took to the air, making ever-changing patterns in the decreasing light: a memorable evening.

Later that month I attended an interfaith conference in Yorkshire where I promoted the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Travelling Fellowships and was pleased to have been able to encourage some good candidates to apply. Visiting the beautiful Peak District again, near where I’d lived for over forty years was poignant for me. The landscape around Chatsworth and Hardwick Hall was as stunning as I’d remembered it, and the gardens at both these venues were lovely. Visit Chatsworth at www.chatsworth.org and Hardwick Hall, at www.nationaltrust.org/hadrwick-hall for more information. Hardwick Hall – ‘more glass than wall’ – built by Bess of Hardwick, the Countess of Shrewsbury was revolutionary architecture in its day, and Chatsworth House was as impressive as always.

Another interesting event from 30 August until 10 October from the Green Chair Gallery features David Goad’s stylish linocuts inspired by his extensive travels. Based in South West France, his work is colourful and visually arresting revealing his skill in what can sometimes be a challenging medium. Do visit this exciting website at www.greenchairgallery.co.uk to see more.

My own fascination with my environment here in Hampshire has been continuing, with more work on the theme of local cottages. Here I show two new ink and washes: Hidden Cottage and Selborne Bricks and Beams, and another watercolour Leaping Deer, inspired by the wild deer that proliferate in my area, set against the ripening harvest.

And another wall-hanging I’ve been working on for the past year is nearing completion. The title is taken from W B Yeat’s famous poem ‘Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven.’ My work is entitled Heaven’s Embroidered Cloths’ and features Yeat’s ‘golden and silver light, the blue and the dim and the dark cloths of night and the light and the half-light…’ expressed in silks, sequins and appliqué. Watch this space as I hope to show it in my next blog!

JUNE & JULY 2019

These months turned out to be the hottest on record so far this year, and it’s been a real challenge to keep cool. One trip in July that did give me a chance to cool off was a visit to the House of Lords where I enjoyed afternoon tea and champagne in the Cholmondeley Room and Terrace which overlooks the Thames.

Afterwards I was taken on a fascinating tour of this historic building, although our guide had to battle to be heard over the competing raucous voices of  Brexit and Remainer protesters shouting outside.  As the guests of Viscount Brookeborough, KG, KStJ. HML, I and other Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellows met together to discuss how we could further publicise the Travelling Grants offered by this Trust.

In August I’m attending an interfaith Subud conference in Yorkshire where I’ll be presenting a seminar to promote these opportunities to the people there. This year, categories range from Art for the Built Environment,  Education, Emergency response, Enterprise & social impact, Environment, conservation & sustainable living, Healthcare, Palliative and end of life care, Physical activity for healthier lives, Rural living, Science, technology and engineering, Suicide prevention and an Open category which could apply to anyone with a project that does not fit into the other areas. Read more about them by visiting www.WCTM.ORG.UK.

I’d also like to draw readers’ attention to another interesting website, that of the Green Chair Gallery. This online gallery features the work of artists who are members of the GCG School and currently displays the beautiful  ceramics of Cherry Tewfik. Turquoise Raku form is the name of the dramatic piece that launches her show, entitled “Shape, Form, Character and some DRAMA!” This exhibition will be on from 29 June to 9 August 2019 so don’t miss it.

Now I’ve completed the artwork for my book The River Itchen: a journey through place and time, I’ve been developing ideas for a new range of greeting cards I’m planning. Some of these designs reflect the area of Hampshire where I now live, and feature some of the buildings, habitats and wildlife that I find so inspiring. I include some photographs of these taken in local villages with this summer blog.

MAY & JUNE 2019

This month I’ve been continuing my work of recording the beauty of the River Itchen, one of Hampshire’s finest chalk streams. I’ve now completed over a hundred illustrations inspired by this river. Here I include a recent pastel I made at Avington Park, a pastel of two fishermen at Southampton water, and a small acrylic painting of a boy I saw on a small board paddling across who narrowly missed being overbalanced by a sea gull.

This project has been fascinating, and has been one that’s preoccupied me for over a year. Recently there’s been some concern that the water levels of these crystal-clear chalk streams has been decreasing due to over-use of the river’s water by local companies, but the county authorities say they have this issue well in hand. I really hope this is the case, as these English chalk streams are very rare elsewhere in the world.

As a separate topic, but one that also celebrates nature, I’d like to publicise the paintings of Elfrida Schragen’s Canadian landscapes and seascapes, in a new exhibition sponsored by the Green Chair Gallery. Entitled Sea… Sky… Land: Unity in Nature, Elfrida’s lovely paintings are so evocative of the unspoilt wildness of these areas. The show is from 18 May to 28 June 2019 and can still be seen after these dates by visiting the website. Contact info@greenchairgallery.co.uk.

Now my River Itchen project is coming to a close, I’m working in a new field: designing greeting cards. I’ve been so inspired by the area where I live that this year I’ve been out with my camera photographing iconic scenes like cricket matches, picturesque villages with stunning cottages and their traditional gardens, not to mention local scenes from the nearby coast. I include a few of these ideas which I plan to develop into card designs with this summer blog post. I also include a photograph of some of the roses and peonies from my own little cottage garden. Peonies have such a brief flowering season I make the most of them while they last.

MARCH & APRIL 2019

Making the most of the continuing warm weather we visited local beauty spots to see how the flowers and trees were developing.

 On 24 March we visited The Monk’s Walk at Selborne, an area famous for its association with the naturalist Gilbert White. We walked through narrow lanes to a wood, crossed Oakhanger Stream and ended by some ponds reflecting trees not quite in leaf.

However, bluebells, blue and white violets, celandines, dandelions, white wood anemones, white stitchwort and the leaves of wild garlic were all out, and we even saw yellow brimstones and red admiral butterflies. Do visit the website www.writersgate.co.uk where a map of the walk is provided.

On 14 April we visited Hinton Ampner gardens again, where we admired a pleached plum tree and a beautiful pale pink camellia flowering in a frost-free shrubbery. Hinton Ampner is a National Trust property and you can learn more about it by visiting www.nationaltrust.org.uk

And a final seasonal treat was a trip to the Tulip Festival at Pashley Manor Gardens in East Sussex. Here, 35,000 tulips have been planted to show them at their very best. We stayed all day! Visit www.pashleymanorgardens.com for directions to this lovely place.

Another area of interest for me is my connection with the famous online
Green Chair Gallery based in Canterbury, Kent. My work has recently been selected for the new Green Chair Gallery School, a collective of around 15 artists whose work will be featured here in the next 18 months. This is a great honour for me.

The first show of this group starts with Indonesian artist Susilowati Urrejola who lives in Chile and her collection is entitled “South American Touch from the GCG School.” This show is on from 6 April – 10 May 2019. I reproduce one of her lively paintings in my blog where she uses the original format Virganix, an Indonesian batik technique on paper which brings out the vibrant colours. Contact Green Chair Gallery at: info@greenchair-gallery.co.uk to learn more.

Meanwhile, I’ve been working on more acrylics - on board this time, depicting more paintings of the River Itchen. This has become a serious interest of mine, and my work follows the river from its source in Cheriton right down to where it flows into Southampton water and the sea. I include some of my recent paintings here.

JANUARY & FEBRUARY 2019

February ended with an amazing heat wave, bringing all the spring bulbs out at once. We visited Chawton House near Alton, in Hampshire, the home of Jane Austens’s brother Edward, ( http://chawtonhouse.org ) on Snowdrop Sunday to see the snowdrops out in woods before they faded.

Earlier that month I finally completed Poppies at Uppark, an embroidered wall hanging I’ve made in silks and cottons inspired a year ago by a visit to the gardens at Uppark a National Trust property in South Harting, near Petersfield in West Sussex. www.nationaltrust.org.uk.uppark A photograph of the hanging is included here, and joins my collection of my other wall hangings in the Craft section in the Gallery in my website.

Other artwork I’ve been developing recently include some ink and watercolour paintings of animals that can be found along the banks of the River Itchen in Hampshire. These include elusive otters, kingfishers, brown trout, slippery eels, damsel flies, scarlet Tiger Moths and Meadow Brown butterflies. I include four of these little paintings here: Splashing Otter, Damsel Fly, Kingfisher and Brown Trout.

Lately I’ve been returning to an earlier interest of mine: creative writing. I love the short story genre and was delighted to have had one of my stories – All That Glitters - a cautionary ecological tale set in the fashion industry – published in a collection of short stories entitled FIFTEEN WRITERS IN SUBUD. Do have a look at these, I can guarantee you won’t be bored!

FIFTEEN WRITERS IN SUBUD
31 SHORT STORIES
Compiled and edited by Marcus Bolt
Link: www.lulu.com/shop/Marcus-bolt/fifteen-writers-in-subud/paperback/product-23954156.html

The stories in this book were donated free by Subud member writers from Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, the UK and the USA to help fund the monthly E-zine Subud Voice Online. The writers are all at varying stages of their writing careers and their stories are up to 20 pages long, covering a diverse range of subjects. Reading them, you’ll find pathos, shock-horror, humour, psychology, spirituality, dystopia – you name it!

Coincidentally, my physicist brother Peter Lucas has just published his first novel which draws on his memories of a childhood spent in the Far East in the 1950’s with later recollections of his scientific career in the UK and USA. It explores his creativity from the perspective of a young man struggling to succeed in post colonial Britain.

LAB PARTNER
By P G J Lucas                               
Kindle at Amazon

He writes in the Forward: ‘From the theme of love in all its forms, I have attempted to depict the joy of creativity and at the same time the loneliness that can be experienced by anyone with an almost obsessive desire to succeed in an area not understood by those closest. In this book the two main characters discover each other when they are going through their common interests.’

Other interesting cultural treats this month included a visit to the Tate Modern to see the Pierre Bonnard exhibition. The last Bonnard show that I saw was over 20 years ago when I was overwhelmed by his skill as a stunning colourist. Here I include a picture of one of his landscapes – Summer 1917 painted during World War 1. www.tate.org.uk

And finally, I can’t praise the Russian State Ballet of Siberia too highly, having just seen their version of Swan Lake in Basingstoke. Presented by www.raymondgubbay.co.uk at the Anvil Theatre, the dancing was extraordinary – so graceful and so athletic. I have a granddaughter who is a student at the London Russian Ballet School and so appreciate how hard the dancers work to achieve such a high standard of excellence.