Perennial

 

 

 

 

 

Perennial, not Annual.

It's not a calendar (yet) and as such is a repeating thing - a study of the passing months. When it does shrink down to becoming a calendar it becomes dated and therefore will only be valid for one year.
 I may be thinking of these titles in terms of plants (bedding ones in particular)

During the course of putting the Advent thing together, I realised that I have been trying to build a calendar since 1983. It started in a large sketch book with the front page signed by my father. It feels like Ive added a bit every year, but never felt the drive or need to finish it off - maybe I am because I realise that I am approaching old age! He was younger than I am when he signed it.



It started off with my acquisition of the Julian calendar , or at least a spiced up verbal definition of the same. I am sure that in parts it isn't anywhere near correct, but will at least do for now. I felt it very important to get the very basic black and white (Giff) images rolled out - looking very much like potential lino cuts.

But looking back over the years, I realise that I have always had an eye on the changing of the seasons - in fact my first show after leaving Epsom College in 74 was entitled "The Seasons".

Ten years centred around Shipping Hill was very much concerned with what was happening right there outside.
Breath in breathe out go through the seasons, go through life.



January, a man with two faces.

The one - that of an old man

looking back on the past. The other - that of a young man looking forward.

or/ The figure of a man clad in white garments

and blowing on his fingers.

Under his left arm, he held a billet of wood.

 

o by the by

has anyone seen little you - i

who stood on a green hill and threw

his wish at blue

with a swoop and a dart

out flew his wish

(it dived like a fish

but it climbed like a dream)

throbbing like a heart

singing like a flame

blue took it-my

far beyond far

and high beyond high

bluer took it-your

but bluest took it-our

away beyond where

what a wonderful thing

is the end of a string

(murmurs little you-i

as the hill becomes Nil)

and will somebody tell

me why people let go

e. e. Cummings

Snow crystals, one of the pages from my Advent blog calendar from last year.

 

Snow dogs from under spaghetti junction, from this January (13), put together from a collage of snap-shots.

 

 Rich, but dismal colours,
glazed in a wet sheaf.
The rain is pouring down in white sheets.
It's dancing splash,
upward from the bottom of the windowsill

Different tones of patter
At the window, on the roof
percussion for the wailing wind,
sometimes shrieking through cracks.
Rocking the place: buffeting gently.
Dancing with the grass,
bending many trees in unison.

(words of a song with Phil Gray and Colin Browne)

Notes on card from the seasons show 1975.

We are not asleep

can't you feel it in the air?

down by the streams

there's not many sees

but we are coming on strong

In a couple of months

we will take over all

we are just the spirits -

the life and soul of the party.

Earth Love.

I slap burst forth

crying with a rapt reckless yearn

an untaught abandon

which leads on and returns

standing far out of reach

lost excitement wavers

visions want and craze veils

sorely, soulless, nightly.

A rooted radiance

as equal parts roam

with reflections waver

that emptily feels forth

to alight fixedly on shimmers hidden self

of shadow less black gripping single eternity

She winces, sad and strange

whisper dreams encaged beast

raging freedoms fall

                   mourns

Beauties faceless darkness

spellbound silence teeters.

Drawing rising strength up

searching in answers quests

Can you wade on the land

and walk alone

holding my hand, hollering moon?

 

Hurt, Happy, Angry a sign of the time.

March

A man of tawny aspect

with a helmet on his head

leaning on a spade

holding almond blossoms

in his left hand

with a basket of seeds

on his arm.

 

The Valley at Shipping Hill 1975

It's all happening.

Art college painting March 73.

 

Bob Meecham 1983?

  

 (Those) Wild March Skies.75

Boundary Wall 75

Songs of spring.

Just a bunch of long haired lads experimenting in the Devon woods near Taunton, Easter 70.

The light changes were incredible.

When we came upon a little pond at the bottom of a hill on the other side stood a peacock.

(Johnny Burfit, Mick Crotty) 

Seven golden daffodils, gleaming in the sun,

to light the way of evening, when day has done.

I don't have no money,

I don't have any land,

not even one dollar bill

to crinkle in my hand

But,

I can show you the morning, on a thousand hills,

and kiss you, and bring you

seven golden daffodils.

Lonnie Donergan 

Mopsey's wallpaper

*

 

Waiting for George.

For a pub sign, "The Icon" 2012

 

To speak of peace and brotherhood

and what might be the cost.

A man he did it long ago and they hung him on a cross.

Long ago, far away,

those things like that don't happen nowadays.

Moist and earthy 75

Forestry picture, April 13.

April face 13.

Sunset on the waters

 and the rocks stand out like boulders

light translucent brambles

line the sides

dripping dangly moss

shooting lights past boulders

gently soothe over the top

swirl to a heap

rumble bubble leap glide and fall.

The bath is filling

the noise surrounding

the amber light is dimming.

Hiding between tall upright trees

reaching for the sky

groping for breath

umber amber sepia stones

lie relatively undisturbed

whilst the clear, sometimes milky

hair thin lines of water

 criss cross pass over

here and there a lighted obtrusion

and the luminous moss

stands sponge like absorbing

and soothing.

Stream 2 (both digital versions)

Ruth Parke

In some ways, I should have written a comment on the digital difference thing up on the blog, it's a fairly important point - ta.



I included both versions, because I'm a bad photographer and I often have to enhance photos: crop, brighten, darken, blend edges.
I do feel that even though I'm representing a painting that I have made, it can be nice to maybe take it a bit furthur. (Ken Kesey).
I don't want to bust a gut trying to make it look as close as it is in real life, which is subjective in human terms and changeable in terms of the different quality of light that falls on it at different times of the day.
 And with possibly less effort, I can make something new anyway.
And that certainly aint my skill, in terms of conversion to media.

So at times when I find myself re-working an image, this doesn't bother me as the image is probably going to look totally different anyway. I think I can take photos as they come!

And--
The digital stuff may in fact look better than the original!

*

Stream 1, started around 97,

stored and forgotten then finished 13. Maybe I didn't know then just what I was after!

 

St Agnes, spring sea picture.

Palma spring.

Original drawing from Palma 92

This painting 2013

May May its a beautiful day.

Dawn Chorus 13.

*

 

Every body dance -wild flowers on the cliff.

Little Orchard Village St Agnes 2012.

Down to the Wood.

*

Bluebell wood, under Spaghetti Junction.

2013

Hedgerow, Shipping Hill 13.

  

Fritz the cat stretched out  - mee-owed - head and feet above the crowd. 98.

A lot more to come from May Apple Ball. (even a song!)

 

 

 

*

Mayis, first papier-mâché work of the year (2013)

*

A fresh smell

a fresh heart

sweeps clean,

lightly hovers daintily in mid air

it came from over there somewhere

and disappears

to other fresh smells.

*

Medieval

A Compendium of June

*

A delicate blue on the distant horizon

the air has a nip for

the sun is still rising

The wind takes a feather

and blows it away

a souvenir of a beautiful daydream.

Another day begins

another day.

*

Sprites.

A deep dark rich sky

behind the fire

the dry wood burns

not only in itself

but also in the air

exploding in sparks

it leaves pin thin wisps

of trail behind it

and every now and then

 a shiver of the complete picture

of the whole

- every spark of them

all at once

dancing, swaying in "do it"

with the heat in no breeze

clear crisp night.

76

 

 *

July

A man clad in long flowing garments

having a scythe in his right hand

and a sickle in his belt

-riding a lion

Bobs Garden

Eddie Maddox, pruning an Ash dangerously behind the house at Shipping Hill

C 75

Painted with graphite. 

No matter what happens something always escapes you.

Sometimes, you just cant beat the real thing.

 

*

 

I can hear the grass grow

 The Wright Brothers, Shipping Hill 76.

Big Day Out - Erdington, July 13

*

August

The maiden crowned with ears of corn

and bearing stalks in her hand

- the righteous virgin lived here on earth

and plenty made abound

- but after wrong was love,

and justice sold

She left th'unrighteous world

and to heaven was extolled.

Gold on the moor, listen for the rush when the wind blows across the valley (King Harvest has surely come)

Cave Lodge. Thailand.

Drawing from "Achilles Shield"

Then the famous crippled god created there a pasture

in a lovely valley bottom, an open ground

for white-fleeced sheep, sheep folds, roofed huts and pens.

http://umphries.blogspot.co.uk/p/achilles-shield.html

High and gently rolling - off the board.

Phil Gray

Dumfries, 1975

L.S.A. Bromley 1975

Falling Light

Late summer sundown.

More - floating gracefully downward.

Preliminary for the view below.

View from Millholme, Chagford. With Julian Pefanis

Twilight Thistles at Millholme.

 

Profile from Face Book.

September

A man, past the prime of life

heavily laden with corn

in one hand he carries a sickle

in the other - a pair of scales.

 

  

Little Orchard Village St Agnes 2011

Painted on my 60th birthday - rather reflecting the mood and time (in the way of things)

The School Run, Brookvale Park 2011

Details from The Bramble panels. A large painting produced at Epsom Art College in 73.

Photographed by the official college photographer complete with spotlights and all.

I should have used my brownie box camera maybe.

 

Waiting for food.

Kashmir 83

 October.

A picture of hawking

a man, full of merry glee

enjoying the fruits of the earth

&

revelling in the midst of plenty.

First main rough for "13 Chestnuts" 9th October13.

 

 

13 Chestnuts.

Photo sent to me from Wendy Richard.

 

Let me take you down. Shipping Hill 75 

Autumn under Spaghetti Junction 2012

Weird Window, Ashtead Surrey 75.

Made in the Shade. Ashtead 75

*

22nd October 2013, notebook cover.

 23rd October 13 more chestnut sprites.

*

Autumnal Woodland disco 24th October 13.

and they fly and they fly and they fly away

 

 *

 November.

An elderly man, very stout and quite exhausted with his labours.

with his right hand, he is wiping

the sweat fro his brow.

And in his left, he holds a large knife

with which he has been pruning the plants

he carries on his arm

(he is riding a centaur, carrying a bow and arrow)

Three Waking Dreams 1st November 2013

Autumnal woodland disco Nov 13.

Big day

Shipping Hill 75

Its a new dawn, its a new day, its a new life for me and I'm feeling good.

Shipping Hill 72

( more watercolours to come from early days at Epsom - mainly night skies after sunset.) And dried on a radiator.

 

*

Imagine learning how to fly, then realising you had dragon's eyes.

A page from my advent calendar from 2012.

Dave Bridge

*

I wonder, is this following of the passage of time and its subtle deviations and how we cope what has really underpinned my practice all these years ho ho.