The death of Alfred Russel Wallace – 7 November 1913
Read moreHow and why do species change? Why do some occur in some places, but not in others? Why do they die out? These big questions didn’t scare intrepid British explorer, biologist and geographer Alfred Russel Wallace, who died on this aged 90. He wanted answers. Wallace’s achievements have since been obscured by those of Charles Darwin. But be in no
The death of Dr Jane Elizabeth Hodgson – 23 October 2006
Read moreThere are many reasons why a pregnancy may be unwanted. A woman may have no access to contraception or already have too many mouths to feed. It may endanger her health, even her life. She may have been raped. The foetus may not be viable. No matter what the circumstances, the decision to terminate a pregnancy is one of the
Amelia Earhart disappears – 2 July 1937
Read more“…first lady of the skies, she had no guy holding her down, no one could clip her wings, she was no bird in the hand, she is no living thing now…” from the poem ‘Amelia Earhart’ by Patti Smith When 10-year-old Amelia Earhart saw an aircraft for the first time at the 1907 the Iowa State Fair, she wasn’t impressed.
Guernica – 26 April 1937
Read moreOn 26 April 1937, it was market day in Guernica, a small town in northern Spain considered to be the spiritual capital of Basque culture. In late afternoon, without warning or provocation, Luftwaffe aircraft swooped down over Guernica. Wave after wave bombarded the town with huge bombs and more than 3,000 incendiaries.
iCan – a self-portrait as a folk artist
Read moreMy iCan is a self-portrait in the folk art style; a picture of me in the form of all the things I cherish. It’s a decorated narrowboat watercan in the traditional canal art style, made of galvanised steel and brass, supplied by Black Country Metalworks. I could’ve chosen many objects to be the substrate of my self-portrait, a teapot, milk
What is folk art?
Read moreA few years someone described me as a folk artist. I’m not talking about music here, I’m talking about visual folk art. I took it as a compliment – straightforward art for people to enjoy. So what is folk art? Generally it’s native decorative or utilitarian art from an indigenous culture. So in British terms, it’s the kind of stuff
The death of Johannes Gutenberg – 3 February 1468
Read moreWhere would humanity be without the stone axe, the wheel, the plough, the compass and the steam engine? Likewise the printing press, whose inventor, Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg, died on this day in 1468. “Yes but” I hear you bookish pedants cry, “didn’t the Chinese T’ang Dynasty have a method of printing from carved wooden blocks?” Indeed they
Clogs. Wooden shoe know it
Read moreClogs: solid practical wooden footwear which used to be worn by people who worked on the land especially in the Netherlands and Sweden. I happened to acquire a pair and thought I’d give them the old ‘folk art’ treatment, just for a bit of fun. One turned out to be gift for a special friend who has a special interest
The Battle of Hastings and the Norman Conquest – 14 October 1066
Read moreThe British Isles has a long history of invaders: Angles, Danes, Saxons, Vikings. But on the 28 September 1066, when William, Duke of Normandy, landed at Pevensey in Sussex an invasion force on this scale had not been since the Romans, a thousand years before. William’s fleet of ships contained perhaps 8,000 men and hundreds of horses. He meant business.
Kate Bush live – Before the Dawn
Read moreThirty-five years after her previous live shows, Kate Bush stepped out onto the stage of London’s Hammersmith Odeon to rapturous applause from an audience which included us. This was the 19th of 22 shows of “Before the Dawn”. I already knew which songs she would perform and in what order as we had found a recording of the show online
Wharf Stream Way waymarker post
Read moreIn June, I submitted a design to be carved as a waymarker post as part of the The Wharf Stream Way, a new footpath into the fields east of Eynsham, Oxfordshire. I had already designed the interpretation panel for the walk so I thought I’d take some of the motifs from that and compose a carvable design to fit on
The death of Paul Gauguin – 8 May 1903
Read more“In art, all who have done something other than their predecessors have merited the epithet of ‘revolutionary’; and it is they alone who are masters” – Paul Gauguin When artist Paul Gauguin’s 54-year-old dead body was lowered swiftly into his grave on the remote Pacific island of Hiva Oa, it was already rotting fast and stinking in the sweltering tropical
What is a drypoint: badgers and bluebells
Read moreWhat is drypoint print? How do you make one? I explain in this blog.
Van Gogh’s Tarascon Diligence at the Ashmolean
Read moreTreasures from the Henry and Rose Pearlman collection Last week I went to Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum to see treasures from the Henry and Rose Pearlman collection in a show entitled Cezanne and the Modern. The meat and potatoes of the show were a goodly number of watercolours by Paul Cézanne. There were fine paintings and sculptures by Toulouse-Lautrec, Manet, Degas
Birding in The Gambia
Read more170 different species in just 10 days! Last week, just as the birds fly south to escape the British winter, so did we… to The Gambia. As well as lots of sunshine, we saw more than 170 species of birds (not being ‘listers’, we lost count after that)! Shockingly, Jane even enjoyed the walking! The trip was pretty exclusively to
Squonk
Read moreSide 1 track 3 of Genesis’ 1977 album Trick of the Tail tells the tale of the squonk, a mythical creature from American folklore. Listen here and read the lyrics. Legend has it that the creature is so ashamed of its hideous appearance, it hides deep in the forest and spends much of its time weeping. Hunters report that when