Ken White Remembered

 Ken White was involved in creating art almost all of his life; for over 60 years he produced a large body of work in the form of murals, paintings and linocuts. The much loved Swindon based artist known by almost everyone in the town died on 24 December 2025 leaving behind a fantastic legacy. His funeral took place on 19 January at Christ Church and as one would expect was very well attended with people from far and wide as well as local admirers.

 Ken always took part in Swindon Open Studios and was happy to show people his studio and talk about his working methods. I became friends with his wife Jan, and one day, four of us, Ken, Jan, Tim Carroll and myself went for lunch in Aldbourne and afterwards for a walk on the nearby Downs. It had been very wet and there were large puddles, Ken painted this picture on our return from the walk, capturing the scene but with two men a dog, it takes me back to that day over 10 years ago

A benefit of keeping a blog is that a record can be kept of how involved Ken was in the arts scene in Swindon. In 2019, Ken gave two different talks to the Friends about his work, firstly in conversation with Andy Binks:

Friends of Museum & Art Swindon: Ken White and Andy Binks in Conversation

and another one later in the year with different information and again in conversation with Andy Binks, it was so popular we held the same talk on two successive evenings:

Friends of Museum & Art Swindon: Ken White: An Exhibition of his Talents

In between those two talks Ken had an exhibition at Swindon Museum and Art Gallery:

Friends of Museum & Art Swindon: Ken White's Private View

He also was very generous in giving prints as raffle prizes:

Friends of Museum & Art Swindon: Wine and Cheese Evening

He also joined in with Artsite exhibitions, here's a record of an opening night there in 2022:

Artsite Exhibition held at the Post Modern

I'll include a favourite photo of Ken with Gordon Dickinson and Tim Carroll. Gordon on the left, Tim on the right. The three were great friends with the usual jokes and rivalries between artists making relations never quite smooth between them. Gordon gave a fabulous account of his friendship with Ken at the funeral, lightening the mood a lot with amusing anecdotes.

This year, it was a great honour for Tim Carroll to be asked by Artsite who had secured funding from Swindon Borough Council to repaint Ken's Golden Lion Bridge mural. There was an opening of the mural in May and Ken signed the mural.

Here are Ken and Tim together:

and on the right you can see Ken has been added to the mural:

Angela Atkinson has written a book about Ken, Ken White: Muralist and Painter and lots of blog posts about him, including this one about the Golden Lion Bridge, the last remaining mural in Swindon.

I'm going to stop there, the more you look, the more you'll see about Ken White, he won't be forgotten in Swindon.

Welcoming Back the Gharial on 23 May 2025

 News on the blog is retrospective at the moment. So much happened in 2025 at Museum and Art, much of it not recorded here, so with the long nights continuing for a bit longer yet, I thought I'd try and include some of what was missed.

The long anticipated return of the gharial was welcomed by all of us. Those of you who remember following the large footprints painted on the carpet at Apsley House, will be pleased that the much loved gharial is back on the first floor of the Civic Offices, in the Origins Gallery where the shop and reception are located. In its absence, it has been fully restored, with new teeth, eyes and a case to prevent further degradation. Articles appeared in the Swindon Advertiser and The Swindonian celebrating the return.

It was of course a brilliant photo opportunity with Cllr Jim Robbins Leader of the Council, Heidi Alexander, MP for South Swindon and Deputy Mayor, Cllr Neil Hopkins attending.

Not only attending, but unveiling

And above, the first glimpse of the restored gharial

Heidi Alexander chatting to Frances Yeo above

Left to right: MP Heidi Alexander, Andrew Cross Chair of FMAS, Frances Yeo Head of Museums, Cllr Jim Robbins Council Leader and Cllr Neil Hopkins Deputy Mayor

These two excellent photos were taken by committee member Claire Parsons who takes fantastic photos and judges how and where to take them so well

If you haven't visited the museum and art gallery in the Civic Offices, it's well worth doing so. They are open Tuesday - Saturday 10.30am-4.30pm 

 

 

PV of Leslie Cole Exhibition 3 August 2025- 3 January 2026 Recording Conflict

 With the weather in August baking hot, we started at the Civic Offices in one of the courtyards for drinks, nibbles and speeches followed by a look round the exhibition. Photos again courtesy of Claire Parsons.

Note this exhibition ends tomorrow.

Katie Ackrill and Frances Yeo in the courtyard, also joined by our Mayor, Cllr Fay Howard

Below Martin Savage and Carl Gomez chatting

and Hannah Thielen below

Selected photos from inside the Civic Offices include these:

 

And upstairs in the exhibition, Philip Garrahan and below Miles Franklin with Caroline Thomas

Ken White attended all of the events that he was able to, and will be sadly missed

 

Celebrating One Year On

 We celebrated one year on from the opening of Museum and Art Swindon on the 9th of July, it was remembered in the Link magazine:

Classical Study of Modern Tattooing by Gavin Jones

 In July 2025, Gavin Jones gave his second talk to the Friends, this time on a classical study of tattoo art. We were very pleased to have him back to explain more about the art of tattooing.

It's probably too difficult to read what the slides say. The one above identifies Sutherland Macdonald as the first person in the country to open premises where tattooing took place in 1894. His work was clearly inspired by classical art. He served in the British Army in Royal Engineers and fought in the Anglo-Zulu war. In addition to artistic designs, he also blended coloured ink on skin graft recipients. He tattooed royalty to the working class and he is remembered for his professional attitude to all.

Below a photo of Gavin

Above work inspired by Alfred Cheney Johnston

The final thought here is: 'Preservation of beauty is to safeguard the recognition of the soul and the divine for future generations.