The Launch of Mike Yates' Book on Ralph Bates this Saturday 9th August 12-3pm

You are cordially invited to a book launch and signing session at Pen & Paper for the book "Ralph Bates - Swindon's unknown author" by Mike Yates.

Mike will be here on Saturday 9th August 12-3pm and will be happy to sign books and discuss Ralph Bates' life and work.

Ralph Bates was a "better writer than Ernest Hemingway" according to Time Magazine and enjoyed a remarkable life starting in the railway factory before fighting in the Spanish civil war and becoming Professor of English Literature at New York University.

Mike has put a website together where you can read more about this fascinating Swindonian. 

www.theralphbatesproject.co.uk

This photograph of Ralph Bates has been used for the cover, there are some fascinating photographs inside, including one of the former technical college on Victoria Hill where Ralph went to school.

Visiting the Ken Stradling Collection in Bristol

This Friends trip which took place on Tuesday July 15th, was suggested by Mike Yates who was keen to see the ceramics. Ken's collection is housed at 48, Park Row, behind the Bristol Guild on Park Street, easily reached by train and then a number 8 or 9 bus from Bristol Temple Meads station.
Comparisons between Kettle's Yard in Cambridge and  Ken Stradling's collection have been made, and there certainly is a charm to both collections because of their being sited in household situations. Although Ken's 'house' is much smaller than Kettle's Yard, being able to handle the objects, mostly linked to food preparation, eating and drinking, and meeting Ken and talking about his collection  was very special.
It is possible to visit without appointment on Wednesdays, or gather together a group of  10 or 12 together and visit by arrangement, more information on the website: http://stradlingcollection.org/
Listening to Ken Stradling  talking about buying objects he liked from when he worked at the Bristol Guild made buying objects one likes seem quite acceptable rather than an extravagance. When he talked about the things he's bought, he obviously still really enjoys looking at them.
After an initial opening talk, we started looking in the cellar where certain things are stored so they can be rotated:

 Below the curator of the collection

 Above and below close ups of ceramics which I liked

 After the cellar, we looked round the first floor where Peter Wright's interlocking sculpture was displayed

 Below a Thomas ‘Sam’ Haile Bowl

 And here's Ken talking about a particular bowl someone had asked him about.

 Below a close up of the table beside Ken

 There are news items about ken and the collection dotted around

 I photographed this vase because it's an example of one made at Clevedon Court pottery.

 Here we are:

Below a Poole pottery Coronation mug

And one of my favourite pieces, an oval 'Rooster' dish made by Nicholas Vergette in 1953.

I found it hard to decide which book to buy, and ended up with a catalogue produced for an exhibition of some works in the collection at Monnow Valley Arts in Hereford

Why not Sign up to one of the Many Workshops being held in the Gallery between 30.7 - 9.8.14?

Artist collective Second Mouth and Swindon Museum & Art Gallery are working together to bring you Creative Copies, a series of fun and original art workshops taking place in the gallery this summer.

They say:

'Through the workshops we hope to raise £450 to restore ‘Study for Cephalus and Aurora’ by British artist Leon Kossoff for the Swindon Collection of modern art.

This small and richly textured study has been unseen for many years and is in need of restoration before it can be publicly displayed again.

Once raised, the money will fund the required conservation as follows:

·          remove the painting from its frame
·          clean the surface and repair any blemishes exposed after cleaning
·          apply a semi-matt varnish to address any unevenness
·          re-attach the painting onto a new, identical board 
·          and to re-fit the painting in the newly cleaned frame.

We would love you to be involved in this project, and we are sure there is a workshop for you! You can support us by booking a place on your favourite workshop directly from the museum, and telling all your friends about this exciting project.  

Places on the workshops cost just £5 per person and are open to all ages.

See what we’ve been up to so far at our blog secondmouth.wordpress.com/blog

And find details of all the workshops at our Facebook events page www.facebook.com/CreativeCopiesTwelve/events

We really appreciate your support, and we hope to see you there!

The Creative Copies team.'

Here's the list of activities:

 And the front of the flyer:

I went along to the Launch Event on the 14th of June and found lots of activities going on:

 Including people drawing the Leon Kossoff:

 And here it is, although a better image can be found on the BBC site:http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/study-for-copy-of-cephalus-and-aurora-by-poussin-no-2-64596

Hope to see you at one of the workshops.

The Curator's lunchtime talk on July 8th 12.30-1.30pm

It's been a while since there have been lunchtime talks, so this one was eagerly awaited, would there be a crowd in to listen to Sophie Cummings talk about the current exhibition of portraits - About Face? I thought it would be a popular time of day, there were others who thought not, in fact more than 40 people attended the talk, and seemed very happy with the talk and the timing.
Outside Apsley House, there was a sign encouraging people in:

And here's the audience with Helen Miah introducing Sophie Cummings:

 Who's there on the right of the photo at the front:

 And another shot of the audience, and doesn't the gallery look superb with that colour on the walls?

Sophie talked about the history of the art collection which now amounts to about 470 works, mentioning the importance of Lord Methuen who encouraged Swindon to have an art gallery followed by Jimmy Bomford who lent and then donated 21 art works initially and then more later after being given a bottle of champagne by Denys Hodson. Aided by Richard Morphet, Denys was able to add to the collection so we had an 'open ended network of connections'.
Sophie then moved on to considering the history of portraiture, before photography, it was an important way of depicting a person, although only available to a few because of the cost of it. With the advent of photography, portraiture continued to be popular because it captures the essence of a person suggested Sophie.
She then went on to explain why pictures had been selected to hang together in what is a superb exhibition. The talk concluded with 3 pictures being selected for a special mention, I think these may be Sophie's favourites at the moment, and I agree with her choice:
1. Michael Ayrton's 'Caged Birds'

Followed by John Bellany's 'Self Portrait with Juliet' which is fabulous:

And also a Henry Moore which I wouldn't have looked at so closely if it hadn't been pointed out:

 It's 'Seated Figure' 1927 in crayon, ink and green wash on paper, and it was donated by HJP Bomford in 1946.

Finally a few people asked questions, and then we milled about and talked to each other:

Sophie gave a very interesting talk from a personal perspective which did what I think such talks are intended to do, made the exhibition more accessible.
With 3 changes of exhibition per annum, we may have more of these talks, it's certainly worth looking out for them and coming along.

About Face - the Private View of the new exhibition

The new exhibition, About Face opened to the public on Wednesday June 11th, but a lucky few were invited to a very special private view and a canape and champagne reception on Tuesday evening from 6-8pm by Robert Hiscox. It was a delightful evening, and photographs below reflect the evening rather than the art, the exhibition is there waiting for you to see.
I arrived while Robert Hiscox was talking enthusiastically about the new museum and art gallery soon to be built in the town centre, then Sophie Cummings, curator of the exhibition talked about some of the pictures and their juxtapositioning:

After Sophie's talk, the champagne flowed and canapes were handed round giving the four Friends committee members present time to circulate a little and encourage those present to show their support for the museum and art gallery by joining the Friends.

A lovely ambience was created by the delightful guitar playing by James Daubney, and further interest by those having their photos taken with Bardwell and Baskervilles lovelies:

 Above, I think is Baskerville without the costume, and below Sue Bardwell with the models

 And below here, Robert Hiscox looking very happy:

Other people who were reasonably happy to be photographed were Cllr David Renard and Jeremy Holt:

I will include a photo of the tremendously energetic duo Helen and Nicki who among other things encourage and support the Friends wonderfully:

I hope you enjoy the exhibition which will be featured properly in the blog soon.

Coming up:

An event by Mike Yates about Ralph Bates on the 20th June at 7.30pm

A talk by Sophie Cummings on July 8th 12.30-1.30pm

The Postbox Past and Future

This was a talk given by John Fell on 30th May, I took some notes, so I'll give a condensed version of my notes. John has 77 postboxes and is passionate about them. He was originally a welder, but then as his interest in the postboxes grew as he began collecting and renovating them, and worked for Royal Mail.
Penfold designed the original post box in 1852, the first one being in the Channel Isles. When the railways were introduced, people travelled more, were more affluent and educated and began writing to each other. The first postboxes were green, changed later to red. There were free standing pillar boxes,a nd wall boxes which were much cheaper to produce. John showed us photographs of lamp boxes which were attached to gas lamps.
The only locks ever used in post boxes are Chubb ones, their trademark is a fish.
WT Allen also produced a lot of postboxes. Royal Mail have sold quite a few of their postboxes as they failed to operate properly in some way, maybe the locks stopped working, or the doors leaked. If bought, they have to be hung away from the thoroughfare and painted black or green to show they are not in use.
The British Postal Museum and Archive is on the Debden Industrial Estate in Loughton, Essex, their premises are too small, and they did consider relocating to Swindon 5 years ago. There is a very good postal museum in Bath, and some of the best postboxes are to be found in Cheltenham. There is also a very old postbox in Dunster.
John brought along 4 postboxes:

 Two George V boxes

 and below one John is renovating, but not yet painted

 Below is a Elizabeth II one

 This is a page from a magazine called 'Letterbox Study Group'

And lastly, a photo of John talking to the group with the boxes at the front, and the Action! exhibition still on the walls:

Lastly, there have been postbox forgeries made in China, they are very easy to spot because they are riveted together and got the making all wrong.

The Rediscovery of Ralph Bates on the 20th June 7.30pm at the Museum

Ralph Bates Presentation and Exhibition of his Books and Short Stories.

In the late 1930's Time Magazine said that the Swindon-born writer Ralph Bates was "a better writer than Ernest Hemingway". Today he is hardly remembered in his home-town. Ralph spent the first thirty years of his life in Swindon (he worked in the Great Western Railway factory) before moving to Spain, where he fought in the Spanish Civil War. Later, he settled in America where he became a Professor of English Literature at New York University. Many of Ralph's novels and short stories, such as The Olive Field, are set in Spain. Another books contains stories written during a stay in Mexico. His final book, The Dolphin in the Wood, is a semi-autobiographical account of his early life in North Wiltshire. Ralph Bates died in New York in 2000, aged 101.

On Friday 20th June, at 7.30pm, Mike Yates, together with members of the Phoenix Players, will give a presentation on the life, works and times of Ralph Bates at Swindon Museum & Art Gallery. The presentation will include recordings of music that was known to Ralph Bates.

Swindon Museum & Art Gallery will be showing a selection of Ralph Bates's books and stories during the month of June.