Time for lunch...

 I'm in town this weekend for lunch - if you are in Colchester for shopping, eating, or any other reason, enjoy what's there. A little look round Firstsite? A bite to eat at Hunt and Darton? A look in Jes Schomberg's little shop in St John's Street? A glimpse of some fun art in the Minories? And on Sunday ?.....well, you'll have to wait for that!

Photos with thanks to Hunt and Darton, Firstsite and The Waiting Room

Hair today and gone tomorrow

So the 'Pay What You Can' night at the Arts Centre was exactly what I meant in my last post. A great local event, just what you might see at the Edinburgh fringe (in fact I believe Victoria is off there next). Fun, thoughtful, and here in Colchester. Though I thought it spoke more about the depressing nature of our vanity and quest for a synthetic 'beauty' than any exploitation. Thank you Victoria Melody - good luck in Edinburgh.
Wonderful Wednesdays, featuring off-the-wall performas like this one, will be back on 9th September I believe - see you at the Colchester Arts centre then.

The bright lights at the end of the tracks...

Someone recently posted on Dorian Kelly's excellent Facebook group itallhappensincolchester that it wasn't worth going to an event in Colchester because there was much better stuff on in London, just 50 minutes on the train. And of course he has a point, but also misses the point. It's not about 'Better', it's about enjoyment, and having fun, and relaxing, and being part of the community you live in. And maybe even taking part. So as usual I'm spoilt for choice in the next few days - Open-air Shakespeare in Castle Park? Wonderful Wednesday at the Colchester Arts centre ? Art and events at Firstsite  - or the Minories ? And of course we have wonderful pubs like the Odd One Out or the QueenStreet Brewhouse. So Madonna or the Magna Carta may not come to town anytime soon, but we can still have fun!
Talking of the Magna Carta, if you do find yourself up the end of the tracks in London, don't miss the show at the British Library. From 800 year old documents, to the American declaration of independence in Jefferson's own hand, to Tony Hancock (I kid you not), it is an amazing exhibition.

Summer colour in Wivenhoe

Found time on my way home from work to have a longer nose around Pru Green's new Sentinel gallery. Her own iconic pottery is of course featured, but what struck me was her eye for other artist's work. Prints, more potters, and really funky Jewellery (I know what my wife is getting for Christmas - unique his and hers earrings - and the 'him and her' are subtle and obvious at the same time). Of course the paintings of Jenny Wheatley caught the eye

Full of colour, but with strong structure  - go and see them!

With thanks to Pru Green and Jenny Wheatley

Memories at the Minories

Great show of MA work at the Minories now until 22nd August. I particularly enjoyed the work of Helen Armstrong Bland, whose work from the Happy Ever After Series - Part 2 '(Un)Truths is shown above. Whimsey, darkness, storytelling all have their place here. It's also funny - I laughed out loud, which is not always appreciated in an art gallery! The work explores childhood memories against adult cynicism - which is more true? Are there such things as true and false memories? I loved the prince and princess, childhood happy ever after, buried under shredded fairy-tales. Go and see it. I also enjoyed the work of Jerzy Osmolski, where the line of a heartbeat runs through all his work. 

With thanks to Jerzy Osmolski and the Minories

Pointing the way

There's so much visual art to enjoy this weekend, with openings at the Sentinel Gallery in Wivenhoe Saturday and The Minories today (Friday) 6 pm,  not to mention the ongoing shows at Block J Colchester Institute for the Colchester Art Society an of course Firstsite. Make sure you visit one of them - see you at the Minories tonight!
With thanks for the image to James Ravinet and Firstsite.

Local hero

A chance encounter involving random musical instruments at the Beth Chatto Gardens led me to Pru Green's marvelous new gallery in Wivenhoe, the the Sentinel gallery. It comes as a surprise to wander down this track and come to a modern building that fits perfectly into it's space, elegant, not at all bombastic, a lovely example of modern architecture. Of course we all know Pru as the maker of colourful, lustrous, functional and reasonably-priced pottery, but this gallery space will be home to some interesting exhibitions. A beautiful little gallery, and from what I saw in my sneak preview this lunchtime (while Pru was trying to get some lunch) the exhibition opening on Saturday will be full of vibrant colour. Jenny Wheatley at the Sentinel, Chapel Road, Wivenhoe Saturday 25th July to 16th August. See you there Saturday!

Finding your way

So here is the entrance to the Colchester Art Society summer exhibition. If you recognise it, you've done well. I reckon Simon Carter has more work to do than Anthony Roberts to make this accessible. But anyway, my followers (maybe the plural is pushing it a bit), I found it, so what of the art? Maybe worrying if I'd ever find my way back home from Block J affected my mood, but I found the experience somewhat depressing. Lots of overworked paintings, mostly 'of something, someone or somewhere'. It was probably significant that I liked the abstract works better - I was particularly taken with Roger Hamer's 81 Days of Summer and 81 Days of Autumn. And of course the show is stolen by the shoes. You have to find block J, just for the paper shoes.
A friend of mine asked if I'd seen the exhibition - she loved it and had bought a work. And I guess that's the point - if you want something pretty to put on the wall, there's plenty here. So here are the shoes - and go and see it for yourself until Saturday 25th July.

Thanks to Annette Burrows and Colchester Arts Society

These are the days...

Basically, the point of this blog is to encourage everyone to say 'Colchester is great, and I'm going to take every opportunity to make it even more so, and to enjoy and celebrate what we've got'. Thank you to all at the Carnival yesterday, particularly Annies Fantasies and the wonderful Paul McCann  - keep music live! Sat here on a sunny morning, nice bit of Byrd on the cd (armonico consort) I'm staying put today, but there's a lot more on if you want - check out Facebook group itallhappensincolchester for ideas. The lightbulb festival continues - great stuff yesterday - my idea of a joke below:

Photo courtesy the waiting room colchester

The correct use of pegs in musicmaking

Was this some gatecrashing? Billed as Romanrivermusic, fantastic purveyors of classical music to the Colchester masses, the Colchester carnival Bandstand was filled with the Boxted Methodist Silver Band and Suffolk phoenix brass band Great noise and very polished brass, a great reflection on Castle park on a lovely summer's day - look forward to catching you again soon

Carnival Time

It's off to try to do the Colchester Carnival and the Lightbulb Festival at the same time tomorrow - tricky since I'm in the Carnival procession, then our Dancers (Annie's Fantasies - Tasteful socks illustrated above) are at the bandstand at 5.15 - might be able to sneak off to something before that. My friends from Roman River Music are at the bandstand at the unbelievably early time of 11.00,  then again at 14.30. I'll try to catch them - see you there!

Lighting up time...

Lighting up time...

Don't miss the fun events in the Lightbulb Festival From tomorrow Friday 17th July all weekend. Everything from Sewing to experimental Jazz, plus some good films (many with live music) at Firstsite. So how many stand-up comedians does it take to change a light bulb? - hope to see you there! 

East Anglian treasure at Mount Bures

Embarassing. I promised I wouldn't just take shots of fliers or website screens. And there I am in the thatchers arms, witnessing a super one-act play 'Stranded' by commonground theatre company, nice photo opportunity with local treasure Julian Harries, and I've forgotten my camera. Sorry.
By all means catch some open-air Shakespeare, and there's no better place than the the Minories this Sunday, done in the modern style, small company, minimal scenery, topical jokes, song and dance but don't forget great theatre is still being made, and there are no better exponents of small touring theatre than Julian Harries and Pat Whymark. Catch them somewhere this year. see you there!

Iconoclasm in Ely

In Ely this weekend for The Elyfolkfestival I visited the cathedral to find what you and I might call an art installation in the 15th century Lady Chapel. Installed in 2000 by sculptor David Wynne (who died in 2014) it was described in the interpretive sign as 'controversial' - that most overused word of the 21st century. It looks a fairly conventional figure of a young woman to me, with her hands raised to Heaven, but looking determinedly down to the ground - surely a reference to doing God's will on Earth. Even the colours are traditional blue and gold. Just because she doesn't look like something Fra Angelico painted.....The modern text and ironwork fit well in the sparse Gothic space. Controversial? -no, deeply conventional. Almost more interesting is the cathedral's interpretation of the space as 'broken' because of the work of several waves of iconoclasts, including Ely's own Oliver Cromwell. So we can see it as a parable of a broken World, that with love and understanding we can all help make better. So we mustn't let those 21st century iconoclasts who want to destroy contemporary art because they don't understand it have their way. Peace, love and misunderstanding, that's what I preach.
Oh, and Megson, pictured below, were very good, and coming to the Arts Centre 30th November - I'll see you there!

James Ravinet at Firstsite

If you go to Firstsite please, please check out the Studio Shots exhibitions presented in conjunction with Essex Network of Artists studios. The latest show by James Ravinet is beautiful, thoughtful and even funny - cleaning Windows, anybody? A beautiful image of nature, rendered third-hand by the all-pervasive digital technology, with the view being cleaned! Surely a pun on using Windows as our windows on the World. Work illustrated is Flat Pane Origins (2015) courtesy James Ravinet and First site.

Out on a shout

Sorry to all my loyal readers (hello again mum), I have neglected to blog for a few days - I've been away in Sheringham. I didn't think you'd want more pictures of Morris dancing (let me know if you do, I have plenty). While there for the Morris dance weekend (the Lobster Potties), I took in a gig by the Shantymen (very good, catch them if they're in the area). For the second half they were slightly depleted in numbers - some of the singers had gone out on an emergency lifeboat call. I never thought Shantymen might actually go on boats! It was a real emergency too - you know something's up when a police car, a coastguard vehicle, a fire engine, an ambulance and a Seaking helicopter all pass the pub garden in quick succession! So remember next time you are at a gig that isn't as good as you hoped, it's just art and entertainment, not a matter of life and death. Please support the RNLI - volunteers who work professionally in all weathers.

girls just wanna have fun

A chance conversation at the barber's. The usual - she - 'what are you doing at the weekend?' Me - 'going to the Sheringham folk festival'. Well to save you the tedium of a trip to the barbers, a discussion followed about how until the 19th century the 'folk' of this country couldn't read or write, so music, stories, even painting were handed down in an oral tradition. Was this music, poetry (think John Clare), and painting less valid than high art? Well, here are two Morris dance sides working hard for the sake of their art in the heat of Sheringham - anniesfantasies.co.uk from Colchester and Alive and Kicking from Witham. See you back in Colchester next week!

That takes the Biscuit

Talking Biscuit tins - is it art? My visit this morning to the wonderful Minories (and to Firstsite.uk.net   - more in my next blog) left me musing on the old question - what is art. First World War soldiers left a permanent mark of their existence on Army ration biscuits. Were they saying anything more than 'hello mum' or 'I was here'? Probably not, but it leaves you musing on permanence. Something that was made to be consumed has become permanent (the biscuit), and something you might have considered permanent (the Biscuit factory in Reading, which I walked past everyday on my way to school) has gone. And of course the lives of all those men and women have gone - or have they?

Army ration biscuit made by Huntley and Palmer, decorated by a member of the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps. Courtesy Minories (with thanks to Lee Pugh) and Reading Museum. - a splendid building, I recommend it if you're ever in Reading.

Well done Colchester

I was delivering plants to Colchester Castle park today, and took the opportunity to check out the big screen. Not quite as big as I expected, but a lovely setting and local beer, wines and ciders on sale too. Films for just £2 each this weekend. I'm told over 1000 tickets sold already. Get down there I say - and come on Heather!