Tag: Royal William Yard

#517 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Spring1 Comment

The first day of Spring washed in on a wave of persistent, penetrative rain.

Drips were the tiny gems of the day hanging around waiting to catch the sunbeams that resolutely failed to arrive.

Raindrops when gathered together turn into puddles. So one puddle two ways is the endpoint of this blog. It is a puddle we have been to before, but the alternative, a variety of shots of room settings at Ikea is one step too far for a blog that has no problem celebrating the mundane. IKEA is almost a global experience, all around the world people were sat in IKEA cafes, at the exact same time as me, pondering on their various domestic needs. Ours were simple and we managed the, almost impossible, task of getting out with only one extra item. A tool to fish spaghetti out of bowls or saucepans.

The first day of Spring, raindrops, puddles and IKEA.

#508 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, SerendipityLeave a comment
©David Muddyman

Two visits to Ocean Studios this week. The first on Thursday for a Drawn to the Valley artists meet up, and the second to catch up with the watercolours of a recently deceased artist David Muddyman. David was a composer, but returned to visual arts in 2016. This style of colour block water colour is not unique to him but his work is a reflection of the environment in which he lived. Both of my visits this week have been when the gallery was super busy. Saturday the gallery was hosting a children’s art club, so a third visit will be needed to enjoy his calm, meditative work but I was thrilled to find such an easy comparison to show his affinity with local colours. The picture below is a flagstone in one of the toilets. I know that is hardly the most kindly pairing to a piece of art but the flagstone is pretty impressive to someone who loves colour. These are the naturally occurring colours in the stone, not the result of a major toilet crime.

I just stuck the two images together to show how accurate the colour matches are.

When the gallery is less busy I can more accurately find out which area the painting was inspired by, it is very unlikely to actually be a toilet floor.

In another snatched glimpse, over the heads of crayon wielding children, I saw the perfect representation of greige. My least favourite weather manifestation of the Tamar Valley.

A perfect 2D facsimile of many days, including today when everything is a little bit meh!

Homework before I go back for a third time is to explore the music of David Muddyman. There is a link below for that too.

For those not able to visit the gallery at the Royal William Yard I have put a link below to a website where his work can be viewed. The collection is entitled Composed.

https://thebyregallery.co.uk/

A peaceful Sunday to all

#345 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Ten Days of Mourning2 Comments

It’s complicated. As Britain packs away the Cosplay outfits for a few months, what happens next? When I took the photo of the purple, illuminated, entrance of The Royal William Yard in Plymouth I hadn’t planned to include the contemporary A-frame table but when superimposed on a shot of the dawn of a new day it looks pleasingly optimistic. The future of Britain will be resolved around tables like this one. People will sit at benches like this, cardboard coffee cups in hand and informally exchange ideas. The big decisions may well be made in grander or more formal surroundings, but tables like this are where the magic happens.

If the architecture looks familiar after 10 days of news bulletins from London, there is a reason. The same architect John Rennie, who built the Royal William Yard, was part of a partnership, with his brother J and G Rennie. They also built Waterloo Bridge, Southwark Bridge and London Bridge.

How affronted would J and G Rennie be if they had known that the, imagined, structural failure of one of their bridges was the code name for the Queen’s death?

“London Bridge has fallen down”

The bridge did not, actually, fall down and the sun rose so all is well.

#281 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Art for sale1 Comment

My almost daily commute for three weeks is a ten minute walk from home. It covers the same paths that my normal daily dog walks take. Without the dogs, who are disinterested, for the most part, in a print exhibition, the familiar walk can be enhanced by taking a slightly different route. These stairs are just off my normally beaten path, but of no interest to the noses of my dogs.

Today was bin day and the big communal bins live in an old military building that has not yet been ‘improved’. The dogs would have loved to be with me as refuse bins and a hot summer day is a heady mix of flavours but I just nipped in to take this lovely old window in a grubby and unbuffed state.

Another love of mine is to see scarring on paintwork from regular use. Although that regular use stopped nearly 30 years ago.

And then there is the redundant heavy duty equipment with warnings , of limitations to men of my grandfathers generation.

Men for whom these numbers on doors had some significance.

I just love them as reminders of slightly archaic fonts.

I will leave you with two of my favourite doors.

One is an old storeroom and the other leads to a suite of artists studios. They are both at the end of the, currently empty, gallery space.

#273 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Art for saleLeave a comment

So whilst I am languishing about like an overcooked parsnip, being Covid Positive, in a record heatwave. The print exhibition that I have been planning for months went and made a success of itself without me. An amazing curatorial and hanging team set it all up on Monday.

They worked incredibly hard, all day, in the blistering heat.

Today was the first day of being open fully to the public. Stewarded by volunteers, there will always be someone on hand to chatter about all things print related.

Thursday evening, this week, the 21st of July, between 6pm and 8pm we are holding our Private View. There will be fizz and singing. Everyone who is able to attend is welcome to the Private View, or of course, any other time over the next 3 weeks.

#238 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Firestone Bay, Serendipity1 Comment

Finally, yesterday I was ready to ditch any form of wetsuit and just swim. Unencumbered by a lengthy dressing and undressing process. Summer has arrived in my swimming life. The day had been a collection of small domestic positives, admin and chores achieved and dog walks in the sun. One of my walks located some old friends, the white cows who normally sit on the green are having a rest and possibly a spruce up in one of the local secret gardens.

A small tin has also arrived. A reward to myself for selling a few pictures recently. The topics of the exhibitions I am entering later in the year need a more earthy feel than recent works, so I bought some earthy colour watercolours hand made from natural minerals in Pennsylvania just to start off my thinking process.

One of my evening swimming companions took a fabulous panoramic shot of Firestone Bay. The colours in my little tin would also work quite well if I attempted a sketch here one evening.

#165 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Coffee Hunters, SerendipityLeave a comment

Quite the command on my early morning walk. Our usual, quiet, morning walk was enlivened by the arrival of many vendors for the monthly food and craft market. This coffee shop got our business later in the day. The sun was super bright, but the temperature was only just above zero. Beyond a dog walk I was also up early to catch some mussels in the sharply angled sunshine.

Mission accomplished.

#144 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Drawn To The Valley Artists, SerendipityLeave a comment
Work in progress.

Most artists work in isolation, myself included. Today was quite different, 12 artists from Drawn to the Valley got together in a cafe to natter and get to know each other. Most of us were unknown to one another or had not been in contact for a long period. We plan to meet regularly from now on, once a month, in the same location, Ocean Studios Cafe in the Royal William Yard, Plymouth.

Ocean Studios

Some of us brought small projects to work on, others just brought themselves and fabulous conversations.

I wondered if it was possible to paint a meditative mind map whilst in the company of others and it turns out that I could. Depicting the flavour flooding out of my herbal tea and mingling with the intriguing topics of conversation that were surrounding me. It is currently unfinished because I also talked a lot, no surprises there. But I am further along than when I took this picture.

#44 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Coffee Hunters, SerendipityLeave a comment

I had known for a little while that this particular blog was going to be about illumination because I had tickets to attend an illumination festival in the Royal William Yard.What I hadn’t expected was that the sunset over our evening swim would be quite so spectacular. Just a tiny tweak on the saturation of this image brought out all these gorgeous colours.

After drying off and warming up we set off to visit the area around Ocean Studios which was the location of Illuminate.

Like lots of things this event has been postponed a few times.

Many of the illuminations were similar to previous years but a new one was a fabulous, luminescent squid called Bobby Dazzler by Kate Crawford and Beth Munro. Visitors were invited to add embelishment to Bobby with fingertips dabbed in luminescent paint.

Outside we could write on a graffiti wall. My rookie error was to seek out a clear piece of wall to advertise this blog without checking the appropriateness of the surrounding marks.

Also new to Illuminate were the thousands of bugs and moths fluttering in the breeze to remind us that we must protect biodiversity and species around the world. There was also the luxury of a cafe serving decent quality late night coffee, always a bonus!

The architecture of the Grade 1 listed buildings lends added texture to projected videos.

And although I failed to record a video the musical pipes and interactive lights were fascinating. Although not particularly musical in our hands.

Returning just for a final comment and illumination to our sunset swim. Here I am wearing my night swimming hat which was a birthday gift last week.

©Gilly Bobber