Navigation
Home | Links | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | Videos | Oxted Paris Cycle Ride | Scarlett | Site notices
About This Site
About
A personal weblog with photographs and comments. Quiet ramblings, quite rambling...
Members
Most recent entries
- Cyclists! Look out for each other
- Yellow vest is the new snow?
- Paris Gare du Nord
- Queen Elizabeth II
- Where you going to sleep tonight?
- Wildfire
- Francisco Alomar
- Cap de Formentor
- Kamel’s halaal butchery
- Versailles
- Oxford Street
- Hip-hopspital
- Street furniture
- Ebbsfleet International Station
- It’s in the gênes
Recent entries with comments
- Indications of Autumn - (1)
- Temple roofs - (2)
- My first experiences cycling in Paris - (2)
- A shrine on Limpsfield Road - (4)
- Zebra Crossing Part Two - (1)
- Courchevel - (2)
- Mersea Island - (2)
- Old school rice packaging - (1)
- Were you one of these car drivers in Oxted who nearly killed me yesterday? - (4)
- This Charming Man - (2)
Feeds
Categories
Tweets by @bigbluemeanieMonthly Archives
- December 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
- December 2004
- November 2004
- October 2004
- September 2004
- August 2004
- July 2004
- June 2004
- May 2004
- April 2004
- March 2004
- February 2004
- January 2004
- December 2003
- November 2003
- October 2003
Links
Lately listening to
Site Statistics
- This website has been viewed 4287840 times
- Page rendered in 0.2495 seconds
- 47 queries executed
Site Credits
- Based on a design by:
BlogMoxie 
The original content of this blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.
This is Twist Vessel by Matthew Chambers, from the exhibition True to Form at the Grace Barrand Design Centre in Nutfield, Surrey. On his website, Matthew describes his vessel sculptures as follows:
Sculptural vessel forms best viewed from above. The pattern on each piece carries from the top inside the form. All works are made from coloured stoneware clay and are constructed using sections thrown on the potters wheel. Each piece is high fired and polished and the work ranges from 15 - 30cm in width and from 10 - 35cm in height
Matthew’s personal statement on his CV states:
I am influenced by geometric and constructivist art, architecture, and design. I use these interests in abstract to explore shape and form by building constructed sculptures in clay. The aim on completion is that each individual piece will convey unique properties of space, light, and colour, and will sustain an expression of abstract and rhythmical beauty from the pattern of the shapes within.
I think he is only partially successful in meeting his stated objective, as there is an element of uniformity across his pieces. The exhibition ends tomorrow, and this particular piece will set you back £300.
Filed under: Europe • United Kingdom • England • (0) Comments • Permalink • Bookmark or Share •
These are some of 100 vessels, found at the Grace Barrand Design Centre over the weekend. These works are an extract of a larger exhibition by Cotswold artists Malcolm Martin and Gaynor Dowling which Grace Barrand variously calls 1000 Pieces and 1000 Openings. The Grace Barrand exhibition of which they now form part is known as True to Form, and includes ceramic works and textile wall hangings.
Limewood is a common material for wood carving, also known as Linden or Basswood of the genus Tilia. The Wikipedia article gives some interesting background about the tree, including its mythological connections, although this article is badly structured and provides unsatisfactory information in many respects (e.g. it is weak on the Slavic cultural and spiritual connections). The wood is also used to manufacture instruments, such as guitars.
Additional link: EURIS project article on sourcing Limewood in Slovakia.
Filed under: Europe • United Kingdom • England • (0) Comments • Permalink • Bookmark or Share •
Last night I watched the first episode of Sandrine Voillet’s Paris. A fascinating study of this lovely city, although it jumps around a bit. The BBC has an interview with Sandrine Voillet, who is an art historian.
Filed under: Europe • France • (0) Comments • Permalink • Bookmark or Share •
This is Robert Pendered, a local artist based in Bletchingley, Surrey, seen here working on the painting which he described to me as “King George V riding a white horse (symbolically) through Wilmington”. He was “on show” at the Grace Barrand Design Centre on Saturday. The painting in the bottom right of the photograph is of stone cottages in Devon or Cornwall, but many of his other paintings show a famous white horse carved into chalk downs, and cloud formations which echo these shapes. I think I confused him by asking him about Wilmington because this is the site of the Long Man carving, not a horse design. Robert told me that he has painted his whole life, but has only been able to concentrate fully on his painting since retirement, and he cited David Hockney as an inspiration.
And here’s a photo of crop circles in the Netherlands caused by a high-speed police chase.
Filed under: Europe • United Kingdom • England • (0) Comments • Permalink • Bookmark or Share •
It looks like there was an interesting art installation in Oxted recently:
gallery:space presents documentation and remnants from Lee Simmons’ art events that took place at Oxted Quarry and Betchworth land fill site.
The work in the gallery is accompanied by a site specific
installation and colouring event in the park, using material
and techniques from the earlier works.
“A highly visible chalk face was coloured at the recently landfilled Betchworth Quarry with assistance and input from Surrey Fire and Rescue Search and Rescue team who abseiled across the chalk face spreading pink powder as they went. 42 primary coloured sheep, donated by a local farmer, grazed at the foot of the cliff, creating a colour saturated, enhanced landscape.
This performance triggered a discussion whereby local people and invited
guests were reminded by the event unfolding in front of them that the meadow
they were relaxing in was actually a tip, in which the smell of methane gas was present in the air”
Almost makes me want to head up to Finsbury Park to have a look. Another link with photo.
Filed under: Europe • United Kingdom • England • (0) Comments • Permalink • Bookmark or Share •
I enjoy photographic sequences that show the same place, at different times of the day or year.
The weather has been bad this weekend: typical for Glastonbury weekend. I managed to get out yesterday and take a bunch of photos but haven’t had time to transfer them to my computer yet - was too busy taxi-driving the sprogs around!
Filed under: Europe • United Kingdom • England • (0) Comments • Permalink • Bookmark or Share •
I went to Nandos for lunch with four of my colleagues earlier this week. I quite like their food and Julie showed me how to mix the sauces to get a better flavour. Two of my colleagues are from Malaysia and I discovered that there’s a Nandos in KL. I was interested in this because Nandos started out as a South African company.
Nando’s is known in South Africa for its humorous but often controversial adverts originally created by Johannesburg advertising agency TBWA Hunt Lascaris. One such television advert from 2000, involved a blind woman being led into a pole intentionally and knocked unconscious by her guide dog, which then proceeded to eat the chicken that the woman had just purchased. This caused an uproar within the blind community and caused the South African Advertising Standards Authority to call for the withdrawal of the advert.
The full story of the offensive Nandos advert, states somewhat humorously that:
The Advertising Standards Authority of SA (ASA) said the advertisement proved to be offensive to the blind, but not to guide dogs.
So would the ASA pull an advert that was offensive to dogs? And would a dog have to complain, or (for example) could a concerned person like me complain on behalf of them? I also wonder if the complaint would have been more successful if it was made on behalf of a specific dog rather than guide dogs in general. Because I’m sure guide dogs hold a range of opinions on any given issue.
Filed under: Europe • United Kingdom • England • (0) Comments • Permalink • Bookmark or Share •
This movie, called C’etait Rendevous is a supposedly rare copy of Claude Lelouch driving a Ferrari Daytona through Paris at 5 in the morning. In actual fact he used a Mercedes 450SEL and added the sound of a Ferrari in the studio afterwards.