He was there to capture a unique moment in British history – but South Staffordshire artist Derek Baker’s big jubilee day was ruined when he got a right royal soaking.
Mr Baker was one of just 20 artists from around the country specially selected by the BBC to paint the Queen on her Diamond Jubilee flotilla.
The 51-year-old was given a prime spot on Millennium Bridge from where to capture the scene and all was going swimmingly. Until the heavens opened.
“It was one hell of a challenge,” Mr Baker said.
“You couldn’t even keep your brush level or keep the canvas still.
“I’ve never painted in conditions like it, but we cracked on and did the best we could.” Unfortunately the gusty winds and heavy rain were too much to cope with and Mr Baker, who was even forced to tie his easel to the bridge, couldn’t prevent the painting from being badly smeared and damaged.
And weather experts today said the gloomy conditions that marred the Pageant on the Thames will continue across the UK for the rest of the month.
With summer on standby, torrential rain and gale-force winds will engulf the country and temperatures are set to remain rooted at around 15C (59F).
Mr Baker is now planning to restore his painting to its full glory for a potential follow-up programme being made by the BBC – and he’s also hoping the Queen might get to look at the finished pieces.
Mr Baker, from Wombourne, added: “It was a real shame about the weather but I wasn’t too despondent. It was still a great occasion.
“I’ve got a few weeks to finish it now and the BBC will then put on an exhibition of the work.The beauty is I get time to repaint it and do a good job.”
He was using acrylic for the piece designed to capture the fun and energetic essence of the crowd, with the Queen and Prince Philip among them.
Visit www.derekbaker.co.uk to view a selection of Mr Baker’s work.
Source: www.expressandstar.com
Antique farm equipment draws people across America to Wellington - Dodge City Daily Globe
People from across North America have converged on Wellington, Kansas, USA this week, all to check out rare, antique tractors and farm equipment.
Massey Days is the name of the event, a reunion for the farm equipment collectors who are involved with the Massey Collectors Association (MCA). Massey Days moves to different towns each year, this year it's being hosted by Floyd Moore, of Wellington; owner of Floyd's Plumbing, Heating, and Air Conditioning, and one of the charter members of the MCA.
"It's a strict Massey show, it's kind of a get-to-gether for us fools that never get enough of these things," Moore said. The event started on Thursday, and lasts through tomorrow evening at 1402 N. H Street. Moore is expecting 200 people for the Massey Days banquet, to be held at The Rock this weekend. Those people will become coming from all over the place.
"I got people from Maryland, Colorado, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and of course Kansas," Moore said he is also expecting people from Manitoba, Canada.
Of the several pieces of farm equipment and tractors on display in Wellington this weekend, 30 are owned by Moore. His favorite one? A bright yellow, tractor that he has restored, an I-244 Navy.
"I've got one of two that we know of to exist," Moore said. "It was sold to the U.S. Navy, built for the U.S. Navy, and it's a 1955 model, the other one is a 1956, they only built them for two years, '55 and '56." Some of the antiques aren't just nice to look at, either.
"We have been cutting some wheat...we've been out there playing this morning," Moore said on Thursday. Next year Massey Days will be in El Paso, Illinois, Moore said getting ready for the event has been a lot of work. But Massey Days brings with it a positive impact for the community and surrounding area.
"There's no rooms in [Wellington] this weekend," Moore laughed. "We've got people staying in Winfield and Wichita, because we've done got the motels filled up." Moore added that if anyone is interested in learning how to become a part of the MCA, to contact him at 620-326-1433, or visit the group online. In the mean time, the public is invited to see what Massey Days are all about.
"If anyone wants to come out and look, there's no charge," Moore said. "Just come out and have a good time, and look at some Massy tractors."
Source: www.dodgeglobe.com
Jane Austen: A portrait of the artist as a young girl? - The Guardian
New evidence may have revealed the true face of one of Britain's most beloved authors. Using digital photographic tools analysis has revealed writing on a long-disputed oil painting that its owners claim shows Jane Austen as a teenage girl. No other professional likeness of the writer exists.
The discovered words appear to include not only the novelist's name, but also that of the suspected artist.
In the top-right corner of a reproduction of a photograph of the portrait taken before the painting was restored, the name Jane Austen is visible. Next to it is revealed in two places the name Ozias Humphry – an established portrait painter of the period. He was a member of the Royal Academy, and a friend of other better-known artists of the day, such as Gainsborough and Romney.
The words have been digitally enhanced using photographic tools and methods that have been independently validated by photographic expert Stephen Cole of Acume Forensics in Leeds, who has spent more than 20 years analysing photographic evidence in criminal cases.
Art critic Angus Stewart, a former curator of an exhibition dedicated to Jane Austen, has seen the evidence and is impressed. "To have all these words revealed on the canvas is very, very strong. I think you'd be flying in the face of reason to deny this," he said.
The painting, owned by the Rice family, direct descendants of one of Jane's brothers, has been the subject of debate almost since it came to public light in the late 19th century. The Rices say it was composed during an Austen family visit to the house of Jane's great uncle Francis, in Kent in 1789, when Jane was 13. According to the recorded family history, having commissioned the portrait Francis kept it in Sevenoaks with the rest of his family collection. It was then given by his grandson, Colonel Thomas Austen, to a close friend as a wedding present, the year after the author died in 1817, because the bride was reported to be a keen admirer of Austen's books.
However, since the 1940s art experts, led by the National Portrait Gallery, have raised objections, principally that the style of the girl's dress and the general composition date the painting after 1800. By then, Jane Austen would have been in her 20s, too old to be the girl depicted. But the new evidence also provides important clues that could contradict the established view. The digital analysis has been conducted on a photograph of the canvas dating back to 1910 when the photographer Emery Walker was hired to reproduce the image for a collection of Jane Austen's letters. The original glass plates have since been stored in the National Portrait Gallery's own reference library, and have only now been digitally reproduced.
Since 1910 the painting has undergone successive restorations which may have erased crucial clues on the surface, so this black-and-white photograph may contain evidence lost on the original.
Francis Austen was a patron of Humphry's work, and had himself sat for a portrait by the artist. Crucially, Humphry also became blind in 1797 and stopped painting – so this attribution would date the picture before then. Intriguingly the enhancements also seem to reveal the date 1789, at which time Jane Austen was 13, the right age to be the girl in the painting.
It's not possible to know whether any of this writing was placed on the canvas by Humphry himself or a later owner. But as the painting was believed to be by a better known and more prestigious artist, Johann Zoffany, it seems to experts overwhelmingly likely that the words must have been put there during or shortly after Jane's lifetime. Professor Claudia Johnson of Princeton University believes the new evidence trumps the historical objections: "Whether Humphry's name was signed by himself in the 18th century and/or by some other hand later, the attribution must be contemporaneous with Austen's lifetime or by people who knew Austen when she was alive," she said.
A definitive attribution of the portrait as Austen may represent something of an embarrassment to the National Portrait Gallery, which granted the picture a licence for sale abroad on the basis that it could not be the writer. The gallery chose not to comment.
Thanks to the scholarly doubt, the picture failed to reach a £350,000 reserve price at auction in 2007. But now the Rice family can perhaps expect a much higher sale price.
Face of a writer
For most readers seeking to picture the author of Pride and Prejudice, the face of Jane Austen is a watercolour painted by her sister Cassandra in 1810, right, although the authenticity of the sketch has remained contested. The picture, which was adapted for the front cover of her 1870 biography by artist James Andrews, has been described by Austen scholar Paula Byrne as "very Victorian, sentimentalised and saccharine".
Last year, Byrne came forward with what she claimed is a previously unseen portrait of the writer, which depicts her seated at a table with a pen in hand and with a face rather longer than the round one familar to many owners of Austen novels.
Some Austen experts who agreed that the "new" image was authentic, presenting a professional woman writer at the height of her creative powers, said they believed it dated to around 1815, two years before her death. But there was scepticism from other quarters, where it was pointed out that the timing of the "discovery" came ahead of a new book by Byrne.
In terms of popular culture's portrayal of Austen, the best known recent depiction of her has been Becoming Jane, a speculative biopic of Jane Austen's love life in which she was played by the US actor Anne Hathaway. Reviewing the film in 2007, the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw concluded that Hathaway gave a decent account of herself "although she's far too pretty in the role".
Other depictions of Austen have included a comic inspired by the recent trend for "paranormal" mash-ups of her books. No longer able to rest in peace due to the proliferation of titles such as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, the author rises from the dead intent on destroying the "abominations". Ben Quinn
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
New painting tells story of catholic church - Dayton Daily News
TROTWOOD — An impressive new painting tells the story of Precious Blood Catholic Church, a huge mural 100 feet long and three stories high.
Artists and volunteers helped transform an empty building wall near the Trotwood church into a canvas that captures the memories and history of the 64-year-old church.
William O’Donnell came up with the idea for the public art titled “All Are Welcome.”
“Precious Blood Church is an active Catholic Faith community with a missionary heart. Our church building is surrounded by a deteriorating neighborhood. We have always been looking for ways to brighten up our property in service to the local community,” said the Rev. O’Donnell. “The mural is colorful, bigger than life and a testimony to our wonderful parishioners, past and present. We are committed to a vital and faith-filled future and are here to stay.”
One of those parishioners is Marilyn Hart, who coordinated the four-year project. She wanted a professional artist, so she contacted Leonard Williams of Waynesville. He’s had experience with large-scale murals. He was the artist who painted the ambitious work on the rear walls of Town & Country Shopping Center in Kettering in 2003. This particular mural was supposed to take three years, but Williams had some serious health problems that added another year to the project.
“The enjoyable part about this mural were all the volunteers we had working on it with us. Some people would come out of church service and ask us if they could help,” Williams said. “A few sorority girls came over from U.D. a couple of days.”
Williams took advantage of an old painting method that dates back to 15th century, when Michelangelo used it for the Sistine Chapel. A pounce pattern consists of perforating the outline of the design with a little wheel. Then charcoal is pounded through the small holes onto the surface of the building. Williams’ biggest support for this monumental task came from Keith Thue. There were three main sections, and they did 90 percent of the last section themselves.
“He’s a member of Town & Country Fine Art Center, and has only been painting a few years,” said Williams. “When I asked if he could help with it, he said he’d love to. We did all of the higher work that required scaffolding and ladders.”
The design includes a base of blue waterways meandering through a beige ground. The massive painting was designed by Brother Joseph Barrish, a well-known area artist residing at Mount Saint John. It is a Marianist community in a 140-acre natural setting in Beavercreek.
Barrish’s design focuses on the history of the church that held its first Mass on June 20, 1948, in the basement of the Convent of Our Lady of the Precious Blood. The Sisters donated the land, which included a 75-year-old barn. This barn became the church with two classrooms. Mass was held in the converted barn-church in August 1949. Precious Blood School opened in September of that same year. These and other milestones are depicted in the mural.
Besides Thue, Williams was aided by professional artists Regina Whipp and Connie Crosby to complete the work. Other volunteers included parish volunteers: Whipp’s son, Gene; Wes and Amy Wright with sons Tom and Patrick; Skip and Laura Discher, Chris Gulliford, Bill McCabe, Mike Newbauer, Mike Schindler, Judy Thaxton and Bill Wilbanks.
Nonparish volunteers who worked during the four-year period were: Taylor Barnes, Michael Gearhardt, Rachel Gearhardt, Michelle Hey, Stephanie Moon, Josh Nieman, Dion Roberts, Andrew Schaffer, Sarah Schaffer, Eric Swint, Karen Thue and Evan Wilson.
All artists and volunteers involved with the project will be recognized at Precious Blood Catholic Church on Sunday, followed by an outdoor blessing of the wall. The wall wouldn’t have been done without the contributions of major donors Mike and Mary Gearhardt and Beth Duke, an “angel” donor.
“We have a very diverse membership, and we’re becoming more community oriented. Among other outreach activities, we have a reading program and a food pantry,” said Hart, who lives in Dayton. She was married to her husband, John, at the church 58 years ago. “About the mural, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how much my family came to my aid on this project. When grandma needs help, everyone comes running.”
Contact contributing writer Pamela Dillon at pamdillon@woh.rr.com.
Source: www.daytondailynews.com
No comments:
Post a Comment