Jim Moir - Neo Fauna

The new exhibition in Cartwright Hall is 'Neo Fauna' by Jim Moir, a prolific artist more widely known as comedy legend Vic Reeves (part of the Reeves and Mortimer double act with Bob Mortimer.) 

I enjoyed the exhibition very much.  It's hugely varied, with some wildly colourful images, many of them birds, like the long -tailed tits below:

and the well-observed Black Guillemot Frenzy: 

Then there are much more understated but again beautifully observed watercolours. I particularly liked the quartet of curlews: 

'Barn Owl in a woodland' was looser and more impressionistic, and full of atmosphere. I also enjoyed the magpie (below). There are many of them in the trees round where I live and he has captured their 'essence' really well here, I think. Apparently, since he retired from comedy and became a full-time artist, he paints in the morning and then goes for a walk in the afternoon, closely observing the birds and the details of their appearance and behaviour. That careful attention really shows in his work.

Studies of dancers and birds imaginatively echo their movements.

Then there were more surreal and highly coloured offerings, like 'The Exhibitionist' (below) and some rather odd, distorted studies of 'American Couples', which I didn't warm to at all. 

It's rare that you see an artist with such a broad range of styles. I wouldn't normally show so many but felt I needed to do them justice. The exhibition is on until the end of August. 

Cartwright Hall

Cartwright Hall, in Lister Park, was purpose-built as Bradford's civic art gallery in 1904, thanks to a gift of £40,000 from the local mill owner Samuel Lister. 

As I showed yesterday, the extensive park has a variety of areas and attractions. The garden to the front of the Hall is planted with bedding plants in the formal, old-fashioned way, by Bradford Parks department. They were just refilling the beds as I walked through. 

The gallery has temporary exhibitions but also shows a selection of the city's permanent art collection. The art works on display do change from time to time. This is one of my favourites: Arab Weaver (1886) by Armand Point (1861-1932).  

It's hard to pin down exactly why I like it. It's a huge canvas, depicting a peaceful, cosy, domestic scene, nothing wild about it. I love the vibrant colours in it, the soaring arches, the connectedness of the young people pictured contrasting with the intent focus of the weaver (their father, I suppose). I don't mind if it is 'romanticised'! 

Park life

Now the new exhibitions have opened at Cartwright Hall (the Turner Prize having been dismantled), I decided to take advantage of a dry day to have a walk round Lister Park and visit the art gallery. The crocuses on the banking beside the main road have given way to hosts of daffodils and narcissi. 

A circuit of the lake is always pleasant, though there are so many geese that the paths get a bit yucky. The statue of Peter Pan (a copy of the original in Kensington Gardens in London) was a gift to Bradford from the philanthropist Sir Trevor Pears. It's installed safely on a small island in the lake, though that does mean you can't see the detail of all the woodland creatures and faeries on the base. 

The bandstand has been located here since 1908. Its roof became unsafe and was removed in the 1980s, and has since been restored. I think it's still used in the summer. Many of our parks have a summer programme of music. 

The park is a nice mixture of open spaces, lawns and planted areas. At one time there was an outdoor lido too, though that has long gone. I enjoyed my wanderings, though the sunshine didn't last long!  

Lollipops

I walk past the Salt Beer Factory several times a week but I can't say I've noticed the 'lollipop trees' before.  Maybe they're new... maybe it's the vibrant red of the new leaves that drew my attention to them... I don't know. Anyway, I liked the effect. I think they're a variety of Pieris, though I didn't know they could be trained into such a shape. (Happily corrected - Photinia Red Robin) 

Spring teaser

We are being teased with the odd day or two of beautiful spring sunshine and then the weather reverts to rain, wind and cold. We all respond to the sun. I'm making the most of it with longer walks, the trees are soaking it up to fuel their new leaves and the spring flowers - yellow, white, blue - are twinkling in the woodland. Gorgeous. I just wish it would last for a few more days at a time. 

Shipley sheep

More sheep! 

The Shipley place name derives from two words: the Old English scīp ('sheep') and lēah meaning either 'a forest, wood, glade, clearing' or, later, 'a pasture, meadow'. Fitting therefore that, as part of the recent town centre landscaping, we've acquired a flock, grazing on a patch of grass on Well Croft. 

Before the market place was gutted and reinvented there used to be a 'Shopping Sheep' statue, which some people loved even though I didn't. (See HERE). I guess these are intended to replace that. I like them rather better.  (I don't like all the empty shops we now have. My bank is due to close its Shipley branch soon too. Boo.) 

Hoppy Easter

I didn't prepare an 'Easter' photo, as such, so here are the lambs I knitted for my grandgirls. Each contained a small creme egg. The girls both seemed quite pleased with them. The pattern had 'googly eyes' stuck on the faces but I decided I liked the gentler look, without eyes. They were quick to knit up and useful for using up small lengths of yarn. 

So this comes to wish ewe a woolly hoppy Easter, with sheeps of good wishes. 🐑 🐑 🐣 🐥

Striking when the iron is hot

We had a talk on Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) at the camera club recently. That's a technique whereby you set a slow shutter speed and slightly move the camera as the image is recorded. It's a bit of a 'hit and miss' affair (in my experience anyway) that involves deleting more images as 'failures' than those that seem to any degree pleasing. Nevertheless, I think it's good to play creatively and try different things. There's nothing like striking while the iron is hot, so the very next day I went out to have a go. I've tried it before but not recently. I actually used my phone camera for these, with an app called 'Slow Shutter', as I find it gives the desired effect without having to use filters and all the technicalities that necessitates. 

So here are a few of Saltaire's recognisable views, with a bit of wobble. (I know Barbara won't like these because of her eyesight - my apologies to her and anyone else that finds them tricky.) 

Repair café

This was a new experience for me... the repair café. 

For quite a while, the electrical cord on my hairdryer has been pulling out of its protective sheath at the point where it connects to the dryer. The dryer works well otherwise so I tried to fix the exposed wires by wrapping them with insulating tape but that wasn't really very effective. When I heard that a fire in a neighbouring block of flats had been caused by a faulty hairdryer, I was spurred into action. I discovered there was a repair café every month in the church in the nearby village of Eldwick, run by volunteers who mend electrical items, fabrics, clothes, wooden tools and similar things. I took my hairdryer along and I'm pleased to say that the electrical team quickly fixed it, doing a very neat job. No charge either, though they welcome donations to help keep the venture running. 

Whilst I waited, I had a cup of coffee and chatted with the lovely volunteers and other customers. It was a really friendly atmosphere. They had a big Fairtrade stall too, so I came away with some rather nice scented soap. 

All in all, it was a most enjoyable and positive experience. I'm very happy that my (ancient) hairdryer will keep on functioning safely for the near future. I believe that many places now have these repair cafés, which is a great idea, enabling us to make better use of the things we already own rather than purchasing new ones.

Yellow peril

Another in the Colour series, yellow this time. Although it's a cheery colour, I find I don't have much of it. For clothes, it's not a shade that particularly suits my colouring, and around the house it seems reserved for fairly utilitarian items - rubber gloves, dusters and the like. We did once paint our back door yellow, years ago, prompting my mother to warn that we'd be plagued with flies. I never really managed scientifically to prove or disprove that one! Anyway, it's the colour of spring and we've all been longing for spring, so this will help us on the way. 

1853 treasures

The 1853 Gallery, on the ground floor of Salts Mill, is a treasure filled with treasures. It sells wonderful books on art, photography, architecture... I could browse for hours! 

Its walls are filled with priceless paintings and sketches by David Hockney, a 'Bradford lad' and a friend of the late Jonathan Silver, the entrepreneur who saved the mill when it ceased to be a textile business in the 1980s.  

I've always rather liked the unfinished sketch of Hockney's muse, the textile designer Celia Birtwell. Behind it, a glimpse of the surrounding treasure that is Saltaire village - the tower of the Victoria Hall can just be seen through the window.

Alongside the paintings there's a superb collection of Burmantofts ceramics: art pottery produced between 1880 and 1904 by the Burmantofts Pottery in Leeds, which mostly made utilitarian ceramics for the construction industry. Much of the collection was a personal passion of Jonathan Silver. I wonder if the family (who still own and run the Mill) continue to collect pieces? I don't remember seeing the little table (below) before but perhaps I just never noticed it. I love the colours and glazes of the pottery. 

In the 1853 Gallery, you can always smell the fragrance of the white lilies that are placed in vases all around the gallery. (You can even smell them outside.) I think they may be a tribute in Jonathan's memory. He sadly died of cancer in 1997, aged only 47.  

So many treasures. 

Proud beasts

Proud beasts, both of them... 

T'chimney - the boiler house chimney at Salts Mill, now without its original ornate top. It's reliably reflected in the near-permanent puddle on the drive into the mill car park. 

And t'lion - the Belwarp lion, immortalised on a stone relief panel on the side of the Mill. Belwarp was a trade name for the high quality, heavy duty, woollen twill serge cloths made in Salts Mill. They were often used for military uniforms, and were advertised as 'guaranteed to maintain their colour against sun or sea in any climate'. 

Titus Salt School

Not everything that bears Titus Salt's name is Victorian. Titus Salt School, our nearest Upper School for 11-18 year olds, is across the Coach Road at the far side of Roberts Park. Opened in 2008, it replaced an older school on the same site. I enjoy its bold architecture, with hints of Art Deco styling. It has high fences and hedges all around so it's not easy, from the perimeter, to get the kind of photos I'd really like. Oddly enough, it also seems to look best in strong sunlight which emphasises the angles and clean lines. Never mind, on an overcast day I still felt like taking a few pictures of it. 

 

Exhibition Building

Shipley College, our local Further Education college, cares for and uses many of the original public buildings in Saltaire. Without that, the village would probably not be thriving in the way it is. The Exhibition Building opened in 1887, built by Titus Salt Junior in memory of his father Sir Titus. The building costs were supposed to be covered by the Royal Yorkshire Jubilee Exhibition held in 1887 to mark 50 years of Queen Victoria's reign. In the end the sum raised wasn't sufficient but it seems Titus pressed ahead anyway, determined to add an adult education facility to the existing educational provision in Saltaire. It was built as the School of Art and Science, later becoming Shipley Technical College. 

The only recent addition to our historic village (below) was added on the same site in 2015, designed by local architects Rance Booth Smith and named the Jonathan Silver Building in memory of the entrepreneur who bought and renovated Salts Mill after the textile business closed down. It was specifically intended to accommodate young people with learning difficulties and mobility challenges, free of the barriers they often face in accessing further education. 

Adjacent to it is the college's horticultural training facility: greenhouses and gardens, with an allotment across the road. 

Roost

I absolutely love the ever-changing view from my balcony. During the day I have a prime spot for observing all the comings and goings to the apartments, since it overlooks our small car park. As the sun sets, I have a grandstand view of the western sky, except for a few houses and the church in the foreground. Inside, by the balcony doors, I've installed a comfortable chair (which swivels! 😊). I can sit knitting and still feel connected to life. Not that it matters at the moment as obviously I'm still very active, but I guess one day I might be glad of it. 

When I was choosing where to move to, I came to realise how much I like being near trees. The view from the front of my previous home was largely of mature trees and I really enjoyed watching their progression through the seasons (if not the massive job of clearing leaves from the garden and paths). Here, the apartment block is in pleasant grounds with lots of mature trees, mostly under protection orders - one being a magnificent copper beech and some walnuts too, which are not all that common. (And we have gardeners who deal with the leaves. Yay!) The tree I can see from my balcony (above) is a few blocks away, in the garden of a neighbouring apartment complex. I think that's a copper beech too. I noticed it seems to be a favoured roost for the birds as the sun goes down.