Extraordinary Portraits

As part of Bradford's City of Culture 2025 events, in a pop-up gallery in the city centre, there has been an exhibition of the portraits from Series 4 of the BBC TV programme 'Bill Bailey's Extraordinary Portraits'. He invites different artists to make portraits of ordinary - and yet extraordinary - people. It makes for heart-warming viewing, unfolding the stories of both subject and artist, and their relationship, in a unique way. 

The exhibition was only on for a very limited time. When I arrived I had to queue for over half an hour even to get in.  I think the entire local population of 50-80 year olds was there!  

Once inside, you even had to queue around the gallery to see the paintings... whoever heard of that? I know we Brits like orderly queues but I felt that was going a bit too far. 

It was, however, well worth seeing, especially if you've had chance to watch the related episodes of the programme. 

My favourite portrait was the first one I've shown, the portrait of Millie by artist Karen Turner. Millie is a young woman with Down Syndrome. She's an actor, activist and influencer, with a huge amount of energy, enthusiasm, joy and love very apparent in her dealings with the world. I thought the portrait captured that very well, the wide canvas and her outstretched arms giving a clear sense of her joyful love of life. 

Equally enthralling was Marva and Lionel, painted by Chloe Cox. The couple were foster-carers for thirty years, welcoming over 200 teenagers into their home, in some cases for a brief stay, the longest for eleven years. They're retired now but many of their 'sons and daughters' still visit them regularly. The empathic portrait captures their devotion as a couple, and the peace and love they exude. Chloe is a self-taught painter of Caribbean heritage. She was commissioned by the King himself to make a portrait of Alford Gardner to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the arrival of HMT Empire Windrush. (See HERE) 

The portrait of Gill, a pioneer in women's football, was painted (appropriately enough) by ex-England goalkeeper David James. (I didn't even know he is now an artist.) Gill played, aged 14, in the England team for the Women's World Cup, Copa 71, in Mexico, at a time when women's football was banned by the FA. She later became a founder member of Arsenal's women's team. David chose to portray her surrounded by mementoes from her career, as a way of underlining how important football is to Gill, and Gill has been to women's football. It's thanks to women like her that the sport is finally attracting a large audience and there is a path for girls to follow as players. 

Clare, below, was drawn in charcoal by Oriane Pierrepoint. Clare was diagnosed with incurable cancer in her twenties. Finding there was little help for people of her own age with cancer, she started a charity, to raise money and support other people in a similar situation. She came across as brave, determined and optimistic, as well as remarkably peaceful and accepting in her approach to life. I think the drawing captures her well. 

Lastly, the bronze sculpture of Christian was created by Hywel Pratley, a celebrated sculptor whose most famous work is a statue of Queen Elizabeth II, unveiled in 2024 in Rutland. His subject is an ex-paratrooper, who, struggling to adapt to civilian life, walked 19000 miles round the entire coastline of the UK, raising half a million pounds for veterans' charities along the way. He returned changed and much more at peace, having acquired a partner and a baby son along the way! He's depicted with his faithful rescue dog, Jet, who sadly lost her life last year but whom Chris credits as being a fundamentally important companion along the walk.  

(There was one more portrait that I didn't manage to photograph because of the crush of people around it.)

Scenic Silsden

The small town of Silsden holds plenty of interest for the flâneur, such as I was that day. The photo above shows the little tunnel, now solely for pedestrian use, that passes under the Leeds-Liverpool Canal and connects the estates south of the town with the centre. I suppose technically the bridge is a mini-aqueduct. 

Climbing the steps to the right brought me up onto the canal towpath, right in front of this old mill, Waterloo Mill, still in use. It is listed as the base for Snugpak, a company that makes outdoor clothing and camping gear. Silsden was once a centre of specialist nail-making: nails for joinery, horseshoes, boots and clogs. It's on this stretch of canal that the Silsden Hire Boat company moors its narrowboats over winter.  

Walking eastwards, the canal winds through housing - rather nice housing at that, with gardens sloping down to the water.  It must feel better to live on a canal than a river, I always think. As well as the passing boat traffic adding interest, it's much less likely to flood. 

After half a mile or so, you leave the town behind and enter a more rural area, with farmers' fields on either side. It was a lovely spring day and I was tempted to walk further but I turned off at the swing bridge and followed the lane north, back into Silsden. As it was, my various ramblings - around Silsden, to the rail station and then to and from home at the other end - netted me over six miles that day! 

 

Such a variety of life

On my Silsden wanderings, I came across quite a variety of interesting creatures. I had my first encounter this year with a spring lamb, not such a baby either, as he was eating grass, not just suckling milk. 

Then I found a pretty tabby cat, who was very keen for strokes and neck scritches. Such soft fur! 

Along the canal, I discovered these two very attractive ducks. At first I thought they must be some kind of melanistic mallards. They had the mallards' characteristic curly tail feathers but black feathers, beautifully catching the light and glowing with iridescent green, turquoise and purple. A Google search has turned up an American domestic breed of duck called Cayuga, which pretty much matches these. I've never seen them before but they were really a 'wow' moment. Not a great photo as I only had my phone, and a photo can't capture the way their feathers' sheen changed as they swam around in the sunlight. 

Another unusual bird to encounter was this guinea fowl - unusual, at least, to find one rooting around a grass verge on the edge of a suburban housing estate! 

16 thousand steps around Silsden

I had a bit of a mad day recently, having to take my car for its annual service and MOT. My garage is in Silsden, about a half hour drive from home. I got there fairly early and dropped the car off. Then went home again on the train... but the nearest rail station is a half hour walk from the garage. It's not an unpleasant walk, though the roads are busy. There's a lovely view along the River Aire, which here meanders lazily through a flood plain. It was a still day and the reflections in the water were lovely. Green shoots on the shrubs show that spring is here, though it was a cold day despite the sunshine. 

The view in the opposite direction isn't so lovely. Silsden has very recently been augmented by several massive new housing estates. This one is not only situated right in the flood plain, which doesn't seem very sensible, but also typifies those mass-produced little boxes that the large developers seem to like building. They are ostensibly 'detached houses' but there is barely room to thread a sheet of paper between them. I do wonder why they didn't just build a terraced row! 

Anyhow, later in the afternoon I set off back to collect the car, again using the train, but I was early so I had a walk around Silsden too. Then they informed me the car needed more work and they wanted to keep it overnight... so, I had another trudge back to the railway station. 16461 steps in total, that's just over 6 miles according to my phone app.  Good for my fitness anyway! 

Elizabeth Fritsch CBE

I was absolutely thrilled to discover a major exhibition at The Hepworth by one of Britain's most prominent ceramic artists, Elizabeth Fritsch (b 1940). I've seen just one of her pieces before (HERE) and really liked it.  

'Otherworldly Vessels' brings together over 100 pieces from her private collection, spanning the 1970s to 2013.  Originally trained as a musician, there are influences from jazz and classical music, architecture and surrealism evident in her artworks. 

She uses very matte glazes and colourful geometric patterns. Many of her works are visually teasing. (For that reason, I thought this post a suitable one for April Fool's Day!) You can see that they are solid, three dimensional (3D) objects and yet at the same time they look almost flattened and two dimensional (2D), due to the way she shapes and decorates them. Very fascinating.