Clovelly, Devon

A March weekend in the time warp that is Clovelly on Devon's North coast. One of the few privately owned villages left in England it is still a working community, avoiding the curse of suburbanised "second homes". A cobbled high street, too steep for cars, flows down to everyone's idea of a sheltered harbour. Eat your heart out Disney, it is real.

The cobbled street

The harbour today

And yesterday where tourists came by paddle steamer. Now coach loads inundate the village 

Old photo of the steps up from the harbour

The same view today, little has changed

Bring me that horizon

Crazy Kate's cottage from the Red Lion Hotel

The same view from an old early photo

Early morning at the Red Lion Hotel

Painting of the Red Lion Hotel

Nineteenth Century painting of fishing boats off Clovelly

A fishing boat today

The Walking Party

Pebbled landscape

A streak of quartz

Rex Whistler's view up the High Street to the New Inn

The New Inn today.

For more info, log onto the miniature toy-town's website. www.clovelly.co.uk

Simon de Mare - "Maker of Things"

The motive for making these objects is as a form of creative therapy, as a justification for collecting and as memory boards. The making involves the recycling, or rather 'upcycling', and transformation of found objects and lowly materials, through the techniques of collage and assemblage. The things are fun with optional utility and with occasional reference to modern and contemporary artists. It is refuse without the "f".

A vitrine of 18 th. & 19 th. century fragments of clay pipe.

A mosaic face from pebbles found on a Turkish beach.

Dedicated to Daniel Spoerri.

Wire animals using cloths pegs. Can be used to hold notes, photos or place settings.

A collage made from bits found on the foreshore of the River Thames, using clay pipes, sherds of blue and white and slipware pottery, bones and bits.

A face, with my daughter's eyes.

A male figure made from fragments of clay pipes found on the foreshore of the Thames by the Millennium Bridge.

Limpet shell towers.

Painted flints.

A box with ivy branch and pebbles.

A Cabinet of Curiosities, one of a series featuring natural specimens.

A crab tree in a fruit box, part of a series made on beach holidays.

An explorer in a flint landscape.

A collaged mirror of found objects with lamps and clock.

Wire animals, influenced by Alexander Calder.

Post-It note pad holders from drift wood.

Photo frame from drift wood and an IKEA frame.

Lamp from drift wood.

Photo frame from driftwood.

Black board and drift wood.

Trees from dried seaweed.

A dystopian collage from objects found on a beach.

The utopian collage.

"Tower of Babel" from pictures of London houses cut out of property magazines.

Just two collages, eyes and lips.

A friendly leaf - from the leaf of a tulip tree

A box collage, titled " A "Long" Walk in the Yorkshire Dales"

A Box Collage titled "Out of Arcadia into Dystopian Efficiency"

A Box Collage titled; "Come down and apologise to nice Mr. Fontana"

Another use for cloths pegs

Drift wood mirror on Dungeness beach, the source of the wood.

More to come soon!

Occasional Art Walk, London, March

A few hours wander around the commercial art galleries and auction houses in London's West End gives me a great insight into the state of the Art World, and lets me pick up a few ideas along the way. The key is, its all for free. The commercial galleries change their collections every few weeks and the auction houses have a sale virtually every fortnight, and a public view for at least four days before the auction itself. The best map guide can be found here.

I usually start off south of Piccadilly and slowly meander north. The first stop is Christies on King Street St. Next week they have a sale of Old Masters and Modern and Contemporary Prints. The galleries in Duke Street and Bury Street are very traditional with the glorious exception of the White Cube Gallery hidden away in Mason's Yard.

The next stop is The Royal Academy, then up through Burlington Arcade to Cork Street, London's gallery centre. On into Bond Street and, on the left, the somewhat eccentric gallery of the Fine Art Society and on the right Sotheby's. Next week they have a print sale including an Andy Warhol screenprint The Scream (After Munch) with an estimate of £150,000 - 200,000, whereas Christie's have a similar screenprint, printed only in various shades of red, for an estimated £70,000 - 100,000. It will be interesting to see what they achieve!!

The Scream (After Munch) - Sotheby's

The Scream (After Munch) - Christie's

Further north again is the new gallery of the Haunch of Venison and then Bonhams Auction House, where next week, they will be holding a contemporary art sale.