Another found drawing from a very old 60s sketchbook of mine. This is the then home ground of Accrington Stanley. The only really good thing about this football club at the time was that the pies at half time were delicious. At the time we lived in Accrington, my father being the local Police Inspector or Chief Inspector, I forget which, but he was in charge of this sub division. My brother and I did visit the club on a couple of occasions but at the time the club was doomed. They were broke and eventually at the end of … Continue reading Accrington Stanley

I found this today when rifling through old paperwork and drawings. It’s from an old sketchbook of mine and this is from around 1966 ,I think. A drawing of myself in the digs I shared with other Manchester students on what was then called pre-diploma year, but is now called Foundation. The ‘digs’ were with a lady who taught at a nearby school and had a huge old rambling house in Higher Openshaw in Manchester, just up the road from the college department which was situated in the old municipal baths building in Openshaw. There was nothing higher about higher … Continue reading Self portrait with brown ale

Continue reading Balanced Diet

I dabble. I do websites, which is the sort of thing anyone can do within reason these days. In days past one had to be able to write code and the like, but modern technology has got on top of all that and by putting templates in place, one does not have to do all that clever stuff any more. I used to use a company called Moonfruit for quite a lot of the sites I did. What happened to them? They sold to Yell. Result: massive drop in quality of service. Then they got into so much trouble with … Continue reading Light, water, flowers, landscapes and a talent for putting it all on paper.

That’s a quote from a book I was given at Christmas and it’s a good one. I do write from time to time about ‘art bollocks’: that way of talking about art where you do not have a single clue what half of the words used mean. The word juxtaposition usually joins these words together in some way. It’s a way of explaining art that leaves me clueless. Well, the custard phrase, as we shall call it, was used in the book: Unquiet Landscape by Christopher Neve whilst talking about an artists called Mary Potter. It’s a simple way to … Continue reading ” There is no dazzle on custard”

Couple of pictures of Orkney, cos I like them. Taken a while ago, but I bet it looks the same today. Continue reading Orkney Green Beach

Here are a couple of images of one of the Cathedral Masons working on a gargoyle that is now installed. This photo taken some years ago now. If I remember right this is Ollie working on the final stone carving. It gives some idea of the size of these pieces. Behind him and in the image below this is the clay model of what he is doing. It’s got a bit of collateral damage where the clay has dried out, but you can see just how close it is to the final piece. If you are in the Gloucester area … Continue reading Cathedral Mason at work…

“Wherever possible people should work from home” I don’t expect the people who worked in this office would mind that directive these days, it’s got to be better than this. Hopefully this office is no more, as the image was taken in 2008. This was taken when we went on holiday to Greenwich on the banks of the Thames way back then. We took a walk down by the river and this and other sites greeted us, most were a little more cheerful than this. I used to have a couple of clients when I worked for the printers who … Continue reading “Wherever possible…”

Some years ago, possibly as many as 8 or 9. I went with a good friend who had a printing company in the Midlands to take a look at his printing company. I was familiar with what the inside of a printing company looked like as I’d worked as a salesman for one in Gloucester for a while. My friends printing company had been in business for many years and had a fine reputation in the area. The company I worked for had a similar reputation in the Gloucester area and beyond. Both had been family businesses, the one in … Continue reading Caslon Tray: A short tale of two printers.

About a year ago one of my twin grandsons described something as “gankie”. For a four year old this word invention was new to me and I’ve been puzzling about what it means. It’s not good. My own view is that this Christmas Mince pie from the Coop could easily be described as “gankie”. Many years ago a good friend of mine at college invited me to Hull, which is in the wilds of East Yorkshire and almost far enough from everything to be declared a separate state. When you get to Goole you think you might be nearly there, … Continue reading The meaning of “gankie”

I’m not sure if this is an ex brick factory, but it might have been. It’s in Crete and the image was taken some time ago now. Perhaps I should have described it as a pottery factory and then could have used the old joke about a Cretian Urn, but I cannot remember it properly. So let’s leave it as a brick factory. Like sheds, I like old industrial buildings too. Many have been taken down and some just fall down, it seems to me like this one was just gradually falling down but that they could not persuade Fred … Continue reading Brick Factory: Crete