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Friday 17 October 2014

The Art & Science of Exploration, Queen's House, Greenwich, #WhereonEarth



I am a big fan of the gallery at the Queen's House in Greenwich. My enthusiasm stems as much from my passion for history as from my love of art. Most of the paintings exhibited there are not only pleasing to the eye, but are also of real historical interest. It's a gallery that's tailor-made for folk who take an interest in where we've been.

And, just as an example of what I'm going on about, take a look at the painting above. The large square building to the left of centre is the Queen's House as it was way back in about 1680 when old Johannes Vorsterman climbed all the way up One Tree Hill and knocked out his landscape. Immediately in front of it is the new Royal Observatory and part of the planned new King's House, rising out of the remains of the lost Tudor Palace of Placentia, where both Henry VIII and Elizabeth I were born. Further up the river a mass of shipping clusters round the busy dockyard at Deptford with the Stuart Royal Yachts moored further down the river towards Greenwich. It's a fascinating, compelling snapshot in time.

And as a now for Vorsterman's then, the photo below is how the view from the front of the Queen's House looks today. There's nothing left of Henry VIII's great palace, other than a plaque on the ground to remind the tourists that this is where it once stood. Maybe I'm a bit weird, but I get a real thrill out of seeing its bones, courtesy of Vorsterman's paintbrush, before it disappeared forever. It's simple: paintings bring the past alive in a way that mere words on paper just can't match.


The nucleus of what's on display today was once the collection of the old National Gallery of Naval Art that belonged to the Royal Hospital for Seamen. Founded in 1824 (before the National Gallery got going) they used to display the paintings in their amazing Painted Hall.


The art in the Naval Gallery collection was all specifically chosen or commissioned to inspire patriotic pride in the Royal Navy: Rule Britannia, and all that. Way back then they understood exactly how a picture is worth a thousand words.

George IV got in on the act, and donated some 30 naval portraits to kick-start the collection. And people came from far and near to see the Naval Gallery, for which privilege they donated money for the upkeep of the incapacitated seamen. A similar initiative also operated for the benefit of the orphans at the Foundling Hospital. 

And look! I've dug out an old painting (below) from 1845 (by Andrew Morton) showing how the pensioners used to enjoy their Naval Gallery. Let me explain what's going on: the Greenwich Pensioners (dressed soberly in black) are entertaining a group of their army chums, the Chelsea Pensioners, (dressed in flamboyant red). The Greenwich contingent are all campaign veterans who have seen service with Vice Admiral Nelson, and they're busy re-telling tales from their glory days, as old men are wont to do, pointing to the paintings to help explain the action.  I love the curious old Chelsea chap who's gone right up close for a better view, but is cupping his ear and still listening carefully to make sure that he doesn't miss anything. 


Among the many other gems that are on display in the permanent collection is Canaletto's view of the Royal Naval College from the North Bank of the Thames, which is where I tell everyone to go if they want to take really good shots of Maritime Greenwich today. 

This is how, in about 1750, the great Canaletto saw the place from my favourite vantage point <eeek ... I've walked in the footsteps of Canaletto!>: 


And this is how it looked the other day when Maxi-the-wonder-dog and I passed that way: 


It hasn't changed much, has it?  And don't you agree that it's just a little bit thrilling to see the then and the now of it?  

Anyway let's get on to Captain Cook's gallery, where they've got a special exhibition on at the moment called the Art and Science of Exploration. For the most part it comprises paintings made by the artists that he took along with him on his epic voyages to the ends of the earth back in the eighteenth century. 

Here he is, the rather thoughtful but decisive-looking Captain James Cook:



He first set off in 1768 ostensibly with orders (and astronomers) to observe the transit of Venus from the Island of Tahiti, but with further secret orders from the Admiralty to then veer south and have a stab at finding new territory on which to plant the British flag. On this trip he found, named (as New South Wales) and claimed Australia for King George III. He also discovered New Zealand. 

In 1772 he was off again with the objective of mapping the Southern Ocean in a bid to find more new territories, circumnavigating the globe from West to East in his attempt to do so. He cruised along the Antarctic ice shelf on this trip, and went on to discover New Caledonia and the South Sandwich Islands as well as stopping off in New Zealand, Tonga and Easter Island. 

In 1776 he came out of retirement for his final voyage. Charged with the task of finding a North West Passage across continental America that would link the Atlantic and the Pacific, he spent six and a half months, cruising and mapping the coastline, but without finding the elusive passage. He was killed by the islanders of Hawaii on 14th February, 1779. The locals had thought he was a sea god, but when he'd limped back to their shores with a broken mast they started to doubt his divinity. Reports arrived of another local chief having been shot by the British and things turned nasty. Poor old Captain Cook was a member of a landing party trying to turn the situation around when he was knifed and clubbed to death by angry islanders, who believed that he was up to no good.

When Captain Cook headed off on these epic voyages he brought a collection of experts along with him. There were naturalists to look out for new animals that no one had ever seen before, expert cartographers to draw up maps and charts to make sure that people could find their way back to where they'd been, botanists to study the plants and artists to paint anything and everything along the way. 

The artist who painted the portrait of the good captain up above was a chap called William Hodges, who came along for his second expedition. Many of the paintings in this little gallery are the work of his brush, and they give us a really fresh, first-hand view of the New World as it appeared to these early adventurers over two centuries ago. 

This is how Hodges painted Easter Island:


They'd arrived on Easter Island in March 1774, and were in awe of its amazing stone heads. An excited Hodges raced about, doing quick sketches and pencil drawings of what he saw. They only stayed for three days so he didn't have enough time to paint a formal landscape. This painting, the first by a European of Easter Island, was worked up from his sketches and observations on his return to England. At the time Cook's party assumed that the stone heads must have marked the burial places of important people. This influenced Hodges to paint in a scull in the foreground as a sort of European memento mori that the people back home would have understood as a comment on the transience of life, and, also, perhaps, as a comment on how the indigenous culture that had created the monuments had perished too.   


And this (photo above) is how he saw Tahiti. Hodges painted this landscape in 1775 and exhibited it at the Royal Academy the following year. It's a sensual image showing the island ladies bathing in the foreground. The commonly held view at that time was that Tahiti was a paradise, populated by the most incredibly beautiful women. Hodges, however, doesn't just leave his painting as a simple homage to the legendary beauty of the island and its women folk. He places a monumental tii, a statue to the ancestors, so that it towers over the frolicking ladies and behind them in the middle distance he paints in a funeral pyre with a body covered by a draped cloth. He's seriously bringing down the fun-factor with another memento mori. By including this nod to the long dead ancestors and the recently deceased individual it's as though he's making them shout out our frail mortality to us:   

Remember Man as you go by
As you are now so once was I
As I am now so shall you be,
Prepare yourself to follow me

In any event, this is how John Webber, another artist, who served on Cook's third and final expedition, saw the very beautiful Poedua from the island of Ulietea (today known as Raiatea, the second largest of the Society Islands).


Cook and his crew arrived on this heavenly island towards the end of 1777,  just before they were due to head north on a gruelling journey towards the Arctic. Two of his crew were so enthusiastic about the place and its lovely ladies that they deserted. Undermanned and undermined by this breakdown in ship discipline Cook seized the local chief, Orio's, son and daughter, Ta-Eura and Poedua, and Poedua's husband, Moetua and held them hostage for the return of his crewmen. Within a day or two the local people saw to it that the scallywags who'd jumped ship returned and the lovely Poedua along with her brother and husband were freed. 

Webber made some sketches of her, from which he painted this portrait on his return to London, substituting some exotic foliage for the wooden panelling of the cabin in which it was painted. It was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1785, and must have helped burnish the image of the sensual south sea maiden in the popular imagination.

Cook's first voyage to Australia almost became his last when they crashed into the Great Barrier Reef. Forced to pull into the estuary of what they named the Endeavour River to make the necessary repairs, the expedition's naturalists Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander had a whale of a time checking out the local wildlife. They got especially excited about the kangaroos.  They chased after them, caught a few dead ones, skinned them, drew them, measured them and studied them in wonder. Then, when everyone got back to London, Banks went off to see a certain Geroge Stubbs, who was the foremost animal painter of the day. Stubbs had never been south of the equator, but he threw his heart into imagining what it must all have looked like. There are even tales of Banks inflating one of the kangaroo skins to give him a three dimensional representation of how they looked. Anyway, after a respectable amount of head scratching and discussion, this is what he came up with: 


And this was the first glimpse that the people of Britain had of the kangaroo. 

Banks and Solander had also got very excited about the wild dogs of Australia, the dingoes, but they didn't put quite the same amount of energy into drawing them or catching them. As a result Banks came back to Stubbs with an altogether vaguer explanation as to what they looked like. On the back of these descriptions Stubbs had a go at painting a dingo, and this is what he came up with: 


Personally I think it looks a bit more like a home-counties fox than a wild dingo dog from the Aussie Outback, but I'm sure he did his best with the material that he had to hand. 

All thing's told it's a great little exhibition, and gives a real feel for the novelty and excitement of Cook's epic voyages. If you'd like to visit and check it out for yourself you can find the details on the website here: the Queen's House. The Art & Science of Exploration carries on until July 2015, although I think they're going to remove the Stubbs paintings in January 2015.

All the best, 

Bonny x




Tuesday 14 October 2014

How to knit a little boy's hat in the round using circular needles

This is a super-fast, over-the-weekend, sort of project that gets you from cast-on to finished results and final Ta-dah! in double-quick time.

Would you like to see Emi's hat, made to match the scarf that I knocked out for him last week?

Ok, well here it is:



It's rather cheerful, isn't it?


He told me that it was like wearing a hug on his head, which sounds positive. In fact, so happy was he with his new creation that he decided to style it his way and roll up the brim (as shown in the photo above). With that adjustment made, he wore it all day Sunday teamed with a T-shirt, because the weather was really mild for October.

I decided that the final contrasting circle before cast-off was a sufficient statement without adding a pom-pom; a bit of my less is more approach. Emi confirmed that this was how he liked it as well, adding that pom-poms were for babies.


Anyway, I rather like the understatement in that final circle.



If you 'd like to make it - think about all those Christmas presents that you're going to need to magic up in a few short weeks <panic!> - here's what you need and how to go about it.

I used less than a half of a 100g ball of Hayfield Bonus Chunky in grey (shade 0786) and lime (shade 0785), so that's what I decided to use.

Emi is 8 year's old and the hat was made with a diameter of roughly 50 cm. If you'd like to make it bigger or smaller you can adjust the size by adding or subtracting stitches in multiples of two.

Cast on 72 stitches in your main colour (grey in my case) on 6 mm, 40 cm loop, circular needles.

Part 1: knit the ribbing


First row: Using your first stitch connect both ends of the row, and mark what will be the end of the row with a loop of wool in a contrasting colour.  Having done this the first row is knit 2, purl 2 all the way to the end, and that first joining stitch should be a knit stitch, forming part of your first knit 2. You will end with a purl 2.


Second row: knit entire row.

Repeat these two rows until the ribbing at the bottom of your hat is as long as you'd like it to be, ending with a knit row. In my case I did 12 rows.

Part 2: knit the crown of the hat


Knit 10 rows - just plain knit stitch. When this is knit in the round, going in the same direction on each row, it produces the same texture as stocking stitch, where you knit and purl on alternate rows, back and forth changing direction at the end of each row.

First contrasting row: join your contrasting colour (in my case lime) and knit one row.

Second contrasting row: Purl entire row. This will produce the ridge that gives the texture contrast.

Join the main colour again (grey in this case) and knit another 10 rows of plain knit stitch.

Join contrasting colour and add second contrasting stripe by repeating the first and second contrasting row instructions above.

Join grey wool again and knit 4 rows.

Part 3: Shaping the Crown

At this point move the stitches from the circular needles to a set of 4, double pointed 5 mm needles. You could use double pointed needles from the beginning. I don't because I have a strong preference for using circular needles that I can fold away and carry around easily in my handbag.

I use needles that are smaller to make the decreasing stitches of the crown more tightly woven. If you stay with the same size needle there's a risk that the tension will be too loose because of all the decreasing that's going on.

Divide the stitches equally between 3 of the double-pointed needles and use the fourth needle to knit the rounds (as set out below), continuing with the one-direction knitting.



Row 1: Knit 2, Knit 2 together to the end of the row. You should finish with 37 stitches on the needle.

Row 2: Knit to the end of the row.

Row 3: Knit to the end of the row.

Row 4: Knit 1, Knit 2 together to the end of the row. You should finish with 19 stitches.

Row 5: Knit to the end of the row.

Row 6: Knit to the end of the row.

Row 7: Knit 1, Knit 2 together to the end of the row. You should finish with 9 stitches.

Row 8: Knit to the end of the row.

Row 9: Change to the contrasting colour (lime in my case), and knit to the end of the row.

Row 10: Purl to the end of the row. (This is to make the final contrasting circle before cast-off)

Row 11: Purl 1, Purl 2 together to the end of the row. You should finish with 5 stitches.

Cut wool, and thread into a darning needle. Draw through the remaining stitches on the needles and fasten off. Darn in the loose ends and you're done.


It's about as easy as falling off a log, and you can always combine it with the even easier matching scarf, the pattern for which you can find here: Little boy's scarf pattern.

All the best for now,


Bonny x




Thursday 9 October 2014

How to knit a scarf for a little boy ...

I know it's definitely autumn when I feel that seasonal urge to get my knitting needles out and get busy with some yarn. It's always the same with me: as soon as I feel a nip in the air I want to run for some lovely wool.

Emi was complaining recently about how I never knit anything for him. And he was right: I've made precious little for him, my most precious little person. So I set about remedying the situation. One thing that he needs for the winter is a nice woolly scarf that he can wear when he's not in school uniform.

And this <ta-dah!> is what I've made for the young man:


Don't you just love the Lego sculpture that I've put together to model it? I guess I was inspired by Sunday's Art of the Brick Exhibition.

In my stash I have a huge amount of Hayfield Bonus Chunky in grey (shade 0786) and lime (shade 0785), so that's what I decided to use. I worked on 5 mm, 80 cm loop, circular needles so that the fabric was nice and dense to keep young Emi's neck warm. I've got a thing about circular needles: I love how I can fold them up and put everything in my handbag, but you can use regular needles if that's more your thing.

Cast on 35 stitches in the main colour (grey, in my case) and work 20 rows in stocking stitch (that's knit first and all odd rows and purl second and all even rows).


When you get to row 21 knit this row and row 22 using your contrasting colour (the yellow/ lime colour in my case). These 2 knit rows provide a contrasting stripe, not just of colour, but also of texture as they form a raised ridge that stands out from the smoother stocking stitch.



Now cast on with the main colour (grey) again and do another 20 rows of stocking stitch.



Join with the contrasting (yellow/ lime) colour and do 2 knit rows.


Carry on alternating your colours and your stitches in this way until the scarf has reached the desired length. In this case I worked until it was 115 cm/ 45" long, which involved making 10 stripes in the contrasting (yellow/ lime) colour, and ending with a final 20 rows of stocking stitch in the main (grey) colour.

Cast off and sew in your loose ends.



Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

Bonny x

As shared on Creative Mondays

P.S. If you're interested in woolly crafts why not check out the knitting and stitching show at Ally Pally until Sunday: Knitting and Stitching Fair



Wednesday 8 October 2014

The Alexandra Palace Knitting and Stitching Fair ...

Calling all crafty types!

It's on: the Ally Pally Knitting and Stitching Fair is in full swing from now until Sunday 12th October.


And it's bigger and better than ever before.


I headed up that way this morning, and had a ball.


There was a real creative buzz in the air; everyone was incredibly friendly. Conversations were being struck up between complete strangers all over the place. People seemed to feel a connection through their common enthusiasm for what was on display, which melted our normal British reserve.


Are you a knitter or a stitcher, people I'd never met before kept asking me as we queued for coffee, for the bus, to buy tickets to get in. There was a great atmosphere.


There were luxurious yarns galore. I especially enjoyed seeing some of the fabulous things that had been made up. It's a great place to come for ideas, and to support some of the smaller artisan producers who don't have a large presence in the craft stores.



There was something there for everyone. I've tended to focus more on the woolly stalls, because that's what I'm most interested in myself. 


But, ignoring my own bias, there was loads of stuff for patchworkers, and dressmakers, and beaders, and fabric printers, and embroidery enthusiasts.


In the galleries there were some knock-out displays by the bright young designers of tomorrow. I'm sure  Emi would have found it difficult to not touch this lovely bear if he'd been with me. Isn't he a handsome, cuddly chap?


It was great to see so many textile design students, with so much talent, being given a showcase for their work. I chatted with several, charming young designers who were fizzing with enthusiasm for their craft and who were delighted to discuss how they'd made the items on display. Good luck to all of them.


This exhibition is the biggest that they hold in the UK. If you'd like to go along, they're open every day from now until (and including Sunday 12th October). You can find their website here: 


There are lots of things that have been specially priced for the fair, so with very little effort you should be able to bag a bargain or two to boot. It was interesting watching the folk struggling home to the tube station afterwards. I think we were all laden down with purchases and additions to our various stashes. 



The nearest underground station is Wood Green on the Piccadilly Line, and they operate an efficient free shuttle bus from the station that will take you all the way to the doors of Alexandra Palace. And once inside there are loads of places for coffee/ lunch/ a quick snifter. 

Enjoy!

Bonny x




Monday 6 October 2014

Art of the Brick ... an exhibition in Lego

Art of the Brick, London

Calling all Lego fans:  I’ve found just the exhibition for you.

Art of the Brick, London

It's the Art of the Brick, which is running at the Old Truman Brewery just off Brick Lane until 4th January. 

Art of the Brick, London

Mr B and I headed off to check it out on Sunday afternoon with Emi. Emi (age 8) is a huge Lego fan, and he was really excited by the idea of a Lego art display.

Art of the Brick, London

The first thing that I must say is that the exhibition is really good fun. It doesn't take itself too seriously, and I found myself smiling at the playful ingenuity of what had been built.

You're welcomed into a classical gallery with a collection that includes Rodin's Thinker and Michaelangelo's David, all faithfully rendered in little plastic bricks. In the case of David it took a total of 16,349 bricks to put him together.

Art of the Brick, London

 The detail achieved with the clean straight lines of the bricks is impressive, and they are beautifully displayed with bold backdrops and perfect lighting.

Art of the Brick, London

There are about 80 works on display. The artisit, Nathan Sawaya, has been exhibiting his Lego sculptures all around the world since 2007, and to date over a million people have been to see them.

Art of the Brick, London

Yesterday afternoon lots of children were bustling around with cameras taking photos that would no doubt inspire a raft of work once they got home.

Art of the Brick, London

Everything has been constructed from standard issue, go-buy-it-in-a-toy-shop Lego, so, in theory, there was nothing on display that those busy little people wouldn't have been able to produce at home.

Sawaya, after working for a while as a corporate lawyer, decided that what he really wanted to do was go and explore the creative, artistic possibilities of the Lego brick. I loved the fact that he had used such a familiar, everyday toy to create his installations. It made the whole thing feel a bit cheeky and irreverent, almost as though he were sending up the art-world and its tendency to take itself too seriously.

On the other hand some of the work on display felt quite serious. The yellow man above was captioned: Ever have those days when you've given so much of yourself that it feels like a hole has been left in you? That message and his open torso felt a bit eery and surreal given how the sculpture was incongruously made out of cheerful yellow Lego bricks. It made me pause and think for a moment.

Art of the Brick, London


These huge faces (below) were real show-stoppers. The detail of their features was almost hypnotic. The red one had the most amazing - and impossible to photograph - eyelashes. The blue face is a self portrait.

Art of the Brick, London

One of my favourite installations was the swimmer. Using a clear perspex table and with some artfully positioned mirrors and discarded bricks for surf the illusion of someone moving through the water was complete.

Art of the Brick, London

Emi was very impressed with the huge T-Rex, but I'm not sure that he's got the 80,000 beige bricks that he'll need if he want's to build one in the front room at home.

Art of the Brick, London


Mr. B liked the huge pencil that had written yes on the carpet; he likes to embrace the positive.

Art of the Brick, London

And then there were the  Lego Beatles. There was also a Lego One Direction, but let's not go there ... .

Art of the Brick, London

I enjoyed my whistle-stop tour of the art world.

How do you like the Lego version of Monet's San Giorgio Maggoire at dusk?

Art of the Brick, London

Or how about Van Gogh's starry night at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence?

Art of the Brick, London

Maybe you'd prefer the Mona Lisa ... 'cos he's made her too.

Art of the Brick, London

Personally I liked his rendition of Munch's Scream. I think it's better than the original!

Art of the Brick, London

All three of us really enjoyed the exhibition. It's not specifically aimed at children, but lots of parents brought their little folk. My poor child gets dragged along to everything because I have some crazy idea that it'll help develop him into a rounded person. But I'm guessing that a lot of other normal people felt that, because the exhibition was made using their children's favourite toy, it was cool to bring them along. And for me that was just great. I could hear lots of mums and dads explaining patiently to their little ones that this was the Mona Lisa, who had a certain, lovely smile, and over here was a Van Gogh ... he cut his ear off, you know ... and so it went on.  Lots of children were getting their first introduction to the art world, and it was through a medium that made everyone feel comfortable, and in some ways empowered the parents to go into explanations that they might not have felt able to speak aloud in the hushed and disapproving silence of a normal gallery.

If you'd like to check it out you can find all the necessary details at the website: The Art of the Brick.

All the best,

Bonny x


As shared on Image-in-ing and Our World Tuesday