Jane Brocket's Blog, page 24

killer knitting

[German poster for Sightseers]

It's got knitting, caravans, classic English scenery, some of our lesser known tourist attractions (eg Tramway Museum in Crich, Pencil Museum in Keswick, the Blue John Cavern in Castleton), and several scenes set under and on the Ribblehead Viaduct. It could easily be part of a marketing campaign for cosiness and caravan sites until you realise that the two bobble-hatted sightseers in Sightseers are a pair of killers on tour.

It's a strange film, utterly deadpan but shockingly gruesome in places, funny but not a bundle of laughs, recognisable but very unsettling. The north of England looks green and beautiful, the weather ranges from fine to foul, and it's a very weird mix of ordinariness and wildly deviant behaviour. And for a knitter, it is full of great knitting detail.

Most of the knitting is part of the brilliantly designed interiors (cushion covers, bags, blankets, knitting on needles) and clothing (jumpers), but some of it is quite outrageous and made me laugh out loud (needles as very dangerous objects and some Ann Summers-style underwear). There are knitting action scenes, too, and never has knitting appeared more misleadingly innocuous and homely. I need to watch it again to pick up on details and the clever visual humour as I admit I had to look away at points and missed some of the funniest, darkest bits. I was also knitting; ironically the one thing I should not have been doing while watching a killer knit.

eastbourne

[Britain's Busiest Bandstand, built 1935]

I went to Eastbourne on a cold January day. I've been thinking about the visit ever since. It was dry and bright but the place was deserted. Britain's 'Busiest Bandstand' was exaggerating its claims, the chippy I wanted to visit was closed, and the elegant streets with red brick pavements were silent. I realised I could cross the road with my eyes shut if I wanted to, so little traffic was there.

[the bandstand's seating area]

And yet, a visit to any provincial town or city at whatever time of year is always going to be instructive and interesting. Eastbourne has some tremendous C19 villas, a wonderful sea front with brilliant carpet-bedding planting in summer, is close to the Sussex Downs, and mixes gentility and shabbiness, four star hotel living and startlingly cheap hostel rooms, seasonal seaside jollity and seasonal seaside emptiness. It's mostly a place to retire to for strolls and cups of tea, quiet roads and predictable routines.

But it's not where you'd expect to the find 'the contemporary art museum for South East England' as the Towner Art Gallery now styles itself. You have only to look at the residents and visitors in and out of season (I've been to Eastbourne a few times in summer) to see that they are hardly your target modern art audience. Eastbourne is about age; it's good for young families and older retired people. It's very much like respectable Bexhill and Bognor along the coast, while Brighton and Hastings are the edgier, noisier, more experimental neighbours that are more likely to attract a modern art audience. 

It is, however, just the sort of place you'd expect to find a fine collection of Eric Ravilious' work. Ravilious grew up in Eastbourne, was educated and went to art school there. He captured the beauty and value of the everyday and of ordinary English life, and is particularly famous for his watercolours of the Sussex landscape. Ravilious and Eastbourne go together perfectly, and the Towner does not simply hold some of his work, it holds the single largest collection, 600 objects in all (out of a total Towner holding of 4,000 works).

[Towner Art Gallery]

The gallery moved a while ago from an elegant but homely Old Town C18 manor house to a purpose-built building tacked onto the 1960s Congress Theatre near the seafront. It's all ultra-modern concrete and glass and space, white walls and feature staircases. It has a huge entrance area with shop, a large cafe, great facilities and views, two floors for exhibitions and a further 'space' for events. And, on the day I visited, precisely two Ravilious watercolours and five tiny but exquisite woodcuts. That was it. I honestly thought I'd missed a room or gallery and even phoned after my visit to double-check that I had indeed seen all that was on show from a collection that must be the envy of many a gallery aware of Ravilious' current (and enduring) popularity and pulling-power.

Instead of magical watercolours, witty designs, magisterial woodcuts by an akcnowledged master, the Towner was showing a 'forest' installation of dead trees as part of a small winter-themed display, and a bought-in exhibition about folk customs in land-locked England. Instead of reading and understanding the town's undoubtedly conservative tastes, it is imposing contemporary art on it. It is denying access to a marvellous collection entrusted to the gallery which promises to make its art available free of charge to the public.

I was told I could do a 'store tour' to see more of Ravilious' work, as long as I pre-booked on a last weekend of a month and paid. This is all well and good, but I know many people go to Eastbourne expecting to see plenty of Ravilious' art on the walls of the gallery on any given day - and it's a crushing disappointment to find this is not the case.

The Towner is a fine modern gallery. But glorious architecture and posh facilities are worth nothing if the art doesn't come up to scratch. I would forego all the extras if I could just go to see a great deal of  the great art in the Towner's own collection (it has many great paintings by lots of good artists, not just Ravilious). Modern art galleries are popping up all over, but there is only one 600-piece collection of Ravilious' work. If we can't see it in the Towner, where can we see it? I'm sure there would be plenty of galleries happy to take it - and show it.

 [I have phoned again today. There is one work of art (a painting) by Ravilious on show at the moment in the gallery that is, according to the website, 'the centre for study and display of Ravilious's work.]

sweetness and light

Chocolate bunny + daffs + British Summer Time (ha)  = sweetness and light.

a dose of hot cross buns

Hot, sticky, sweet and soft. A once-a-year baking performance and treat. This year I made the dough the night before and let it rise in the fridge because in previous years we have had to wait, tongues hanging out, until the afternoon for the buns to be ready. (I use the recipe in Baking with Passion and it's the best, but has quite a number of steps and requires lots of waiting time.)

I'm sure the correct term is a 'batch', but earlier in the week Simon said he was looking forward to a 'dose' of hot cross buns which I prefer with its suggestion of restorative properties. Dan Lepard says to wait until the buns have cooled to room temperature before pulling them apart. That's never going to happen here, especially after a year's wait. The buns were ripped apart while hot, slathered with butter, and enjoyed in extravagant quantities. And now we all feel much better.

curly wurly 1668

Typeface names are always intriguing. Some are apposite, while some are the opposite. This beautiful memorial in Chichester Cathedral is hand-painted, but I thought the lettering would make a fantastic and unusual typeface. I'd call it Curly Wurly 1668 and use it on all my personalised stationery.

sussex primroses

 

I love primroses with and always get quite giddy when I find a bank of them in the countryside (they look so much better in a natural setting) and insist on stopping to look. We don't have any near us (I didn't know what real primroses looked like for many years) but there were plenty out in West Sussex this morning. These were found in a tiny, very beautiful village full of flint cottages at the foot of the South Downs National Park.

[Primroses and Bird's Nest (1840s) William Henry Hunt. In the Tate.]

Every time I come across primroses, I think of 'Bird's Nest' Hunt's watercolours which are very Victorian, but also the epitome of freshness, springtime, and hope. 

stylish

  

[photo by Phoebe]

Phoebe is indeed a very stylish baker.

[photo by Phoebe]

She's also a stylish photographer. As she and Alice say, I am 'well jel'.

 

carrying on

Oh, let's just carry on with Cary for a little longer. No need to rush.

cary on

There's not been much Cary on the blog for a long time, but there is plenty on TV this week.  Time to get out an early Easter egg and indulge. Bringing Up Baby (Weds BBC 2), I Was a Male War Bride (Weds More 4), Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House (Thurs BBC 2) and Suspicion (Fri BBC 2) all make for an excellent four days of Carry On Cary viewing. 

 

hellebore wallpaper

I recently visited an art gallery where the entrance hall and staircase were wallpapered in William Morris' lovely, flowing  Honeysuckle design. It made me wonder what he could have done with hellebores. Mary Fedden created a beautiful 'Hellebore' design for Emma Bridgewater; we used to have six soup bowls until Tom opened the cupboard one day and five fell out to his great surprise. The remaining bowl is strictly Simon's porridge bowl and is now more carefully stacked.