A gallery of our art, part 2: the hall

Continuing our art tour as part of Kerenza's bloggers' gallery, here's all the art we have in the hall. This is one of the smallest rooms in our house and yet the one in which you'll find the most art. I love having so many small pieces all on the wall together. it makes for a really interesting space and each individual frame adds something to those around it. Here's a picture of the whole wall, followed by explanations of what you see there. The red wall is a bit of lockdown decorating we've done, and a gamble given I bought the paint online without doing any testers. I love it!

Bear

Lino print on paper, Ellen Williams, 2020

Framed and mounted by Mike Spring

Bears are pretty significant to our community, thanks to The Bear Club - a jazz club that has been our favourite hangout since 2014. Ellen is one of our friends, neighbours and bar-colleagues as well as being a super-talented artist so when she produced these fantastic bear lino prints we knew we had to add one to our wall.

Calling Card

Business card and dust, Canon T Russ, probably 1970s

Literally a "wild card" inclusion which most people would say probably isn't art. We found this business card under the floorboards in our old house while decorating. It says:

"Father Russ called and is sorry to have missed you.

Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again

[contact details]"

On the back is a handwritten name and address, for a lady who lived on the other side of Luton. If you've read my blog before you'll know I'm fascinated by local history and this was an absolute gift to find. The church and handwritten address are nowhere near where we live - how did this card come to be under our floorboards? I still can't answer that one, but sharing a photo of the card in a local history group on Facebook revealed that Fr Russ was incumbent at St Martin de Porres in the late 1970s, and went on to become a Canon and Chaplain to Tony Blair. The group also managed to track down the grandaughter of the lady named on the back! The internet is a wonderful thing.

Dusk

Print of watercolour on postcard, Kate Alizadeh, 2015

This is another piece of art by a friend-of-a-friend. I've never met Kate, although I'm pretty sure we've been at at least one wedding in common. A few years back she started a postcard subscription project where those who joined received a set of watercolour postcards four times a year. We're always keen to support initiatives by artists so we signed up. The cards we received were beautiful and most of them have been sent to various friends and family members but we kept and framed this one because it looks exactly like the first house we bought which is at the other end of the road we still live in now - a Victorian terrace, with school over the road and railings! 

Oaks are a symbol of hospitality

Photograph, Stephen Hoyland, 2019

This is a framed photograph that we were given as a housewarming card by our favourite Jesuit and man-most-like-Jesus-that-we've-ever-met, Stephen Hoyland. In it he wrote some lovely encouraging words about an oak tree being symbolic of hospitality and how he knew that was something we valued highly and that he was praying our new house would continue to be a place where others found welcome, home, hospitality and healing. Amen to that! I believe the tree featured is in Lancashire somewhere.

Smart Love

Photograph, Dan Warwick, 2019

Dan loves taking photos and I'd highly recommend following his Instagram feed if you like quirky perspectives, unusual architecture, reflections in puddles and that sort of thing. (If that's a sort of thing?) Just over a year ago when I changed job, we realised we needed a second car for us both to be able to continue to work so we bought this tiny, yellow convertible Smart car. We'd hired one a few years previously and had so much fun in it that we had wanted to get one ever since. It's not particularly practical but for a childless couple's second car, it's brilliant. We're so glad we bought it - it's given us so much joy (and mechanic bills!) When Dan parked it in West Hampstead last Autumn he was surprised to return to find it had made a friend!

Wilderness

Film postcard, Justin Doherty, 2017

'Wilderness' is a feature film created by a good friend of ours. It's a wonderful feeling to sit and watch such a high quality film and know that your friends were involved in writing, directing, producing, filming, editing, performing in and promoting it. We loved it, as did the film festivals and judges who gave it several awards. Film website here.

Music and trees

Print on sheet music, Dan and Rach, 2012

A fairly simple piece that Dan and I made by printing one of his photos onto a page from a Haydn string quartet. The photograph of trees in a foggy park lends itself to this really beautifully.

The pigeon

Screen print, Si Smith, bought 2018

Lilac frame, Mike Spring, 2019

Si Smith is another artist who features multiple times in our art collection. I first worked with him at dare2engage on another project which you'll see next on this list but we've kept in touch since and when he offered his fabulous Zoophabet prints for sale on Facebook I jumped at the chance. You'll see the Zoophabet in another post, but here's another favourite of ours. When Si sent the prints I'd bought, he threw in a few extra bits and pieces he found around his studio and we fell in love with this tiny pigeon as soon as we saw it. 

Framing is really important to us too. Some of our art is in basic frames from high street shops but most of it, these days, is framed by our friend and frame-genius, Mike Spring at Print and Frame It. Mike is absolutely brilliant at knowing how to get the best out of a picture by mounting and framing it with the right colours and materials. We love going to his studio, laying out our new art acquisitions and seeing them come to life as he picks mounts, wood types, colours etc. For us, the frame has become just as important as the art itself.

Rage, Despair and Hope

Digital art prints, Si Smith, 2012

Frame and mount, Mike Spring

This is the dare2engage project I mentioned previously, and my first opportunity to work with the fabulous Si Smith. The reflections make these images quite hard to see here, so I'd recommend taking a look at the resource on Youthscape's site. These are three out of 22 images which tell the story of the biblical book of Job. It's an intense and complicated story that many people find hard to understand and it's often ignored but it's a deep, rich treasure of emotions and hardship and how God relates to us through it all. Most of the 22 are triptych, telling the Job story through image and metaphor but these three represent the times in the story when God speaks and Si chose to represent that by breaking away from the three-pane approach and using the space as a single image. Here you see the solar system, the leviathan and Job with his friends. 

Turvey Abbey

Print of watercolour, Brother Herbert, 1985

When I left Youthscape in 2019, my colleagues gave me this as a leaving present. It's a watercolour of the bell tower and guest house at Turvey Abbey, painted by nonagenarian monk, Brother Herbert. Turvey Abbey is a combined Benedictine monastery and nunnery just outside Bedford and, until recently when the team grew too large for the accommodation, a regular retreat venue for us at Youthscape. I have so many special memories of that place. Brother Herbert is one of only two surviving monks at Turvey and has been there since 1985. His memoirs are well worth a read, and include growing up half-Jewish in Nazi Germany, his experience in PoW camps, studying at Cambridge, being influenced by Buddhism and plenty more. This snippet here is a good taster.

He Did Not Pray

Screen Print, Micah Purnell

Framed by Mike Spring

I promised you more Micah, and here it is! This was a gift to us from Kerry and Caleb Storkey for our 10th wedding anniversary in 2002. Micah is a friend of theirs and this was our first piece of his work that we owned, having admired plenty of others in the Storkey house when we lived in Winchmore Hill with them. Micah doesn't reference where the text is from, but it's wonderfully simultaneously challenging and encouraging (as well as being easier to read on his website!)

Ice Melt

Ink and ice, Abi Spendlove, 2020

A miniature ice melt painting created in the same way Abi made our large painting that hangs in the lounge. Abi lives next door and made us this beautiful piece as a thank you for a celebratory meal we were involved in preparing for her and Colin during lockdown.

Birthday Card

Watercolour on card, Alina Pullinger, 2015

You know sometimes you receive a birthday card that you just can't throw away? This is one of those times. Alina is a good friend of ours. She painted this portrait of Dan and I in our old house. The squares around the door represent a guest wall we had just inside the door, where visitors were encouraged to decorate a square on the textured wallpaper that came with the house.

St Matthew's, High Town

Lino print on card, Konni Deppe, 2019

Frame and mount, Mike Spring

Another card we fell in love with. Jazz singer, Konni Deppe, is a regular at our house community dinners. She's brilliantly creative and her lino print of St Matthew's, the church down the road, captures the building so well. It's another really significant place for me personally, as well as being an important part of our cultural and architectural heritage here in  Luton.

Filmstock Postcard

White print on black card, Justin Doherty/Chris Henley, 2019

Until last year, Filmstock was a Luton cultural phenomenon that started after I'd left for university, ran for 9 years and stopped before I returned. A world-class international film festival, run largely by volunteers, hosted in Luton. Legendary - you only have to hear a couple of stories to realise you missed out by not being there. 

And then it came back. The team that made 'Wilderness' (see above) are also the team that bring Filmstock to life, as well as half of them also being responsible for the Bear Club jazz venue (see also above) I worked for the weekend in the catering team and had an absolute blast providing meals for the artists and delegates as well as managing to catch one or two films along the way. They weren't exaggerating when they talked about how good it was. For a few months, we had a gigantic poster on the wall in our upstairs hallway but took it down when we repainted and replaced its presence in our house with this postcard as a reminder of good times.

119 Graham Road

Watercolour on paper, Victoria Beech, 2019

119 Graham Road is a tall Victorian terrace in Hackney. Insignificant, for most, but special to us because it's where Dan and I met. Having moved in on 1st September 2001, we got married on 31st August 2002 so you could say it was the site of our whirlwind romance! This sketch by Dan's sister was a gift from Dan for our anniversary last year. It's become all the more special since we moved house last year and are now living in a house with 119 on the door again. 

Basics

Postcard, Jack Monroe

Jack Monroe became a public figure in 2012, around the same time as MakeLunch was entering its second summer and establishing itself as a charity. In fact, we appeared in the same Radio 4 programme that year I think. I love her low-budget, zero-waste approach to good food and several of her recipes are firm favourites in our house. This postcard is a print of one of her sketches. I really like the grounded, everyday-ness of it.

Which Instrument Should I Play?

Marketing leaflet, Sinfini Music

Framed by Mike Spring

A few years back, Dan and I were queuing for a BBC Prom at the Royal Albert Hall when someone came down the queue handing out Oyster card wallets with this leaflet in them. I love flowcharts so this one helping people work out which instrument to play was perfect for us. It's funny, and we really enjoy seeing guests stop by the door to follow their own path through this and see where their musical destiny lies. 

Also featured here: an old railway Third Class sign. Dan has had this as long as I've known him and it generally just hangs out in whatever house we're living in. We finally got it up on the wall!

Havelock Road Map

Ink on paper, from our house original deeds, 1904

Framed by Mike Spring

When we bought this house in October 2019 I was delighted to find the previous owners had left us a huge file of historical papers, including deeds, contracts and more. The oldest document is an 8-page A2 hand written deed, in beautiful (but almost illegible!) script. Pinned to it with a dressmaker pin was this map. Our house is in the pink section towards the top left (with 7 other houses - it's not that big!) and I'm fascinated by the rest. Note the trees on the lower left hand side which suggest the houses that now stretch all down that side of the road hadn't been built yet. And the red houses on the bottom right where the 1970s-built primary school now stands. The land on the other side of the road to our house isn't called Pepper Hill any more either.

Warwicks Fish Restaurant

Photo from Were You Being Served? book.

I've blogged about this photo before.

Energy

Ceramic clay with green glaze, Matt Raw, 2017

While I was working at Youthscape, we fundraiser for, bought and renovated an Edwardian steam mill in the centre of Luton. Another opportunity to explore Luton's rich history for me (don't ever ask me about this in the pub - I will bore you for hours!) including project managing a group of young people learning about the building's heritage and presenting it in a leaflet, video and art installation. The art came in the form of a series of 25 ceramic tiles made by Matt Raw, using words taken from the timeline that the teenagers created to tell the story of the mill from building to present day. The tiles are still there, dotted around the building, if you fancy a trail. This was one of the sample tiles that Matt created prior to the final run, which he gave me as a gift when the project was done. 

_____

Posted as part of Kerenza's Bloggers' Art Gallery. Please do visit hers, and other galleries too.