A Sunny Storm - and a late Valentine wish

Many of us have been having weird weather lately.  Heavy snow in Tokyo, searing heat in Sydney, freezing conditions in DC, drought in California - and rain, rain, rain in England.   Yesterday I was bustling to and fro in SE London and the weather was beautifully sunny, for a change-  till I noticed that the sky was starting to look ominous in Bermondsey Street, SE1 .....

By the time I reached London Bridge, the heavens had opened. 

But the funny thing was, the sun was still shining brightly, and it illuminated the raindrops and brollies, and made quite a remarkable sight. 

A lot of people seemed to be quite enjoying sheltering and watching the storm

and even finding it fun, despite being whipped by wind too.

and the rain became increasingly violent.

This lady below had a fancy bunch of flowers to deliver, but told me she didn't want them to be beaten down by the water

and only stepped out as the rain began to diminish

The sun continued the shine, and soon, it won the battle with the rain, 

the umbrellas disappeared, and people set off again on their daily business.

I went back to Bermondsey Street, where the sun reflected on the rain sodden buildings in wonderful pastel colours, more like a painting than a photo - the image is not retouched

Soon everyone was out and about again as if nothing had happened ....

And the flowers under the big old tree in the park were happy - they love all this rain. 

I hope your weather isn't causing you too many problems, and that you'll have a good week! 

PS  I didn't get around to posting on Valentine's as I have been rushing around like a headless chicken, as they say. I had intended to post this song, as it is special in our family.   It was written for one of my daughters by her partner (who is NOT the singer, Lee Ryan). I'd like to say it came out on Valentines day but it didn't, he wrote it for her when they first met.   They are still together and happy.  I suppose I'm biased, even though it wasn't written for me, but it's one of my favourite love songs, so tender and melodious.  

I am so sorry that I didn't get around to posting it on the correct day, but even though it's not Valentine's any more, I hope you can share it with a loved one, either in everyday life or in the heart!

Art by Offenders.

Oh my ears and whiskers, I am so behind with everything. I meant to blog about the Koestler Trust Art By Offenders show long before now, and suddenly I've found that it's ending in a week!  If you're in London, take a look - it's free, and it's in the gallery at the bottom of the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank, SE1.
The Koestler Trust is a charity which in its own words, is all about "inspiring offenders to take part in the arts, work for achievement and transform their lives".  Their website here is very interesting, I've realised. I had never really looked into what they did before.

Anyway the picture above is called "Lowry on Prozac" and I love it - it's so full of humour and life.

I was impressed by this detailed and striking piece of textile art. It is called "Tribal Nations" and its maker, William Andrew Ross, of HM Prison Channings Wood, Devon, says that he has been developing his art skills for 25 years, in various media. They include oils, sculpture, graphics, 3-D computer modelling and animation. He hopes to make a living when he gets out.  He is obviously a talented craftsman as he has won the Worshipful Company of Weavers Silver Award for this piece, and he didn't even mention textiles in his list of crafts!

The work on display isn't only by prisoners. It's also by people in secure mental hospitals, and people who are confined in deportation centres, like this haunting photo (below) by Mukhtar Noor from the Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre.

(The picture isn't really skewed like this - I snapped it an angle.)

I found this one rather touching. It's called "Walking Away from the Rain" by Leroy Francis of HM Prison Stafford.  He wrote "I thought how walking in the rain is generally considered a miserable experience, full of grey, black and muddy brown colours. I wanted to recall the memory of walking in the rain as a child. It was a happy, fun experience, and I decided to portray this by using bright, happy colours."  And indeed he has, but the person in the photo has his back to us, and is walking away.

I thought the picture below was very striking - at first I was imagining it as a variation on Edvard Munch's "The Scream" but then I laughed when I saw the title, which is "No Chips Again!" The artist, Pedro Murray, of HM Prison Wandsworth, was making a point about prison food.

One of the weirdest and most striking of the pictures was called "Cognitive Distortive Reality" by Anon. His picture has won him a painting scholarship.  I can't reproduce it large enough but it is full of peculiar detail - on one side of the prisoner all is well, on the other side, all is NOT well with the same people

A mirror is supplied so you can read some of the back-to-front writing. Here's a detail:

There is more than a touch of surrealism in this ironic sculpture, showing a dog as a judge, riding on a horse which is both a clock and a lamp.  It's called "Sitting Proud" by Peter Thomas, of Merseyside Probation Service. An extraordinary, eye catching piece by a talented craftsman - I wonder what the story is behind it.

My favourite picture was powerful and disturbing. I'm sorry I didn't get a decent photo of it - there is a line of light reflecting off the glass. It's also by Anon, but  I would say that this image is the work of a really gifted artist, whoever he is.  I would absolutely not like to meet the character portrayed here, because you can see exactly what sort of a person he must be.   As the artist says, "See the paint roar!"
 

 
After looking at these, and many other excellent works, I thought about the people who created them and their locked up lives. I don't know what they have done, but I'll find out more about the Koestler Trust, anyway.   And I left the exhibition, feeling very glad to be free, and walked the few steps to look at the Thames at Festival Pier
 

 
and felt very grateful that I could be out and about in a great place like London on a nice autumn evening.
 

.
Art by Offenders is on at the Southbank Centre till 20 November 2011.

Yes, it's the South Bank - Van Gogh, Sunflowers, Cycling Lizards and the Eye

No, it wasn't a flat picture. This is a life sized 3D painted SCULPTURE of Vincent Van Gogh and it is based on his own famous self portrait.     I saw it the other day in Gabriel's Wharf, in London's South Bank.   It was really disconcerting, and the reflections in the glass make his head seem a strange shape, which adds to the odd effect.

Gabriel's Wharf is just East of the National Theatre, and is part of the Coin St. development.  The good people at Coin St. were the first to spot the potential of this area.  It's strange to think that others didn't, because these days, the walk from Westminster Bridge to Tower Bridge is a highlight of any trip to London.

There is so much to look at - from ingenious street entertainers and "human statues" 

to major attractions like the London Eye (which we went on.)

In summer and at weekends there are often festivals and all kinds of free entertainment on the South Bank.  We saw a free street dance class at the National Theatre. You could participate yourself, or else sit on deckchairs or on giant astroturf armchairs

and relax, and/or watch everyone having fun.

The folks at Coin St. spotted the potential of the area when it was semi-derelict, back in 1984.  This was before the developers of expensive restaurants and fancy apartments moved in, and frankly you'd have had to be mad to want to live there in those days, because it was a wasteland of broken down factories and abandoned enterprises. 

The unimaginative plan at the time was to redevelop the riverside site as office blocks (and one or two did get built - they're now dead zones).   But a group of far sighted local people formed the social enterprise and development trust of Coin Street.  They developed a neighbourhood of public housing, with space for families and children to live and play, and with space for small businesses.

Gabriel's Wharf is full of small (and good) craft shops reasonably priced (and fun) places to eat and other things.

And that's great - places like this are always fun to browse around. But what makes this place special is that it's the stretch of riverside which also has many major national entertainment venues and national attractions. As well as the little enclave of Gabriel's Wharf, and the National Theatre, you'll find Tate Modern, The British Film Institute, the South Bank Centre, which is London's major concert hall venues of the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room. There are cinemas, including a large IMAX, many renowned restaurants, good eateries and splendid shops, an amphitheatre and ... oh, all kinds of other things, temporary and permanent.   

Very near Gabriel's Wharf, the South Bank Centre is holding its 1951 festival, based around the Festival of Britain. I will try and blog about this later, because it's very interesting - and there's also a very nice gourmet food market currently in residence on the space behind the hall.

Meanwhile, though, their seaside and countryside celebrations include a beautiful temporary garden of fruit and vegetables amidst the concrete canyons by the Hayward Gallery (oh, yes, I forgot to mention that - currently showing one of my un-favourite artists, the self-publicising Tracey Emin, but it does have some spectacular shows at other times) .   In the garden,  I admired the gorgeous double hollyhocks, which seemed particularly beautiful in bright sunshine, as it was a lovely day.

And, since this post started with Van Gogh, here are some sunflowers from that little nearby garrden. 

 You can see Van Gogh's actual sunflower painting in the National Gallery which is not too far away.  Although I love Van Gogh's paintings, I myself prefer real sunflowers.

I think we're very lucky in London to have a space like this, where a short walk along the river can reveal so many new, unexpected and ever-changing delights.

The Leg

I was walking along the South Bank in London, just by City Hall, past groups of people sitting around enjoying the sunshine, listening to music in the outdoor auditorium, hurrying off to do some shopping, eating their lunchtime sandwiches,  and so on - when all of a sudden this leg rose slowly and silently from behind a pile of stacked up slabs.

Various ideas rose in my head along the lines of ... "Hey, is that a real leg?" 

And "It's naked - is its owner wearing any clothes?"

And ... well.

If you look closely you'll see it's actually 2 legs. They belonged to a woman doing yoga on a low wall.   Wearing clothes.  And nobody, apart from me, was taking any notice of her.

Just a typical moment in London.