one of their own needed to wait its turn while perched in the winter flowering cherry.
A long tailed tit joined
blue tits tucking into the suet balls.
Soon after 11 we left Aaron to his work in the garden and drove to The First Gallery in Bitterne where Margery and Paul were hosting their 45th Christmas Show.
Margery herself exhibited a number of paintings including this Barn Bird II, its dynamic composition perhaps suggestive of Piet Mondrian.
Here is Billiard Players by one of her favourites, Eric Meadus;
and Cockerel by Joanna Williams.
Crafts of various natures share space with the paintings.
Ingenious automata,
welded ironwork, like the impressively elegant ‘The Violinist’,
and inviting handmade knitwear are specific examples.
Here Jackie takes delight in discovering
the watercolour ‘In Jackie’s Garden’ by John Jones who has produced a fine composition from various elements depicted during his sessions in our garden. Naturally we bought it – at a generous discount.
This evening we dined on medium rare fillet steaks; duchess potatoes; sautéed chestnut mushrooms and red peppers; and al dente green beans, with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Merlot.
An exhibition of paintings by Hilda Margery Clarke to celebrate her 90th year. She was born in Manchester and learnt to paint through the guidance of L.S.Lowry, with whom she remained life-long friends until his death in 1976. She moved to Southampton in 1954, and studied drawing under the excellent tuition of Peter Folkes at Southampton Art College. Since 1965, Clarke has exhibited locally and in London, and remained an important part of the city’s art scene. In 1984, she established “The First” Gallery in her Bitterne home, consolidating ten earlier annual mixed shows there, as a venue to support other serious artists, only latterly promoting her own work.
Her subject matter includes the world around us and beyond, glimpsed and imagined, interpreted with compassion and warm humour, evident in her interest in people. The exhibition will be accompanied by a small display of works from the collection by artists that have inspired Clarke, including L.S.Lowry, Richard Eurich and Eric Meadus.
Most of you will know by now that the artist is our dear friend Margery, some of whose work has already featured on this blog.
Although I haven’t really done full justice to the painter’s colours, I think readers will get the picture from this selection of prolific creativity spanning such a long, active, life. The exhibition was so well attended that it was not possible to photograph all the labels without intruding on visitors’ privacy. Unfortunately there was no catalogue, but Margery’s son Paul may have the time to offer supplementary detail. (Please see Paul’s invaluable series of comments below, for which I am most grateful)
Rachel Adams a photographer covering the event for the Southampton Echo, was kind enough to duplicate one of her poses of Margery and two friends with my camera.
Afterwards we dined at BrewHouse & Kitchen microbrewery and restaurant in Highfield, Southampton. This large establishment was very full. It was a good thing that Elizabeth had booked a table. Dutch, Belgian, and English beers were consumed by my sister, Jackie, and me respectively. My main meal was spicy cajun gumbo served with long grain rice and the addition of a few of the chips provided with the ladies’ special burgers. We all enjoyed magnificent sundaes which would ideally have taken a month in which to eat them.
We are quite optimistic that a large number of further buckets of water applied by Jackie this morning has finally cleared our unsavoury septic tank pipes.
This afternoon we took two large orange bags of rooted bamboo to the Efford Recycling Centre. Now we have no excuse for filling more green refuse, which we will first have to cut.
Our dinner this evening was enjoyed at Daniels Fish and chip restaurant in Highcliffe. We both chose cod and chips. Jackie supplemented hers with mushy peas and mozarella sticks; my addition was pickled onions.
