ELEVEN DAYS TO THE FALL OF TROY

March 8^th is your last chance to see Troy: myth and reality at the British Museum. https://www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/troy-myth-and-reality

The show as exciting as 2004 film Troy. In fact a poster with Brad Pitt as a delicious Achilles and Miss Bloom as the cheeky Paris is part of the display. The BM’s exhibition might not gross the film’s box office‎ of ‎$497.4 million. However it does serve as an opportunity for the BM to bring out and display some Roman marble masonry and Athenian bric-a-brac. Chatsworth House and the V&A have generously chipped in to help us enjoy some interesting things on which to gaze (over the shoulders of the hoards).

The Wounded Achilles, on loan from The Devonshire Collections - Chatsworth House 

Delightful Trojan Bric-a-brac

The British Museum remains a delight. Seek out Room 67 - Korea 300 BC to present if you want a real and peaceful treat. Avoid any part of the museum at ground level  - crowded beyond imagination most days.

PAINTING THE LIBRARY

Every couple of months I run an afternoon art sessions in two local public libraries.



The idea, originally, was to come in an talk about my work, it became readily apparent that people are keener on having a go themselves, ask advice and try out materials that are new to them. (Rather than have me talk about me).



So now I pitch up with paper, materials, water jars and an two simple table sets to draw and the assembled group just get to it. Brilliant!

I never cease to be amazed and excited about what people achieve: lovely, expressive work.

THE ROAD TO CROESGOCH

The road to Croes-goch from Abereiddy: pastel sketch for a painting

THE ROAD TO CROES-GOCH

Croes-goch lies on one of the pilgrimage routes to St David's cathedral. Nearby, at Mesur y Dorth, a specially carved stone, indicates a spot where people shared their bread before the last stage of their journey. The stone is still clearly visible just to the north of the crossroads. 

The name of the village is thought to originate from a fierce battle, which occurred near the village. The fight resulted in so great a slaughter of men the myth tells river of blood that formed a cross, Croes-Goch translated mean red cross.

The leading painter John Knapp Fisher lived and worked here in Trevigan Cottage until his death in 2015. The cottage is gallery is often open selling prints of his work.  I am greatly inspired by his work, paintings that capture the skies and seas and villages of this remarkable country, characteristic are a tiny collection of cottages, perhaps a chapel, crouched together under a dark sky.

DRYSLWYN CASTLE: PHEW WHAT A VIEW

Dryslwyn Castle  Acrylic on Board  30 x 20 cm

From the top of a steep hill on which perches what is left of Dryslwyn Castle you can see the wonderful oxbow curves of the Afon Tywi (River Towy). 

Seventy-five precious miles of lovely waterway, this is the longest river entirely flowing within Wales from the Cambrian Mountains, through steep forests of Tywi and south-westwards into dear Carmarthenshire. Here the river meets up with the River Taf together they into Carmarthen Bay.  

Its lower estuary is guarded by Lansteffan Castle, another Norman bastion of which there are so many hereabouts.

Famed for big sea trout each spring,  Salmo trutta swim up stream to breed in the tributaries. The Towy boasts a population of otters and grey seals are common in the lower reaches, chasing the sea trout and salmon upstream! 

In 1932 angler Alec Allen, fishing the Tywi near Nantgaredig, caught by far the biggest fish ever taken on rod and line in fresh water in Britain. He landed a sturgeon (Acipwienser sturio) weighing 388 lb. and nine feet two inches in length. 

SOLVA: LOOK TOWARDS THE SEA

Solva Harbour: lifeline and leisure portnow

Solva harbour must hold many stories with its connections to the sea hereabouts. It was a lifeline for the remote village of Solva high on the headland before the road to St. Davids was built.  In these parts the entire coast comes with its chronicles of shipwrecks; for this was once a busy port where it was possible in the 1800’s to buy passage to America.

OUT FOR A DUCK

Every year on Easter Monday Solva hosts a Duck Race for charity. The ducks are released into the River Solva near Middle Mill and float down stream to Solva harbour. The winner is the first to cross under the footbridge in lower Solva car park.

BLACK DAB-FILLED SEA

In June 2014 Solva was used as a location for the filming of Dylan Thomas's Under Milkwood.

'And you alone can hear the invisible starfall, 

the darkest-before dawn minutely dew grazed

stir of the black, dab-filled sea where the Arethusa, the

Curlew and the Skylark, the Zanzibar, Rhiannon, the Rover, the Cormorant and The Star of Wales tilt and ride.'

Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood: A Play for Voices (1954)

ABEREIDDY ALL ALONE

Abereiddy Beach Pebbles and Slate

It was one of those days in winter when it never seems to get light. We pulled up at Abereiddy beach. Close by its small hamlet of houses and cottages huddled together for warm. 

We walked down to the water’s edge and back, across lots and lots and lots of lovely pebbles and extraordinarily dark sand made of pounded grey slate. Slate mining was once a big business on this part of the coast. 

Ruins of a small group of slate houses known as The Street remain near the beach, their stones peering across at you through the headland grass. These were built for the quarry workers of the ‘Blue Lagoon’ only abandoned after a flood in the early 1900’s.

 The ‘Blue Lagoon’ itself is a beautiful little harbour – the hamlet’s breached quarry – round the corner just to the north. Its name ‘blue’ because when the sun does shine the slate under the sea causes it to shimmer all shades of turquoise.

Duw Bendithia

RETIREMENT ACCOMMODATION?

The Charles. Start saving now.

Another piece inspired by my favourite photographer New Yorker, Professor Lehrer.
This is a exciting tower on 1st Avenue that offers some interesting accommodation options.
Single apartments sell for around $6,750,000, and as you might imagine lots of space: full-floor residences that open up to over 3,300 square feet of space.
However you can never have enough room, witness the gross developments here in Beaconsfield. The Charles Building outshines them:

The WALL STREET JOURNAL reported 
'A family that buys together stays together. On New York’s Upper East Side, buyers related to each other have purchased a total of five units that span the top six floors of the Charles condominium, creating two massive units, for a total of $58.635 million.'

Copyright ©2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.