Bath looks best when the sun gets lower in the sky, warming up the gorgeous Bathstone and blessing the gallery with its angular rays. Here you can see in the background Ralph Allen’s townhouse. Ralph Allen was a post-office entrepreneur and vigorous promoter of the aesthetic qualities of this most attractive sandstone.

 

Simon Allen  Shadows Form I  12ct white Gold Leaf on Carved Wood £2,700
Paul Mount Tetrak, Stainless Steel (three parts) Ht. 28 cm W.38 cm Unique. £14,000
Jaejun Lee Various Works

 

Opposite the gallery now is the wonderful Toppings bookshop. I pop in there before or after work.  You never know who you might run into….

Beth Carter  Reading Minotaur V,  Bronze, Ed. 15  53 x 40 x 29 cm.

And  now it really is that time of year….

Late August, given heavy rain and sun
For a full week, the blackberries would ripen.
At first, just one, a glossy purple clot
Among others, red, green, hard as a knot.
You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet
Like thickened wine: summer’s blood was in it
Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for
Picking. Then red ones inked up and that hunger
Sent us out with milk cans, pea tins, jam-pots
Where briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots.
Round hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills
We trekked and picked until the cans were full,
Until the tinkling bottom had been covered
With green ones, and on top big dark blobs burned
Like a plate of eyes. Our hands were peppered
With thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard’s.

We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre.
But when the bath was filled we found a fur,
A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache.
The juice was stinking too. Once off the bush
The fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour.
I always felt like crying. It wasn’t fair
That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot.
Each year I hoped they’d keep, knew they would not.

Autumnal are the colours in this Mark Johnston painting:

 

The Mark Johnston works  are picked up nicely by the reflectiove qualities of the Simon Allen wall sculptures:

 

The Jaejun Lee ceramics continue to impress. This young Korean potter will go far !!
Here is Jeajun on the opening day of his exhibition:

And Mark Johnston, next to his large Canvas ‘Creek’  Oil on Linen 140 x 160 cm.  POA

 

And finally, it has been a great week for watching kingfishers on the Frome and Avon.  In one particular spot there seems to be a whole realm of them, a young energetic and most colourful bunch. You often hear their chirrup before they appear.

I do not know what gorgeous thing
the bluebird keeps saying,
his voice easing out of his throat,
beak, body into the pink air
of the early morning. I like it
whatever it is. Sometimes
it seems the only thing in the world
that is without dark thoughts.
Sometimes it seems the only thing
in the world that is without
questions that can’t and probably
never will be answered, the
only thing that is entirely content
with the pink, then clear white
morning and, gratefully, says so.

What Gorgeous Thing by Mary Oliver

Please note the gallery is closed on Sunday 18 September.
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As Always, thank you for reading.
Aidan.