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WORDS, IDEAS - AND A FEW SURPRISES.
WORDS, IDEAS - AND A FEW SURPRISES. 20th March 2017 It’s a week exactly since the Words by the Water began to pack up and leave town; a week since I did my last chairing; a week since I assumed the recovery position and retreated into a darkened room to think. The festival certainly delivered what it promised – words and ideas in plenty. As usual it came full of surprises. Richard Cohen arrived for the very first talk of the festival – How to write like Tolstoy – with a long wooden box which he had brought with him by car, by air and by Virgin t... Read More »»
PERCY KELLY - A RETROSPECTIVE
PERCY KELLY - A RETROSPECTIVE 7th January 2017 In what promises to be a turbulent year of uncertainty I am looking forward to a crack inh the clouds and a bit of joy.. I am launching this newsletterl from the Percy Kelly web site because September 23rd 2017 - January 28th 2018 will be the year of Workington born Percy Kelly.   2018 will be his centenary year. and I am curating an exhibition of his work that I have been researching and gathering for the last 2 or 3 years. I am now so excited to be able to give dates, Tullie House Museum and A... Read More »»
FLOWERS FOR CHRISTMAS
FLOWERS FOR CHRISTMAS 16th December 2016 Thank you so much everyone for such a quick and intelligent response to my mystery flowers. They are Chincherinchee or Star of Bethlehem (proper name is Ornithogalum thyrsoides ) They are known also as a florists nightmare as they last a very long time as we have discovered. They are still cheerfully flowering as they work their way to the top. It is now 6 weeks since I bought them but I cant find any more  which is a shame. Maybe they have been boycotted by florists.  I have now ordered bulbs b... Read More »»
PIT STOP
PIT STOP 24th June 2015 Would you like to see what £2.4 million looks like - no not in your hand but in terms of what it can do?  A small flat in central London perhaps; a Picasso painting; a few luxury cars; a Scottish Island? But I mean something everybody can enjoy.  You can see it at  the beautiful newly renovated Haig Pit by the Percy Kelly Trail from Whitehaven to St Bees.  You can’t miss it. It’s black and yellow and still has the winding shaft and headgear which you can see for miles. Haig Pit was the last and ... Read More »»
THE POWER OF PERCY
THE POWER OF PERCY 30th March 2015 It was good to see Percy Kelly’s little oil, Bridge in Winter, hold its own among some big names in the recent auction at Christies in London. It sold for £3000. If PK can sit next to Christopher Wood, Keith Vaughan, Edward Seago and other Twentieth Century luminaries, he is getting to where he deserves to be. Had he been less self- destructive in his lifetime he would be further on but this is how he wanted it. ‘I cannot paint for monetary gain,’ he wrote in reply to my letter asking for an exh... Read More »»
CUMBRIAN BRIDGE IN WINTER
CUMBRIAN BRIDGE IN WINTER 7th March 2015 An oil painting by Percy Kelly is up for auction at Christie's, London on19th March.  Kelly died in 1993 and since his 2 exhibitions at Messums in Cork Street, his work has now begun to trickle through London Auction Houses and is making good prices. Bridge in Winter was first exhibited in a sell-out show of 23 oil paintings at Castlegate House in 2002 on behalf of Kelly's first wife Audrey who discovered them while clearing out her loft due to a leaking pipe. She had forgotten they were up ther... Read More »»
THE ARTS AND THE FREEDOM TO CHOOSE.
THE ARTS AND THE FREEDOM TO CHOOSE. 12th January 2015 After a terrible start to the year for writers, artists and the whole of mankind, let us all continue to express ourselves freely without fear and protect our right to do so. There are 2 interesting events for your diary in Cumbria this spring: The programme for the annual Festival of words and ideas -  Words by the Water  6th – 15th March is available www.wordsbythewater.org.uk and is jam packed with stimulating stuff. This is at Theatre by the Lake in Keswick. I’ll keep you posted but some thi... Read More »»
NOT JUST A ROBIN
NOT JUST A ROBIN 24th December 2014 This is not just a Robin –nor is it a round robin prevalent at this time of year - it’s a Percy Kelly robin. Like so much of Kelly’s work it is the essence of simplicity. But this robin has attitude. It has character. It’s nothing like the feathered bird which is on the bird feeder outside right now.  Yet we all recognise it as a robin. Simplicity is hard to achieve. To gouge out lino to make this 5 colour print was a complex process. No wonder he had to start in September. No wonder he got anno... Read More »»
BETTER THAN PENGUINS
BETTER THAN PENGUINS 26th November 2014 It’s a year since the 6 Percy Kelly trails along the west Cumbrian coast were launched. Mainly selling in the Cumbrian  galleries and on line they are proving very popular. Of the 2000 boxes printed there are now just 200 left. So there are potentially 1800 people walking around the coastal towns and villages being guided by Percy’s paintings and drawings although I suspect that some have been purchased simply for the interest in his work – the buyers doing a virtual walk from their armchairs. H... Read More »»
THE POET, THE ARTIST AND THE SCIENTIST 5th September 2014 There is a very small exhibition of Percy Kelly letters at the Cumbria Archive Centre in Scotch Street Whitehaven at the moment. It contains 7 table top panels telling the story of Kelly’s life specifically in relation to the letters he wrote to his friend Joan David, a scientist, who supported him in the last ten years of his life and his friend the poet Norman Nicholson. There are three small display cases of his original illustrated letters to them both. The material was deposited in the Arch... Read More »»