Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Boxing Day Happiness Experiment entry


Paying an early morning visit to George Michael's childhood home in East Finchley eight hours after his sad passing was announced

Long walk from Clapton to Victoria Park, Hackney with N under an azure winter sky

Reading in the winter sunshine after my jog (water-rock on) - some Jack Reacher pulp fiction




Christmas Day Happiness Experiment entry


Nighttime tour through an empty London with D & N including Primrose Hill (with its red light punctuated view) & Waterloo Bridge

Cooking a turkey for the family which was just so

Placing some flowers (kindly given by the florist at the end of our road) with U on the memorial for Arlington (Rowton) House, Camden Town, as mentioned by Patrick Kavanagh (a favourite of Bronagh) in 'The Green Fool' - home of many a solitary, lost Irishman

Thursday, December 08, 2016

Paul Nash - Tate Britain

1889-1946
pantheistic
Slade

Influence of Blake
Redon - Symbolisme

Wittenham Clumps
13
watercolour ink chalk

We are making a new world 18
from the ashes of destruction...
blown back to prehistory

the menin road
Nature still triumphs

after the battle
18
waterc & ink
Munch

ypres salient at night
18
whistler - palette
nativity - star(burst)

landscape always eclipses figures in these works

Ardizzone

wood on the downs 29/30
saw de chirico in 28 - key influence - uninhabited surreality
ben nicholson palette - mushroom & grey

night tide 22 ink wc
vorticists

winter sea 25-37
full abstraction

the shore 23 leeds
perfect balance of abstract & figurative

nostalgic ls 23-38
ernst
devereux

surrealism
cubism

he has Nature as his core - his whole oeuvre revolves around landscape

Unit One 33-35
exhib touring 34/5 mayor 4/34
edited Herbert Read
Hepworth Nicholson Moore Burra Wadsworth

Tristram Hillier
pylons 33

Wadsworth
dux et comes 1 32
organic abstract forms cf moore

b nicholson
1933 milk & plain choc
scraping/etching powerful
great abstract sense - sculptural
scultpure + collage
Picasso

surrealist objects & poems exhib London Gal 37

eileen agar
ladybird 36
nude in seethru cape

ernst exhib mayor 6/33

forest 36/7
wood
glove stretchers

wood on the hill 37
sculpture transposed to painting

only egg 36/7
box backed by photo
cornell
"boxed assemblage" = surrealism

found objects

landscapes with large foreground object cf okeefe

int surrealist exhib London 6/36 burlington gals

nash V okeefe

equivalents for the megaliths 35 tate
ernst
magritte

ls fr a dream
36/8 tate
magritte
okeefe

battle of ger 44 iwm
bold palette
epic cf John Martin
perfect balance fig & abs

totesmeer 40/1 tate
tate book before school
perfect blend of ls & surr

ls of the briwn fungus 43
spare, stripped down
distinctive palette
clump cf tomb trees h heath Adam Z last wk

pillar & moon 32-42
ls & architdcture

ls of the moons last phase
44 liverpool walker
clumps
rouuseau

equinox = equal day & night

ls of the vernal equinox 43 *
looser command
deeply surrealist

Friday, November 25, 2016

Todays Happiness Experiment entry

Delivering Masterclass on Short Form Video in Site Gallery, Sheffield overlooking the pop domes

Visit to Graves Gallery for small photography exhibition (Street Photos) after which, on the street, I chatted about freemason signs & antiquities with a benign drunkard

Low yellow winter sunlight bathing the red brick and towers of the city (after meeting with Milan)

Street View: Photographs of Urban Life (Graves Gallery, Sheffield)

cartier-bresson
palermo 72
2 boys playing with wheel, hearse in bg
life & death momento mori - dynamism of kids vs parked hearse

garry winogrand
american legion convention dallas 64
ignoring amputee in ground
amputee in iwn dimension like nuck drake in my photo

fountains fell yorks dales 3/8/08
simon roberts
couple picnicing by road
tranquil - watching nature on own terms

colin jones
children c75
skipping along foot of wall
backdrop of solid brick
shadow of house opposite adds mystery

sheffield = city of seven hills
paul nash did photography in last 14 years
martin parr did series on bad weather britain

Thursday, November 24, 2016

happiness experiment entries

tues 22 nov

wisdom from roger g at mentoring session in st pancras

chat at october gallery with james birch about christine keeler - kind gift of mayor catalogue

ciggie chat with photographer ray stevenson on stairs by rock archive (on my old stomping ground near carleton rd) about bowie, pistols, who, crosby s&n etc. as I collected my miles & trane photo (which i promptly took down to frameworks to finish)

wed 23

calm chat with N after the storm

shakshuka in HGS strip park

meeting with meagan the pagan at old st about edin tv fest

Sunday, November 20, 2016

Estonian Happiness Experiment entries

Thurs 17 Nov
Lon - Helsinki - Tallinn

late lunch alone in a candlelit restaurant (art nouveau style) with Amos Oz & Louis Armstrong

working in the flow on my Tallinn keynote on the plane to Helsinki

initial wander into Tallinn old town, serenaded by a heavy metal guitarist, freezing despite his long hair

Fri 18

Delivered keynote address to mark 90th anniversary of broadcasting in Estonia in Tallinn University (on stage where Umberto Eco spoke) in front of Chairman of ERR, Head of Baltic Film School & 250 others

Evening walking tour of upper old town with Juri, an Estonian TV personality - enjoying the atmospheric lighting

My 1st Thanksgiving Dinner at the house of the Deputy Chief of Mission of the US Embassy where I met DCMs & other diplomatic types from Germany, Norway, Sweden, France, Spain, Georgia, Austria & others

Sat 19

Ran workshop at Baltic Film Media Arts & Communication School with Alessandro

Siesta to Kind of Blue

Vegging out with Grand Tour ep 1 in hotel room

Sun 20
Tallinn - Helsinki - Lon

Inspired to resume writing When Sparks Fly 2 in wake of workshop - wrote almost 2,000 words on journey home

Reading Judas by Amos

Listening to Natural Mystic

Thursday, November 17, 2016

exhilerating dream

dreamt at about 4am today. I use a wooden item, the spatula in our kitchen but larger, as a snowboard. the dream is the ride downhill. it is viscerally thrilling, slightly scary at times, white with snow, fast - twice i lose visibility in the driving snow and have to take a chance my blind direction is ok. I finally halt in such a blind upwards ramp or bridge. when i halt and some visibility returns there are a few people in the vicinity, New York street workers in hard hats. i awake with the exhilaration of the ride.

Sunday, November 06, 2016

Coincidence

9.X.16
School near Olympic Stadium where Dylan had Frantic Assembly audition had a quotation on the wall from Ulysses by Tennyson (possibly "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield")

Podcast (10?.X.16) Richard Flanagan on The Narrow Road to the Deep North in which the protagonist constantly refers to the same poem

I was trying to recall where I'd come across the poem at the school and it cropped up while jogging within a day or two (on a podcast I'd already listened to)




Saturday, November 05, 2016

National Gallery

Van Gogh - Sunflowers 88
Distinctive pale lemon bg
Narrow palette - yellow/mustard green
Fantasy decorative piece

Gauguin - Vase of flowers 96
Wide palette
Aspect of death & decay
Less abstract than VG
And less epic

Braque - Olive Tree 07
Style derived from Gauguin/VG/Post-exp
No black
Pastel palette
Curved lines not hard edges of Cezanne

George Bellows - Men of the Docks 1912
Claustrophobic NY composition
Cf Cez??
Contrast with France - epic Modernist urban

Surprise - Rousseau
91
Is Tiger surprised by lightening or human?
Blake
Tiger not properly grounded
Rain v effective
Michael Franks

Klimt - hermine gallia
04
Cf Gainsborough
Cf Sargent
Grey & pink palette Cf Whistler
Raised jewels are a flaw

Matisse - Greta Moll
08
Same held hands pose as above
Almost a caricature face yet a strong impression of the woman

Seurat - bathers at asnieres 84
Epic
Urban bucolic
Monumental, statuesque - classical
Strong L > R movement
Individual faces yet universalised - 4 figures are generic, 3 particular
Mirror-like water effect
Coherent palette, luminous

Monet - Waterlilies, setting sun c07
Smooth reflection layer v rough actual layer
Floating reality

Money - Gare St Lazare 77
Solid iron v ephemeral steam
Nature free zone Urban modernity

Thursday, November 03, 2016

Flesh - York Art Gallery 3/11/16

1 FLESH

Francesco Francia - Lucretia c1508
Vivacious light palette

Italian School - Pieta 1575-1642
Right arm = Classical death cf Chatterton

Style of Tosa School
Kusozu: death of a noble lady & decay of her body
Cf Sam Taylor Wood
Sequence of 9 images

Bacon
Henrietta Moraes on blue couch
65
(Manc art gal)
Cf Soutine Carcass of meat
Cf Picasso - facets of face

Kossoff
Seated nude 63
Cf Auerbach - thick paint technique

Freud
Girl holding foot
87 etching

Masterful fine hatching technique

Degas
Study of girls head 1870s
Interesting palette - strokes of pale green & yellow

2 ANATOMIES

Jacob Kramer
Clay 28
Leeds Art Gal

Slade
Foreshadowing of Holocaust

3 STILL LIFE

Helen Chadwick
The philosophers fear of death
89

Infinity or hourglass
Hairy belly v chicken flesh

4 ABSTRACT FLESH

end

BURTON GALLERY

LS Lowry
Clifford's tower
52/3
Linking the ages
Jewish resonance

Arthur Studd 1863-1819
Went to Samoa & Tahiti with Gauguin

Robert Medley 05-94
Bicyclists agst blue bg 51
Festival of Britain commission
Sketchy black outlines very 50s

Hockney
Egyptian Head Disappearing into Descending Clouds
61

Lightness
Carelessness of youth

Wilhelmina Barns-Graham
Orange Form 56
Nicholson & Hepworth /St Ives
Beautiful subtle textures

Nicholson
1934 (1934)
Cf Picasso still-lifes
Complexity of texture v simplicity of form

Gwen John
Young woman in red shawl
20
Cf Schiele - hands
Wonderfully subtle palette

Jacob Epstein was friend of Paul Robeson
Visited Harlem dancehalls together

Harold gosney
Reverie
2015 oak

Grew out of the shape and cracks of the wood

Fungai
Dead Christ supported by 2 angels
1480-1520

Fingers in wound so powerful

End

Friday, October 28, 2016

Micro-story

A brown man walking past with his two young children in the grounds of a hospital. The boy is younger, the girl (in her bright pink puffer jacket) is about six. The man laughs as he walks past, explaining she had just read and asked about the sign back there. It says: Sexual Health Clinic.

Yesterday's HEE

Sneaking in to Christ Church Southgate to see the Burne-Jones windows - beautiful faces, exquisite textures

Reading in the church yard carpeted in yellow leaves

Cinema trip with D to Everyman Muswell Hill - laughing at my Dr Strange joke going back to the car

...and this was the worst day of my life

Sunday, October 23, 2016

This weekend's Happiness Experiment entries

Fri 21 Oct

Invitation & hug of friendship from Neville B

Glass of stout in Exmouth Market with Matt C

Jack Reacher popcorn movie with N & D

Sat 22 Oct

Autumn walk in Totteridge - godsky over the medical institute

Quiet of an empty cinema with U

Listening to book podcasts on my jog

Sun 23 Oct

Vanilla ice cream at Kenwood near yellow trees

Afternoon sleep in the sunshine falling across our bed

Reading The Circle in the garden with my water-rock first thing

Thursday, October 20, 2016

Today's HEE

Bumping in to Bertrand M & coffee in Broadwick St

Calm dinner with N at Lebanese in Southgate

Thinking up The Glass Bowl at Hospital club

Yesterday's HEE

Touching the Christine Keeler chair (at V&A You Say You Want a Revolution exhibition)

D asking first question to Michael Fassbender (about variety of his roles) at The Light Between Oceans BAFTA screening

Parrots and various birds flying past round window

Saturday, October 15, 2016

Recent Happiness Experiment Entries

Tues 11 Oct

Laughing at Jewish joke with N & Ma

Warmth of Max Gog

Gerald Laing (spontaneous visit to) exhibition at Fine Art Society

Wed 12 Oct

Yom K service at Clore Manor with Ma - lifting the scrolls

Walking & talking in orchard with N & D

Reading Jonah & commentary in memory of Dad

Thurs 13 Oct

Friendly chat with Tim Lovejoy in Camden French cafe

Working out film festival with Claire P at Stolle

Connecting with Ronen after all these years (met at 13 & 14)

Fri 14 Oct

Lunch with Scott & Katherine in Gt Marlborough St where people I knew kept walking by

Thinking up The Photo tv idea with Dave F

Friday night gathering at Clive & Jeanie's with Jonathan, Carl, Alexis, Jackie & Jack

Thursday, September 08, 2016

Today's Happiness Experiment entry - Cambridge with N

Walking out to & around Girton at sundown with N

Walking along the Cam to lunch in the Orchard at Granchester (including local orange & clementine juice)

Looking at & discussing pictures in the Fitzwilliam with N including Renoir's gust of wind 

Creative Accounting #322

Doobie Brothers = Earth Wind & Fire + 0

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Two days of Happiness Experiment entries - Summer Days of Freedom

Wed 30 Aug

BAFTA & Chelsea Arts Club

Liverpool poet Brian Patten reciting a pie to Binia & me in the garden of the Chelsea Arts Club

Sharing the Rachman story with John N who loved it

Reviving Power to the People with Mark Stevenson in Borough

Thurs 31

Channel 4land & Kipferl & Eneko

Eneko late lunch with Leslie including fruity wine punch & Catalan pork 

A scriptwriting book as present from Leslie as we prep Creative England

Eating & chatting with Simon Wells & Harry Cymbler as I enjoyed my new-found liberty 


Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Russell Cotes museum, Bournemouth

Gilded peacock cornicing - Dining room

Frith - RamsgateSands 1854
Crowded as fuck
Covered up Muslim style

Rossetti
Venus Verticordia 1864
Cf Klimt - gilding
 Theatrical - scenery, layers
Jane Morris? Strong face - Alexa Wilding
His only nude in oil

I want an indoor fountain
Main Hall cf Leighton House

The first funeral 
Louis Ernest  Barrias - Fr
Adam & Eve mourners? Abel
1890-00
Bronze
Eve moving
Abel beautiful

The Silent Evening hour
Joseph Farquharson
A woodland light you can't capture - like the pine avenue in Bournemouth today

Leighton
Perseus & Andromeda study 1892

Victorian intensity

Pharaohs Daughter
John adams-Acton 1865
Marble
Bad relief in base of bust

Cleopatra
Eugenio Lombardi lateC19
Marble

Her first love
G Sheridan knowles
Is a bunny - provocative hint of emerging sexuality in male eye

Psyche at throne of Venus
E matthew hale
Interesting power rel & composition (tall canvas)

Midsummer
Albert Moore
1887
Mixture of allegory and realism
Sleepy
Graphical comp
Egyptian profiles
Powerful use of orange
Aesthetic movement
Symbolist
Sig & date on vase

Jezebel
Byrne shaw
Irish?
Black women look Polynesian
Suggestive flowers cf okeefe
She was nude originally 

The moorish proselytes
Edwin Long
Converting Muslims in Granada 1500

Aurora Triumphans <86
Evelyn de Morgan
Luminescent
Leighton Ho
Androgynous middle angel

The bathers alarmed
Solomon  j Solomon
So many Vic paintings excuses for female nudity & voyeurism

Atkinson grimshaw
An Autumn idyll *
V distinctive light & palette

Judith
C h landelle
Pupil of delaroche
Cf Klimt
Suende

Arthur hughes
Little one who straight has come 
Cf Burne Jones - angelic stairway
Shades of nativity

Good news & bad news
John bagnold burgess
Hardy - letters

The bather *
Thomas Ronaldson
C1930
I'm a sucker for De dos - Horst
Ingres
Scott Fitzgerald

Spray
Harold Williamson 
1940
Bold angle
Laura knight 


The mannequin
<1938
Andreas Carse
Cf Frith - crowd

William roberts
The happy family
1924
Clash between subject & style 

Christopher Nevins
1917
The war profiteers
Theatrical lighting
Grosz 









Wednesday, August 03, 2016

Courtauld Kossoff & Auerbach

Auerbach - head of kossoff 57 charcoal on paper
Private Coll

Kossoff - head of Seedo 64
Oil
PCol
V Auer in style
Jesus
Sculptural 

York Way railway bridge 66/7 PCol
Oil on board
Kos
Fluent
V Auer in style

Auer
Rebuilding of empire cinema L Sq
62
Oil
Courtauld
Browns
Highly abstracted/geometric

Auer
Carreras Factory
61 
Oil on bd
PCol

Greys B&W 

Georgiana Houghton - Spirit Drawings - Courtauld Gallery

Outsider Art
Delaunay
Kandinsky
Yeats?
43 survive
Melbourne
Aboriginal 
1871 exhibition New Brit Gal bond st
Memoirs 
Dr Barnaby Wright - Courtauld talk 
Rousseau

The Eye of God 1862 25/9
Breakthrough
Fractals
Spirograph
Moore/Hepworth

Anna Maria howitt watts 1st Brit spirit artist 
1814-84

The holy trinity
29/11/61 
Part breakthrough

Map contours
Nature math forms




Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Rump steak beautifully cooked by D after Gordon Ramsay shared with the Enfants Terribles

Business opportunity with cousin Richard S in NYC discussed at The Phoenix

Business partnership with Simon G chatted about at Wellcome Collection


Friday, July 29, 2016

Star spot #475

Malcolm Rivkind MP
Pimlico Station
25/7/16

Georgia O'Keeffe - Tate Modern

Music - pink & blue no.1 1918
Soft-edged organic abstracts - TRY IT

Stieglitz Equivalent 1925-30
Cloud photos with GOK shapes

AS
GOK 1920
Face hands arm - artists equipment

Mask with Golden Apple 23
Abstract environment for still life
Lovely palette black Browns yellows

East River 3
26
Abstracting into blocks and planes

East River from 30th floor...
28
Smoothing details
Punctuated by vertical chimneys

John Marin
Downtown NY 23
Watercolour with charcoal TRY IT

big flowers as response to speed of modern life

Rousseau

Jimson Weed/ White flower 1
32

She rejected the erotic dimension - but it's undeniable

Craigie Aitchison
Black cross w stars & blue
29

Reminded of a skull painting I did - my first oil in marroon 

From the faraway, nearby 37
Still life superimposed on landscape
Surrealist

Deer horns 38
Bones as organic growing things

Frida Khalo

Red hills & bones 41
Still life w landscape 
Advance on From the faraway - reintegrated into ls

Impressionists - serial landscapes

Black place 4
44
Bomberg colours

Paul Nash

Wall with green door 53
Perfect combo of abstract & fig

Pelvis 1 44 *
Pelvis bone hole to create instant abstract

Ansel Adams
GOK & Orville Cox
37

Masculine looking increasingly

Untitled ghost ranch cliff
C43
Pencil & charcoal
Focus on holes
Cracks
Inherently sexual
gorge sketches look like Abram Games cliff print

Adams
Thunderstorm ghost ranch
37

A journey to abstraction from & through landscape 

Frames out sky often

Superimposition v Integration
Of bones etc.

Tanguy - shapes

Wall with Green Door *
Hockney - 70s LA buildings

cf Patti Smith, Frida Kahlo

GOK exhibition at Irish Museum of Modern Art, Kilmainham, Dublin

Georgia O’Keeffe: Nature and Abstraction

Nature and Abstraction is a survey of the extraordinary career of the legendary American artist Georgia O’Keeffe.  The exhibition comprises some 30 works ranging from 1918 to 1977 and deals with the central concern of her work – the transformation of nature into abstraction. It includes examples of all her main areas of interest, landscape paintings, flower studies and abstract works. 
February-May 2007





Monday, July 25, 2016

Painting with Light - Tate Britain

1839 photography invented
Robert Adamson
David Octavius Hill
Edinburgh

DH & Amelia Hill
Disruption Portrait 43-66
Epic

The Woodmans Daughter 1850-51
Millais
Tess of the D'Urbevilles
[ ] Send to Melvin

Holman Hunt - Nazareth 1855
Great idea capturing biblical views

Thomas Seddon - Jerusalem & valley of Jehoshaphat 1854/5
Captures life in the dry country

CH Clarke
Frank Dillon
1870s 
Cf Leightons Arab Hall

Henry Wallis
Chatterton 56

James Robertson
The death of chatterton
59

Rossetti
Beata Beatrix 64-70

John Parsons
Jane Morris posed by Rossetti 65

J Dudley  Johnston  - valley of the Dragon 1909
Romantic

Whistler - nocturne blue & gold old battersea bridge 72/5

Noc blue & silver cremorne lights
72
Japanese

Whistler
3 figs pink & grey *
68-78
Exquisite palette
Out of focus - vibration

Sargent
Carnation ...
85/6
Fantastical colours & lighting

Theodore Roussel
Reading girl
86/7
Modern 20s look

Fred Holland Day
The vision 1907
Composite - poetic

Rosetti
Proserpine
74

Jane Morris strong beauty

End




Wednesday, July 13, 2016

YHEE Corsica

Pinarello & Capu di Fora

Adventurous walk around Capu di Fora headland with N & D culminating in a sunset swim

Backgammon under the lighted night trees at the local creperie

Early run, meditation under the trees & swim routine

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

YHEE Corsica

Pinarello & Porto Vecchio

Swimming in natural pool on Cavu

Reading Eric Ambler between snoozes on the terrace

Walking around the Old Town of Porto Vecchio with U

Monday, July 11, 2016

Recent Happiness Experiment entries - Corsica

Saturday 9th July Ajaccio-Portovecchio

Watching the sunset en famille from a high winding road above the Corsican coast north of Bonifaccio

Eating a long-awaited dinner overlooking the port in SomethingwithaPriano

Driving through the interior from Ajaccio via Bonifaccio to Pinarello

Sunday 20th July Pinarello

Spontaneous swim after a jog

Swim with Una to the buoy with the old boys

Hearing that Andy Murray won Wimbledon in straight sets from a fellow Brit tourist in the absence of wifi

Goodbye my friend

Ruby
Woof
Woof Jnr & Gucci
Tommy
Tango

Saturday, July 09, 2016

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Last day at Channel 4

Lunch with the Features team at Quirinale including kir royale, affogato and vino santo - Clem, Gill, Helen & Sophie

Sun-drenched taxi ride home

Visit from Hanna, Mathilda and Erling with a trip down to the Table du Marche.

Monday, July 04, 2016

Sunday, June 26, 2016

Creative Accounting #399

Sing Street = School of Rock + The Commitments + Me Earl & The Dying Girl (or Son of Rambo)




Saturday, June 25, 2016

Creative Accounting #398



Lisa O'Neill = PJ Harvey + Kate Bush

Imagining Ireland - Friday 29 April 2016 Festival Hall

Imagining Ireland is a musical conversation between Ireland and England, through the songs of the last hundred years.
marked the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising. Michael D. Higgins, the Irish president, sat in the royal box
The artists were:
  • Paul Brady “Nothing But The Same Old Story” 
  • Martin Carthy Nothing Rhymed; “Row In The Town”
  • Cathal Coughlan “All Things Bright and Beautiful”, “Pack of Lies”
  • Barry Douglas
  • Martin Hayes (fiddle) and Dennis Cahill (guitar)
  • Andy Irvine “James Connolly”
  • James Vincent McMorrow
  • Lisa O’NeillEngland Has My Man; Foggy Dew
  • Cait O’Riordan Pogues numbers -  Dark Streets of London
  • Kevin Rowland and Sean Read of Dexys Curragh of Kildare; My National Pride; “Carrickfergus”
  • Camille O’Sullivan
  • instrumental passages from classical pianist Barry Douglas
The evening ended with Dominic Behan’s stomping story of Irish construction workers, McAlpine’s Fusiliers & Foggy Dew


They were joined by a house band directed by 
  • Kate St John
  • featuring Roger Eno (piano)
  • Calum MacColl and Neill MacColl - Tunnel Tigers
  • Van drummer
The evening was hosted by writer and broadcaster John Kelly.

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Starspot #855

Jeremy Hunt - St Pancras

He should have got strung up for his Sky deceitfulness

Star Spot #488

21/6/16
quick chat with Leo Green - saxophonist - with Adie Dunbar (Frith St, Soho)

20/6/16
chat with Harvey Goldsmith at NNN

Last Weekend's Happiness Experiment entries

Saturday 18th June

Dinner with N in Winchester at The Chesil Rectory

Evening walk along the river in Winchester with N

Deep talk with N in wake of his perspective shift

Sunday 19th June

The Goodfather Father's Day card from D

Playing backgammon in Somerset House courtyard with D & N

Going to Holloway Odeon with D to watch The Nice Guys

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Graves Gallery, Sheffield

Burne-Jones - The Hours 1870-82
Colour schema

Head of JYM - Auerbach 73
Sculptural face

The white rose
William Strang 19
Art Deco
Modigliani
Mannerist

Kirk de Montparnasse
Van dongen c1909
Big eyed boldness

Jeune Paysanne bretonne
Roderic O'Connor
Stripes cf B Riley

Telephone engineer 2
Prunella clough
52
Vorticist like - flat

Honfleur
Entrance to harbour
39
Wadsworth
Pointillist Signac

Looking twds Mornington Cres night
Auerbach 73
Extraordinary night palette -sodium orange, dk green, maroon

Green & Marroon movt
Terry Frost c52
Loose painterly abstract

Landscape in Belsize Pk
54
Keith Vaughan
Abstract figurative balance

Derbyshire walls
Harry epworth Allen
Smooth (surreal) Nash

March landscape
44
P Nash
Unique colour palette
Underlying chalky white

Sam Taylor Wood
SP suspended 7
2004

Bridget Riley
Rise 1
68

Late morning 1
67

Bridget Riley
Venice & Beyond exhibition
67-72

Saturday, May 28, 2016

Starspot #209

Boris Johnson

Upper St, Islington
walking by talking intensely on his phone
while Alfie & I were talking intensely over a pint
27/5/16

Thursday, May 26, 2016

Coincidence

26/5/16 jogging listening to Soul Music on The Fairytale of New York
with the line mentioning: "The Rare Old Mountain Dew"

reading Thomas Chatterton Williams 'Losing My Cool'
in which the crackers are drinking Mountain Dew = soft drink = illicit alcohol = poitin

Thursday, May 19, 2016

The C4 Years

"You've been a highly valued member of this team and have achieved some superhuman things in your time here. I know you will go on to impact the world in interesting ways. On a personal note, I am extremely grateful for your wisdom and support particularly  during the early years when we were trying to change the culture. You have been a great ambassador for the channel."

JH

“During this time he has made a huge contribution to the success and creative profile of Channel 4 online. His commissions include seminal multiplatform projects such as Embarrassing Bodies, Big Fish Fight and Don’t Stop the Music to the first wave of Original All 4 Shorts including Tattoo Twists, Drones in Forbidden Zones and The Black Lesbian Handbook. I’ll miss him and wish him all the very best.”
RDH

Nico Macdonald You've been the channel to Channel 4 for people interested in media and innovation. Your generosity of time, ideas and resources has been much appreciated. New channels to be dug!

Rupert Raby Wow best of luck Adam. It was back in 2005 when you got me on board to help with Famelab! You gave me the chance to work on loads of great projects many of which were multi platform pioneers so thanks for the opportunities and hope our paths cross again in the future.

Denise Turner It was always a pleasure to work with you on projects and to reiterate what others have said above, thanks for having faith in us.

Annabel McLeod Wow Adam! You've been such an inspiring person to work with. I really admire how much you're always changing the world using digital. 

Ioana Mischie Dear Adam, Thank you for everything. Working for 4oD was my first experience of working in the UK and it wouldn’t have happened if there wasn’t someone like you to have faith and complete trust in the project and to be so enthusiastic about encouraging young voices worldwide. You are one of the best professionals I know and I feel each country should have its own Adam Gee in order to constantly spot new talents, create fresh and innovative cinematic concepts. I am honored and grateful I had the chance to learn from the best. Good luck in everything, I have my whole faith in what you’re up to!

Tommy Hutchinson Very best Adam. You were always very generous in using the great channel 4 brand to help others. I'm one of many who greatly appreciated your guidance and support.

Christopher Thorpe Congrats and looking forward to seeing what's next. An amazing body of work there Adam

Gareth Langley You've been a great visionary for the past 13 years Adam, and have a wonderful portfolio of work behind you that would make anyone proud. 

Andy Barratt I've bloody loved working with you Adam, I'm gutted. You have my sincere gratitude for all your support and best wishes for the next step on your journey - one which I hope will see us team up again. 

Keeley Louise I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for wherever you pop up; at the top, no doubt. Best of luck and thank you Adam for being so truly inspiring. Visionary is the right word. You valued my opinion from day one as if we were equals and were so much fun to work with. They won't know what they had 'til it's gone Xxx

Tom de Grunwald Good luck Adam, what you've done there has been amazing, and I'm really glad to have got to work and generally enthuse together recently. Looking forward to your next steps mister.

Mark Downie Adam, you've done amazing, inspiring work - but I'm sure there's loads more yet to come. Thanks for being so brilliant to work with. Here's to the next chapter!

Paul Canty You've done great things during times of amazing change. Well done, and looking forward to seeing what's next.

Mark Earls Congrats and Bon voyage. You've done amazing things there. Sure you've got loads more to come! M

Carlton Reeve That's big news, Adam! Massive loss for C4. The very best of luck with your next adventure - I know it'll be amazing

Rukhsana Mosam Thanks for all the support Adam, it's been fun!!!!! See you soon x
Lori Faye Adam, it was amazing working our project with you. So creative! 
Umut Gunduz Thanks for all the fish! X (love the work we did together)
Ronan McCloskey Thank you for the opportunity to work with you Adam
Ally Branley Good luck Adam, I always loved getting involved in one of your new projects. I think you became a genre.
Matt Locke Fantastic! You put in a very good shift, and did so much ground-breaking work. Time to break ground elsewhere now! Congratulations!
Zam Baring Good luck with whatever comes next - I hope it'll be as visionary as the last 13 years!
Serena Lloyd-Smith C4 have lost a creative genius but no doubt whatever you touch next will turn into gold too. And let's not forget you and the team winning award after award year after year! That was by far my favourite team to be a part of and I feel touched to have been a part of it at its prime.
Annika Small Wow...end of an era. So excited to see what next. You are forever one to watch...and learn from. 

Stephen Hardingham Congratulations on your outstanding career at 4 Adam. You broke the mould in so many ways and exuded passion , intelligence and great humanity along the way. Respect.

Rich Payne Big news! Good luck with whatever's next - it's been a complete pleasure.
Dan Jones It's been an absolute pleasure, good luck for the next adventure
Nick Lockey Best of luck! If the next chapter is even half as good as the Channel 4 years it's going to be awesome
Henry Warren Massive news. Very best to you Adam. Many congrats all you achieved at c4.
Niall Keogh But you ARE Chanel 4!
Charlie Phillips wow, I can't imagine the place without you! You're a c4 legend
Jonathan Fraser A huge loss for them, good luck
Helen Newton C4 will be a duller and more pedestrian place without you x
Morgan Clark It's been a pleasure Adam. C4 are losing a real visionary
MT Rainey We'll miss you for sure, Adam. Considered a career as architecture critic?
Steve Manthorp Good luck. Spread the vision wider! 
Steve Moore What comments! All merited. That was one hell of an innings. 

JL: I just wanted to say many thanks for all your support over the years. When I think about it - from Osama Bin Everywhere to DSTM you have always been there during some of my biggest highs and lowest lows but always supportive and on my side. I very much appreciate it. Big respect.

JH: Thank you for doing the successful part of Don't Stop the Music! And for everything else.


Caroline Diehl What a great impact you've had. Hope you are super-proud. 
Serena Lloyd-Smith Out of the many years I was at C4, I spent some of the best moments working with and for these two creative geniuses. I owe a lot of what I know and what I will become to them and that (award-winning) team
Justin Gorman You are brilliant amazing thinkers and creators. Very excited for you. You will be amazing. (I know cause I've worked with you).

Readers' comments

  • Both brilliant people who'll walk into other jobs

Mark Limb End of an era! Glad I had the chance to work with you in the hey day!
Robert Page you've always been an inspiration.
Deborah Meyer DeWan You have been (and are) an inspiration across the pond for years!
Sian Elizabeth Creative Geenius fly on ... All T Best from Mancunia .. Xxx
Stephen Collins Foolish C4...All the best in greener pastures!
Susan Ferreira You rock Mr Adam Gee you have always been at the forefront of this multiplatform stuff and I am so excited to see what's next!
Oli Barrett There was always something incredibly inspiring and comforting knowing that Channel 4 had someone as brilliant as you working away inside. I am a huge admirer of your work and treasure our conversations. Long may they continue.
Phillip Hodson All bureaucracies resent the talent because the latter take risks and may rock their boat. But minus the talent there is no new business. Watch them worry. Don't imagine anything except how you decided to take your success elsewhere.
Safiya Ahmed Adam you were my first smile emoticon So many shared conversations and words of wisdom I took from our time.
Gerry Smith Adam You did some great stuff. Enjoyed working with you. at Ch4 on our creative project. Did a lot for diversity in the sector.
Sarah Asante Hear, hear!

HW: Adam I just wanted to say thank you for all the amazing content you've brought to life over your 13 years. To my mind you set the gold standard for what public service broadcasting should be. I have always admired your work hugely.
Channel 4 will be significantly poorer for your absence, so will the millions of its viewers/consumers.

HJ: You have been an immense champion of C4’s remit and values over the years and delivered many incredible projects that my team and I have often championed to others - so thank you for all you have done to help preserve C4’s reputation amongst the great and the good.


Nick Underhill: Thanks for all the Fish Fighting Adam! Always a pleasure working with you
SJ: I've always been so blown away by your stellar work 
MR: thank your for your support and tolerance!
PD: I am very sorry that you are leaving 4

so many great projects over the years with you, as a colleague and then as a producer. Excited to see what comes next!

Congrats to & as they leave C4. The work they did there was epic & truly groundbreaking