Artists, a DIY painter and butterflies

The original Pitman Painters

My free day yesterday felt just like a mini holiday.  After booking some tickets for a play at The Rose next month I got the bus into Richmond and strolled along the river to the Terrace Gardens and had lunch at the Hollyhock Cafe (a nice bean and butternut squash pie).  Hollyhocks is a vegetarian and vegan cafe with a lovely view over gardens and the river Thames.  I sat outside and read my book after which I wandered back into town to Richmond Theatre, picked up my tickets for the afternoon performance of The Pitmen Painters and sat on The Green for half an hour until it was time to go in.

The play is about a WEA class in art appreciation which was started for miners in Ashington in the north of England in the 1930's. It quickly becomes obvious that the men know nothing about paintings or painters and the tutor suggests that they paint for themselves. This is a true story of miners turned part time painters. I have seen some of the paintings.  I wasn't sure what to expect of the play but it interested me because of the subject.  Anyway, it was brilliant and I was laughing within minutes of it starting.  However, there was a hitch in yesterday's performance.  The visual display screens were not working so in the first act the pictures were not shown.  They stopped the performance and said they would try to fix the problem so we would get the full enjoyment.  I was beginning to wonder if they'd gone off to Argos for a new projector because it took about half an hour!  Anyway, it was worth waiting for and with live performance things do sometimes go wrong.  The acting was great and it was lovely to see the paintings these men produced.  Some great dialogue about modern art and comparing what they did to say Ben Nicholson's circle on a square! Very funny.  I highly recommend it.  It's been a sell-out in London and I'm pleased I had the chance to see it.

Today it's been back to my own painting and I've now got the ceilings finished. I love working to music so while I was upstairs I had the bedroom radio on set to Magic and I was boogying to The Bee Gees with roller in hand  then in the hall I had Kiss 100 coming from the kitchen radio!  Then that bit I hate....cleaning the brushes and the roller.  It seems to take as long to clean them as paint the ceiling!  I then crashed outside in the sun with my books, spotted some beautiful butterflies and went snapping with my camera.

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