An Impromtu self organised artist in residence…..exciting stuff….. February 3rd – February 11th 2022

It is absolutely fab when you can work off the cuff like this with no preparation and everyone is on board with the idea. So as we were about to start the cycle tour North I sold a large painting but it needed to be brought over from the Isles of Scilly and an individual crate needed to be made by me, in order to ship it to the clients.

This is the painting that sold, and is from my artist in residence at Gallery Tresco Isles of Scilly January 2022

 

So a delay but a worth while one which led us on to staying somewhat longer at Castle Horneck Lodge YHA. No problem with that it is a fab place.  Set on the outskirts of Penzance and in a small woodland we were woken each morning  and serenaded into relaxation  each evening by bird song. It is huge Georgian building, and the staff are wonderful. Many years ago as a teenager I began cycle touring becoming a member and staying at many YHA hostels.

I have to say that nothing has changed for the worse, somethings are done differently concurent with the changing of the times, staying at Castle Horneck brought back such wonderful memories…..it is a fab place…. It was useful as well to have a base for a few days before heading North to make some final changes to what we were going to take with us. We were trying to reduce to a minimum what we packed into our panniers  and this needed a fair amount of thought.

Just before coming here and while still on Tresco we had been in touch with my close friends Jan and Ewa and it is they that organised our stay at Castle Horneck Lodge YHA they wanted to come down from Manchester to see us before we left on our cycle tour to multiple artist in residencies over the next year. Our friendship is a long one and dates back to 1991 when we met in Krakow Poland. Jan and I were doing our ten month postgraduate sholarship in Fine Art at the University of Fine Arts in Krakow. That year was one of the defining times of my life and I carry those experiences with me every day. Jan and Ewa were married in Krakow, and I was of course present. This visit of their’s to Penzance was also an off the cuff last minute decision to meet up to celebrate their 30th Wdding aniversary and we had a fab time, though they were only down for 2 nights due to work we made the most of them. Good food, great conversation, making plans to meet up later on and generally enjoying each others company…..

Jan and Ewa……

 

Me,my son Aaron and Ewa

 

My son Aaron Jan and me

 

…A walk to Mousehole… Me and Ewa

 

Our room, which turned into a drawing studio for just a few days…

 

The YHA lounge which became a place to write my website blog….

 

We also took the opportunty to collect our bikes from the storage container over at kelynak and to begin final preparations for the cycle tour checking over the bike and going through all our equipment to see what we could leave behind to make the bikes as light as possible……

 

 

I had noticed immeadiately that the YHA has a collection of original artworks and after Jan and Ewa headed back home I got chatting with the receptionists about this…..that groups and individual artists had donated artworks to this YHA, and so I explained what my son and I were doing with our long term cycle tour round the world and how I organise artist in residence opportunities as I go some like this voluntrary and impromptu and others planned long in advance and I wonder if theyt would be interested in having some some drawings, it would have to be drawings due to time limitations and access to art materials – to add to there collection and they were very happy for this.

Following three images are of the artworks now part of the YHA Castle Hornek collection.

 

 

 

We had also planned to visit friends in Bristol before heading into Wales, but the delay with shipping paintings due to storms had complicated things in the end we decided to go and see our friends anyway and just accept that we had to come back to Penzance for me to finalise sending the painting to the client. Being in Bristol is also a mixed bag of stuff for me. I love the city and have a lot of memories here. My partner Julia came from Bristol, but it is always great to see firnds especially after the pandemic….

Carole and Steve are musicians who specialise in medieval renaiscience music and they are superb. I do not have many photo’s as I am too involved in their company but here is a small sample of their musical instrument collection. These are some Carol’s Crumhornes… the smaller ones that is. They are the ones with the bend…..

And I had to visit the house my partner Julia grew up in, in Cotham

 

…..In between all of this we were cycling about too, making sure the bikes were okay and all the components were fine…..

…A typical ride…