The Bayeux Tapestry Arrives in London

The Bayeux Tapestry has finally arrived in the United Kingdom. After a few years of debate and uncertainty the historic loan has been realised. It was delivered overnight to the British Museum last week amidst high security. This all follows an historic agreement between France, promoted by President Macron, and the British Government. The 70-metre-long…

Larry Hams – Figures on the Beach, My Painting of the Month.

Lawrence Gordon Ham (1934 – 2007), more commonly known as Larry Ham was born in Newquay in Cornwall. He was trained at the Chelsea School of Art. There he met Vivian Pitchforth, war artist and yet another to make the connection between Wakefield and Cornwall (indirectly I know!). Whereas Pitchforth was more of a classical…

David Hockney (1937-2026)

It was with great sadness that I read of David Hockney’s passing at the weekend. Hockney was a giant of the contemporary art scene, contributing to that great British idea, Pop Art and living through an age of unprecedented change in the technique of painting.  A Bigger Splash is the painting which I have chosen to…

Barbara Hepworth at St Ives

Barbara Hepworth, despite being born in West Yorkshire, is synonymous with St Ives, living in that West Cornish town for thirty five years from the outbreak of the Second World War. She was already an established sculptor by then and a pioneer of  British abstract art. She set up her studio, Trewyn,  in 1949 in the centre…

Forde Abbey in Somerset – My Building for June

Forde Abbey, in Somerset, is the perfect example of a living evolving building. It has seen much change in the last eight hundred years and is still very much alive as a family residence and an example of our national heritage.  There was probably a building here before the Cistercian monks arrived in the twelfth…