Flora of Brecknockshire

 Compiling a complete record of the flora of the local area has been literally a life time's work.

Mike Porter, the Recorder for the county for the British Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland, started collecting information for the book soon after he got the job in 1968.  In 2013, John Crellin joined him as co-Recorder, and started to help him with the book in 2021.  Sadly, Mike died last year, but by then most of the main text was complete, and John Crellin brought it to publication.  

There's a lot of diversity of habitats in the area, with mountains, moorlands, woodland, limestone pavements, and the largest lake in South Wales.  The book is hardback, with over 1100 distribution maps of the different species.  It's been illustrated by the wonderful local artist Meg Stevens - she did the most marvellous landscapes of the local area, often from a vantage point low down among the wildflowers.  I could never afford one of her paintings, but I do still have some of her greetings cards (which she kindly signed for me).

Not only does the book have the flora of the present day, but Mike Porter went back into the records as far as 1666, also incorporating the work of Victorian naturalists, especially Augustin Ley, vicar of Sellack in Herefordshire.

The book is available for pre-order now, at a discount price of £35, from Summerfield Books, www.summerfieldbooks.com  The publication date is 1st April, at which time the cover price of £40 will be charged, and there will be a press launch at the Bannau Brycheiniog Visitor Centre on 9th April.

The Brecknock Botany Group has a blog at https://floralimages.blogspot.com/ and it's well worth a visit or two. 

New Exhibition at The Chair

 The exhibition that caused all that publicity has now gone, to be replaced by an exhibition by Polly James.  She does pencil sketches of animals, mainly dogs and horses.

Nothing rude.

Or pink.

Art or Pornography?

 According to BBC Hereford and Worcester, police were called to The Chair gallery in Hay the other day, because of complaints about a picture in the window.  They warned that the picture might constitute a public order offence, but they have not said whether further action will be taken yet.

It's very pink.

I haven't taken a picture, because I am rubbish at taking photos through glass, but it's a long, narrow rectangular picture of a naked woman with her legs spread wide - well, almost naked; she's wearing pink cowboy boots.

Apparently there was a meeting about the picture yesterday afternoon at the gallery - I only found out about it afterwards - and there is a visitor's book now where people can record their thoughts about the picture, which was painted by art student Poppy Baynham.  The exhibition is a joint venture with her sister.

The picture isn't something I'd hang on my wall at home, but I think there is a useful discussion to be had about the difference between art and pornography (or is there a distinct difference?).

At any rate, nakedness in art goes back to the beginning of art itself.  Maybe it's the prominent position of the picture that is the problem - but then perfectly reputable art galleries display statues of naked people - all those Greek and Renaissance statues of young men didn't originally have fig leaves in strategic positions.  Mostly, the Victorians added those!

The exhibitions at The Chair don't go on for very long, so in a couple of weeks all this will be past history anyway.

h.Art in Hay

 It's time for the h.Art brochure to appear again.  I picked up mine in Hereford this morning.

The h.Art week starts on Saturday 7th September, and happens at venues right across the county.  All sorts of art is included, and artists open their studios to the public as well as putting on exhibitions.

Just across the river from Hay we have Cabalva Farm Gallery at Whitney-on-Wye, showing paintings and sculptures from five artists, including Sally Matthews, and at Cabalva House there is a working pottery studio, with work from eight different potters, and the offer of tea and cake in the walled garden.

Larchwood Studio on Racquety Farm, on the road into Hay, has an exhibition of Maureen Richardson's work - she is a renowned paper maker, and there are also paintings in oils, up-cycling, ceramics, Japanese woodblock print making, blown glass sculpture, floral art and stained glass.  They also have a licenced cafe/restaurant.

In Hay itself there's Oil and Oak on the end of Castle Street, with a variety of local artists. 

Tucked away near the Clock Tower at 15 Broad Street there's an exhibition by Elena Underhill of watercolours and sketches.  She has several pictures of the River Wye, and said that if she sells any of them a percentage of the profits will go to Friends of the River Wye to buy testing kits for the citizen scientists.  At the moment she is one of the three artists who have a sketching exhibition at The Chair, but that is closing soon.

Byzantine Icon Exhibition

 Starting on 24th May, there will be an exhibition of Byzantine style icons at St John's Chapel, opposite Tomatitos.  The artists are Christina Watson and Petro Birov.

Hay Forum - Icons

 

It was lovely to go into St Mary's yesterday to see this exhibition set up, with Gregorian chant as background music.

These are just a few examples of Christina Watson's work.  On the other side of the church she had the Roman style portraits that were put in tombs in Egypt, and she'd also brought examples of the pigments she uses, the rabbit skin glue, linen, and the white paint (gesso?) for the backgrounds.  Some of her paintings were on off cuts of laburnum from Alan Powell's carpentry workshop, and others were on boards from art shops.  The linen is glued to the base (it's the same glue that is used in bookbinding), and then painted white 12 to 15 times.  Then it's sanded down to a very smooth finish and only then is the artist ready to trace the lines of their picture onto the base.  She also uses egg tempura to fix the paint onto the board.

Before an icon painter begins work for the day, there are special prayers that should be said - it's a contemplative process, especially when the icons are intended to be used as a focus for prayer when they are finished.  Christina went on a course about ten years ago to learn the art properly, after a holiday in Cairo.  She was already an artist, and has painted many signs for shops around Hay.  She said she wants to continue painting icons (or 'writing an icon') forever! 

Christina will be holding an exhibition of her work at St John's Chapel over Hay Festival this year, along with Ukrainian icon painters.

To keep us in a contemplative mood, Jenny Bullough came along to do another humming session with us.  She was talking as well about how birds are the motion in a garden and bees are the voice of a garden, and quoted a line about "a buzzing with a bee in it".

There was also some live music from Father Richard, Christina, Terry and Jill, who sang a chant for the dead from Kiev, which is used at funerals, with Fr Richard at the organ.  His organ recital that morning was highly praised.

There was no news from Primrose Farm this month from Hawk and Louise, because it was Hawk's birthday, but they will be back in April to talk about what vegetables are in season.

There will be no Hay Forum in March, because Mary Ann will be in South Africa (she is the organiser).  The next Hay Forum will be on Saturday 13th April, at 6.30pm, because the nights will be lighter, just after Evensong, which is at 6pm.  Peter Ford will be talking about his new book Weston Hamlet, in which he has discovered some little known facts about Hay's history.

Herefordshire Art Week

 It's Herefordshire Art Week this week, and I'd forgotten about it because I didn't see any leaflets around Hay this year.  Then one of my friends on Facebook told me about someone she knows who is exhibiting as part of the scheme.  Her name is Susan Parry, and her work is part of the exhibition at Warehouse 701, a converted World War I munitions shed near Rotherwas outside Hereford.

In fact, there are several venues around Hay that are part of the Art Week.  Oil and Oak on Castle Street is one of them.

Then, about a mile up Cusop Dingle there are 5Artists Playing With Fire - they are working with silver, ceramics and glass, and they're based at the Old Stables in Cusop Dingle.

Just across the bridge at Raquety Farm there is Larchwood Studio.  Artwork on display includes watercolour paintings, etchings, bentwood sculpture and furniture, willow sculpture and baskets, chainsaw carvings and pottery.  There is also a licensed restaurant, run by the lady who used to own the restaurant at St John's Place in Hay, and three other experienced restauranteurs who live locally.

Meanwhile in Clifford, at the Cowshed, Old Pontfaen, is the Channelling Gallery, where Jesse Eve Watkins has an exhibition of paintings entitled Myth and Magic.

Some of the venues need people to book in advance, so please check the Herefordshire Art Week website at www.h-art.org.uk

Eugene Fisk Exhibition

 I went up to the Castle yesterday to have a look at the exhibition of Eugene Fisk's paintings and sketches, and was very pleased to discover that it's free.

The blacksmithing exhibition is still going on, too, outside the exhibition room, and several exhibits are different from the ones I saw last time I visited it, so it's worth going again to see the new stuff.

I started by looking at the landscapes.  There are local pictures, like the cover art from his book Oh Happy Hay, and a picture of his house (also the Kilvert Gallery) in Clyro.  There's a whole group of pictures of Italy, mostly architectural, and a series of paintings of places along the route of Gerald of Wales' Journey around Wales in 1188 (he came to Hay at the beginning of this journey, to help drum up enthusiasm for a Crusade).  Eugene was planning to make the pictures into a book, but the work was never completed.

He also did portraits, and several of his pictures of members of the Welsh National Opera are featured - he was commissioned to paint them.  There's also his portrait of King Richard Booth.

Many of the pictures are not for sale - the average price of the ones that are seems to be about £1500.

There were also some of his sketchbooks and diaries laid out on tables (he had beautiful handwriting).

And there was a short video playing in one corner, giving his life story from his time as a member of a teaching order of monks to his life as an artist after he left the order, and his long association with Clyro and Hay.

There's even an opportunity to own one of Eugene's sketches - there are three on offer, as raffle prizes (I wish I had room to put one on my wall!).

Sadly, there was nothing about the work he did with Hay, Brecon and Talgarth Sanctuary for Refugees - he sketched many portraits of the refugees at open days, and collected them into a book called Only Connect.

On the way out, I started chatting to the young lady at the desk by the door of the exhibition space.  It turned out that we have a shared love of archaeology, and she is very much looking forward to see the students return to Arthur's Stone in the summer.  We also have a shared love of the City of Norwich, where she went to university, and I spent two years digging up the Castle Mall (six acres in the middle of the city which is now a shopping centre).

Music and Painting

 Even more events coming up!

I hadn't mentioned the latest Hay Music concert before, because I won't be able to get to it, but it does sound interesting.  The featured instrument of the concert is the theorbo, a sort of large lute which was popular in the Renaissance.  The Theorbo Today Project is trying to revitalise interest in the instrument, and some new music has been composed for it.  The concert takes place at St Mary's Church at 3pm on Sunday 26th February, and tickets cost £17.50, or £8.75 for under 25 year olds.

Meanwhile at the Castle, the new exhibition is of the works of local artist Eugene Fisk.  Eugene was Clyro's Artist in Residence, and he and Lizzie Organ ran the Kilvert Gallery together for many years.

Eugene also produced several books with his art work, such as Oh Happy Hay! which is full of sketches made around the streets of Hay, and Only Connect, a series of portraits of refugees he met at events organised by the Hay, Brecon and Talgarth Sanctuary for Refugees group.

So I'll try to get along to the exhibition as soon as I can!

Coming in from the East

 It's a long time since I made it into Brecon, but there's a new exhibition coming up that looks very tempting.  The Found Gallery on the Bulwark are putting on the exhibition, called Coming in from the East, and one of the featured artists is Richard Greatrex, from Hay, with a collection of photographs he took in Japan, inspired by traditional Japanese art.  He also has a book of the photographs available, price £20.

There are also oil paintings by Sue Vaughan Williams, pottery from Pamela Thorby, wood carving by Chris Pye, textiles by Jennie Jackson, and geishas in mosaic by Maureen Richardson - another well-known local artist.  She no longer makes paper, which was her career for many years, as she is now in her nineties, so she has turned her creativity to making mosaic pictures instead.

There is also jewellery from Chrissie Nash and wooden Christmas ornaments by Faye Lavery Griffiths.

The exhibition opens on 18th October.

Local Events During Hay Festival

 The Hay Festival programme has come out online, and I've had a preliminary scroll through to see what looks interesting - one of the big names this year is Hilary Clinton.  I remember hanging around at the top of Backfold (is it really twenty years ago?!) waiting for Bill Clinton to arrive in Hay - he was horribly late!

Mostly, though I was looking for local interest, and it struck me quite forcibly just how musical people in Hay are.  Performing through the Festival are the Hay Shantymen, the Hay Community Choir, the Hay Climate Choir, the Hay Festival Chorus (made up of members of the Community Choir and others) and a new group focussing on Welsh music, Cantorion Y Gelli.

Also featured are local authors, illustrators and photographers.  Adele Nozedar and Lizzie Harper talk about Adele's new book The Tree Forager, which Lizzie illustrated.  Jenny Valentine is running a writers' workshop, and Billie Charity and John Bulmer are talking about their books of local photography, created fifty years apart.  The Hay Writers Circle also has a spot to talk about new local writing.

There's also a talk about the interesting churches and chapels local to Hay, and The Poisonous Solicitor Walk, visiting sites related to Major Armstrong the Hay Poisoner (or was he?).

Eugene Fisk's Grave

I walked over to Clyro the other day to see if I could find Eugene Fisk's grave, as I'd heard that the new gravestone had been erected. I especially liked the inscription around the edge of the stone "Art is the Manifestation of the Intangible".

John Clare's Exhibition

I've just come back from the private viewing of John Clare's pictures, in the little gallery at the back of Tinto House.
He said he'd decided to hold the private view just before the Festival, so that people would be able to come - he's tried to do it during the Festival before, and everyone has been too busy to come!
This year, he's selected pictures of the area of Greece he visits, the Mani, and the small town where Patrick Leigh Fermor, the travel writer, used to live, Kardamili. There are gardens, and olive trees, and blue, blue water. I really like the pictures he's done in pastels.
And it's all set within Tinto House's wonderful garden, carefully tended by Tim the Gardener.

Only Connect

The new booksellers map and leaflet came out just before Easter and the Independence Celebrations, organised by Addymans, as usual. Last year, the leaflets were black text on a dark red background, which some people found difficult to read. This year the leaflet is a light orange - to match as closely as possible the cover of Eugene Fisk's last book, Only Connect.
This book is sub-titled "Encounters with refugees on days out in Wales". The Hay, Brecon and Talgarth Sanctuary for Refugees group organise days out in the countryside for refugees who have ended up in South Wales. Eugene Fisk wanted to help with this, and as he was an artist, his way of helping was to draw portraits of the people who came on the days out. Eventually this turned into a book.
Sadly, Eugene died shortly before the launch of the book, which was held earlier this afternoon as the last event in the Hay Independence Celebrations, at the Globe. The books are £12 each, and the money goes to the charity, which also collects items such as bedding, computers, clothing and homeware to go to people who need help. They also talk to our elected representatives to help improve conditions for people seeking asylum or refuge.

Champagne Reception for Foraging Books

On Friday evening there were several events for the Independence celebrations.
I went to the earliest of them, the Champagne Reception at Booths Bookshop where Adele Nozedar and Lizzie Harper were talking about the books they have worked on together - The Hedgerow Handbook, The Garden Forager, and Foraging with Kids.
First, though, Oliver Balch read a section of his book Under The Tump, about the vote for Hay Independence, with interjections from Anne Brichto, speaking her own lines from the book.
This was followed by Tom Bullough reading from Addlands, his novel which is set locally. He managed to find a passage that at least mentioned Hay. He couldn't stay too long, because he was the guest of honour at this month's Desert Island Picks at the Globe at 8pm.
But this was, as Oliver said, just the warm up act. The main attraction was Adele and Lizzie talking together. They were sitting on the stairs, in impressively sparkly dresses, and couldn't move around too much because it was all being captured for a live feed to Facebook.
The conversation ranged over many topics, including a creepy survivalist who thought he could poison people with honeysuckle (which is actually edible), roaches in a Washington ice cream parlour (Lizzie's first job - Adele's was as window dresser and bingo caller!), the problem of plastic pollution, and sugar. Adele said that old recipes often have a lot more sugar than they need because it was being used as a preservative, in the absence of refrigerators - but also that the average ten year old now will have eaten as much sugar as their grandparents ate in their entire lives. This led to pondering on why Medieval people's teeth were so bad if they didn't eat much sugar. This was something I could answer, as I used to be an archaeologist - it was the flour, which often had grit in it from the millstones that ground it, and which wore the teeth down.
And then there was the glorious story of a recipe for walnut and cherry tablet, which was claimed to be a traditional sweet somewhere in Scotland. This was taken up with such enthusiasm that the local forestry people actually planted a walnut and cherry forest. When someone asked the person who had first written down the recipe, they said they had made it all up! But it's quite wonderful that there is now a real cherry and walnut forest because of an invented recipe.
They also said that they had a bit of trouble getting Foraging with Kids published, because the publishers kept asking: "But what if a child tries something and dies?" Adele and Lizzie pointed out that the plants in the book were all easily recognisable, and none of them were deadly, but it still took them three tries to get it into print. Adele said that she had tried to make the books global rather than just UK-centric, naming plants in seven different languages, and including plants that grow in many different parts of the world.
Adele had also brought along an experimental bottle of wild garlic vodka, which a brave member of the audience tried. He said it was very garlicky. It was also very green.
There was a raffle, too, for a mugly mug with a picture of hops on it, drawn by Lizzie - and won by Elizabeth of Booth Books! The mugs are available from Beer Revolution, and also from the website https://mugly.love/ and there are two other floral designs to choose from.

Eugene Fisk - Funeral Arrangements

The date of Eugene Fisk's funeral has been set for Wednesday 7th March.
On Tuesday 6th March, his body will be taken to St Joseph's Catholic church in Hay, where there will be a short liturgy at 6pm. The following morning, at 10am, there will be a Requiem Mass at St Joseph's, after which there will be a funeral service at Clyro church at 12 noon. Eugene will be buried in Clyro churchyard, beside his partner, Elizabeth Organ.
There will be a wake afterwards in Clyro Village Hall.
The organisers have asked for flowers to be hand held sprays and posies for the grave and the charity, for anyone who would like to make a donation, is the Hay, Brecon and Talgarth Sanctuary for Refugees.