Welcome to justthoughtsnstuff

I started posting to jtns on 20 February 2010 with just one word, 'Mosaic'. This seemed an appropriate introduction to a blog that would juxtapose fragments of memoir and life-writing. Since 1996, I'd been coming to terms with the consequences of emotional and economic abuse that had begun in childhood, and which, amongst other things, had sought to stifle self-expression. While I'd explored some aspects of my life through fiction and, to a lesser extent, journalism, it was only in 2010 that I felt confident enough to write openly about myself. I believed this was an important part of the healing process. Yet within weeks, the final scenes of my family's fifty-year nightmare started to play themselves out and the purpose of the blog became one of survival through writing. Although some posts are about my family's suffering - most explicitly, Life-Writing Talk, with Reference to Trust: A family story - the majority are about happier subjects (including, Bampton in rural west Oxfordshire, where I live, Oxford, where I work, the seasons and the countryside, walking and cycling) and I hope that these, together with their accompanying photos, are enjoyable and positive. Note: In February 2020, on jtns' tenth birthday, I stopped posting to this blog. It is now a contained work of life-writing about ten years of my life. Frank, 21 February 2020.

New blog: morethoughtsnstuff.com.

Sunday 18 March 2012

hockney, ebury wine bar, mercedes taxi















Went to the David Hockney exhibition at the Royal Academy earlier.

Huge and overwhelming but well worth the visit. Particularly liked the fourth gallery which contains Yorkshire landscapes 'painted directly from observation' in 2004-2005. Several of these reminded me of John Nash's work (see my 'spring!, long winter, ageing, john nash, tyres-some' post of 26th February).

My favourite image, though, was in the next gallery, Tunnels, and was entitled Winter Tunnel with Snow (it was also reminiscent of Nash). The painting evoked scenes I've seen over the years in other contexts (see this post, for example) and was remarkably vivid both close up and from a distance. In fact you noticed different things depending on the distance--the shadows on the snow were especially striking from the other side of the gallery.

Also loved the videos that Hockney made (using a curious rig of nine HD cameras fixed to a Jeep)--both the ones of hedgerows and woods and the lovely ones of dancers--and the sketchpads and iPads (for more on Hockney and iPad drawings, follow these BBC and Louisiana Museum links).

After the exhibition I was treated to a delicious lunch at the Ebury Wine Bar, an old favourite that was as good as ever.

Travelled in a Mercedes taxi too. I'm sufficiently non-London savvy to have wondered if you could actually hail one of these cabs (there weren't such things the last time I flagged down a London taxi). Indeed, sitting in the back of the cab I was trying to remember the last time I did travel in a London taxi...

Oh dear!

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