Tuesday, October 05, 2010

An afternoon in Essex

Today was going to be deicated entirely to mounting swatches for my Gity & Guilds studies, whilst waiting for a kitchen door to be delivered (long story).  But the door arrived at 9.30am, the sun was shining (well, it wasn't wet, anyway) and after a couple of hours of cutting and gluing and weaving ends in wanderlust set in.
A trip to Saffron Walden beckoned, so that I could get to the Fry Gallery;before its winter closure.

I'm so glad that I went!  The Gallery, which houses art from C20th artists who live(d) in that part of Essex has had a revamp since last year.  Large plan chests in the centre of the main room, and touch screen catalogues in a newly-opened sideroom mean that far more of the collection is now accessible.  Much of the collection is work by Eric Ravilious and Edward Bawden, but there is also currently an exhibition of work by Richard Bawden, Edward's son.  He shares his father's somewhat quirky humour but sometimes favours bolder colours.  I wish I could have bought the dodo bench (a glorious metal bench with a design of a pair of dodos for its back) and the linocut print of a dodo in rainbow colours.  One of the drawers in the aforementioned plan chest opens to reveal a matching rainbow dodo napkin.

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