Autumn

Well Autumn is definitely knocking on the door and I am resigned to cooler days. We have been reaping the benefits, thought, and Joan made the first batch of crab-apple jelly from the hedgerows. I have tidied up the garden and garage and took a van full to the "tip". I normally take a little money as they sell things that people have discarded. I normally come home with flowerpots, an office chair or somethng similar.
This time I returned with a large flowerpot and two framed pictures - all for £4. The first was an etching by Walter Dexter.

Now Walter Dexter was probably the first artist who caught my young eye during an early visit to Kings Lynn museum in the county of Norfolk. I remember a painting of a workshop - rather like my Grandfathers' workshop - and a wonderful landscape of Kings Lynn seen across the river. These pictures made me feel something for the first time - possibly because I was seeing them for real, rather than looking at reproductions in books. Now I finally own a Walter Dexter. It shows the porch of St. Margarets Church in Lynn (I met my wife a very short walk from this doorway); it is inscribed "No.1" away from the image. There is a little staining on the sheet but the image is good.

The second picture was a suprise. It is a sheet of illustrations by a very well respected French artist called Paul Destez, who worked around 1900. I love penwork from this era and this love helped establish my decision to work in black and white. It now joins works by Robert Anning Bell and Ernest Shepard in my collection of original pen illustrations. Incidently, Destez was either an engraver or engravings were made from his designs. I think probably the latter. I have posted images of both pictures.