Thankfully there was no train strike, and our holiday arrangements went ahead as planned. Better still, Albert Cottage Hotel in East Cowes is nothing like Fawlty Towers, former Royal residence to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, we enjoyed a lavish two days with sun, sea and yachts, all for free, including a visit to Osbourne House, where amongst all the extravagant gilded ceilings, untouchable furniture un-photographic art, and strange marble casts of Queen Victoria’s children’s limbs, I eventually discovered Holman Hunt’s The Beloved, hiding away in a darkened corner of the billiard room.
And it wasn’t until just now that I realised our local hero Tennyson lived on the Isle Of Wight, but I would never have had time to visit Farringdon House as well. So I thought that I must go back again sometime….
Albert Cottage Hotel – potentially a fantastic location for an APT summer residency I have concluded.
We observed Queen Victoria’s bathing machine – it’s like Howl’s Moving…. Shed – this beach hut on wheels, ironically beached in the grounds of Osbourne House, never to be used again – I think it should, and I want one for an art gallery!!
After a 5 hour train journey back to Lincoln, there wasn’t much time before the Private View for the LAN exhibition for Alice In Disneyland (as it’s now known) at The Terrace.
As one artist had to drop out, and following Alex Pearl’s talk in Lincoln a couple of weeks ago, we’re pleased to have received a DVD of his work to exhibit – Study For The Invisible Girl, and I managed somehow, in the midst of holiday arrangements, to borrow a DVD player and TV to display this on, and the exhibition itself looks good – curated and installed by colleagues whilst I was away, Alice In Disneyland is at The Terrace until 21st April, then we’re moving it to Lincoln Central Library from 4th – 7th May for a larger exhibition, by which time I hope to have my animation finished. It’s coming together now, but work has been interrupted by Easter.
The spaces are a compromise – the exhibition would’ve been so much better in its original location at the Odeon cinema, and I have issues about the space at The Terrace, but the main thing is that we managed to put the exhibition together, and we’ve already received an invitation to a steering group for the East Midlands at The Collection next month.
