2025-11-22

One of the pictures from my Rude Ruins Glitter series has been selected for the 61st Essex Open Art Exhibition, hosted at the Beecroft Gallery, Southend between 22/11/2025 and 15/02/2026.

Hadleigh Castle, built in the 13th century to defend the Thames from invasion is a spectacular local landmark. Subject to gales and gravity, most of the structure is now gone with only partial remains of the walls and the North and South towers left.

It is a melancholy, romantic place with wide vistas over the Estuary, sweeping from Southend, across the north Kent coast to Canvey Island and beyond.

At the moment I made this picture (on 35mm film with a plastic "panoramic" camera) I was completely alone - not another human being, or activity, in sight. The river seemed frozen. Only the sky, Constable's "chief organ of sentiment", was animated, sweeping pools of light over the water.

Constable painted the castle after the death of his beloved wife Maria and exhibited the picture accompanied by a few lines from John Thompson's poem "Summer":

2025-10-04

A visit to Manningtree and a warm welcome from Penny to her wonderful North House Gallery, the final days of an exhibition of intriguing work by Helengai Harbottle.

Battled the wind and rain along the 2 mile route to Flatford, reacquainting myself with Constable Country, the clouds and sun eventually settling their differences.

2025-09-15

St. Mary's Church, Widford, Essex. On the old coach route between Suffolk and London, Constable made a stop here and sketched the tomb of Sarah Howard, Viscountess Falkland, (?-1776), in the cemetery between the road and the walls of the original church.

Standing close to where Constable was, looking west into the setting sun. The tomb and it's pyramid (designed by George Gibson) now enclosed by iron and neglected - gently dissolving into the surrounding grasses, trees and shrubs.