Avin goes to London

Following on from his well received exhibition at Mas de Bouye, Avin and Mrs. Alaff went with us to London last week-end to see the annual Summer Show at The Royal Academy.

Avin had never been to the show and he felt that it would be interesting to see how his work compared with the works accepted to be hung at the RA.  This show is open to all 'artists', amateur or professional.  A huge range of material was on show ...

... although it was curious to note that there was very little figurative work.

However, Avin was most struck by a large piece, painted in yellow and black gloss on aluminium with accompanying 'extra' round yellow piece, entitled 'Yellow Nude No.8 and companion painting'.

Upon reading in the catalogue that it was for sale at £222,000 Avin was heard to mutter "You're 'aving a laugh!"

We left Avin at the RA to continue his comparisons and went to Eros in Piccadilly where we had arranged to meet Guy who was in London for the weekend.

 After all this excitement, we went off to Birmingham to spend a couple of days with our friends Bob and Jenny.  And what an eventful 2 days this turned out to be!!  Jenny is secretary of an allotment association and was most anxious to show us her own patch.

But, whilst we were there we realised that we were in the middle of a man-hunt.  We later found out that there had just been an armed robbery in a bank a few roads away and the police were tracking a suspect with a helicopter.  Thinking he may be in the allotments, we had armed police walking around the fruit and veg.

Jenny, who had learnt of a strange man hiding in her greenhouse only a couple of days before had initially thought that this 'rapid response' was a bit of an overkill!!

The next day we were all joined by the Alaffs on a Sculpture Trail in the Jewellery Quarter of Birmingham organised by the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists.  This involved following a route and stopping to look inside restaurants, bars and office foyers where pieces of sculpture were displayed.

At this point we let Avin leave to pursue his inspiration.

However, our duties were not finished as Bob and Jenny wanted some thoughts and advice on a 'lost' area of their garden.

Behind this lovely break in their garden, at the very end, is an area currently used for bonfires and compost  and very shaded by trees.  Various suggestions were given but, no sooner said than done, and Bob was sawing down overgrown Lilac and had plans to buy a chainsaw!!

 

We realise that we must be careful with our 'suggestions'!