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Published: 02 February 2021

Last Updated: 17 February 2021

It’s difficult to become motivated and inspired during this madness when culture has been closed down and the colour rinsed out of our days but try we must. I try to be mindful of the moment in my shrunken world. I have been moved by small things; a crow landing on the beach, frost glitter, the stark skeleton trees and the changing light as the sun sets on another winter day.

ART

With no exhibitions and galleries closed, my inspiration comes largely from books and less so the Internet. However, I am lucky to be still working in a gallery and to see such wonders as Vincent Van Gogh’s Olive Trees, Rembrandt’s Self-portrait (1655) and John Singer Sargent’s Lady Agnew of Lochnaw when the gallery is empty is a privilege.

Cy Twombly by Jonas Storsve is a beautiful book (a birthday gift in January) that I cannot stop looking at.

All my amazing Basquiat books but especially Jean-Michel Basquiat by Dieter Buchhart.

In 2018 the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, held exhibitions on two of the greatest artists of the 20th century - Egon Schiele, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. This was the last trip I made overseas before the madness.

Paul McCartney Paintings - Little, Brown and Company. I bought this book in Dublin in 2001 and recently picked it up to thumb through. I love Big Mountain Face, Dark Faces and Bowie Spewing.

Derek Jarman's Garden by Derek Jarman and Howard Sooley. I have to see Prospect Cottage one of these days.

Anton Corbijn interview Gagosian Quarterly An interesting interview especially for lovers of Bowie and Joy Division.

BOOKS

John & Yoko / Plastic Ono Band (Christmas Gift) is the definitive exploration of John Lennon’s first major solo album after the break-up of the Beatles, Yoko’s accompanying album and the three singles that preceded it (‘Give Peace A Chance’, ‘Cold Turkey’ and ‘Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)’).

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Corvus: A Life With Birds - Esther Woolfson

The Book of Ichigo Ichie: The Art of Making the Most of Every Moment, the Japanese Way – Francesc Miralles and Héctor García

Mojo Collectors The Beatles Red & Blue 1962-1970

Grapefruit: A Book of Instructions and Drawings – Yoko Ono

MUSIC

David Bowie – Look At The Moon! (Live Phoenix Festival 97)

Idiot Prayer – Nick Cave

Archaeology – The Rutles

Double Fantasy Stripped Down – John Lennon / Yoko Ono

Life's Too Good - The Sugarcubes

Low – David Bowie

Lost In Translation Music From The Motion Picture Soundtrack

Catalpa – Jolie Holland

Happy Songs For Happy People - Mogwai

Gimme Some Truth – John Lennon

Miles In Berlin – Miles Davis

Luxa – Harold Budd (now sadly, no longer with us)

Withered Crown/Ember Months/Flowerts Will Come – My latest homemade compilation painting CD.

FILM/TV

Lost In Translation (again!)

Museum Hours (again!)

A Hard Day’s Night

The White Crow

Life Is Beautiful (Roberto Benigni)

The Affair (Season 1 & 2)

Spiral (Series 1)

BBC iPlayer – Age Of The Image (James Fox), Keith Haring: Street Art Boy, Monitor: Pop Goes The Easel (Ken Russell), The Romantics and Us with Simon Schama, Civilisations (Mary Beard, David Olusoga & Simon Schama), Maggi Hambling: Making Love with the Paint, Emin/Munch: Between the Clock and the Bed, Fierce Women – Yoko (Yoko Ono).

LIKES

The fact that this can’t go on forever! Frosty walks. Wardie Bay. The thought of Ripon & North Yorkshire in June. My new Denon D-M41DAB Micro Hi-Fi system. Tanka poetry.

QUOTATIONS

When I run after what I think I want,
My days are a furnace of distress and anxiety;
If I sit in my own place of patience,
What I need flows to me,
And without any pain.

From this I understand that
What I want also wants me,
Is looking for me
And attracting me;
When it cannot attract me
Any more to go to it,
It has to come to me.

There is a great secret
In this for anyone
Who can grasp it. – Rumi