Tuesday, April 10, 2007

ladder, catkins, Just William

Through today's post came a notice for an exhibition of paintings and sculptures by the Catalan artist, Artur Duch, who is a friend of ours. I have always been particularly fond of his sculptures, small "table top" works for the most part, worked from iron . On the front of the fly sheet is a woman sitting on top of a ladder leaning forward her feet on the penultimate rung, her hair flying out behind. The ladder is at a slight angle and leaning against nothing, fantasy and reality nicely balanced. It is 222cm high. The exhibition is at the Roglan gallery in Barcelona, until May 13.

Silver birch catkins hang from delicate branches. They are green with small, reddish brown spots, and look like caterpillars.

On Radio 4 this afternoon is an installment of William Strikes Again by Richmal Compton. I first came across William books when, aged seven, I found them in my school library. They have never lost their freshness and gentle subversiveness, for me and, presumably, for many others because the William stories, brilliantly read by Martin Jarvis, are still heard regularly on the radio. Will William and his friends escape the fate "worse than a thousand deaths" of attending the ghastly Violet Elizabeth Bott's birthday party? We'll have to wait until tomorrow to fin out.

1 comment:

Lucy said...

Isn't it surprising how many different kinds of trees have catkins?
She'll scream and scream till she's sick!