tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912052734076308569.post2093882422550971467..comments2024-02-27T03:45:51.563-08:00Comments on James Russell: 50 50: Barbara JonesJames Russellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03199461104138671799noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912052734076308569.post-44835181181129812402019-01-17T08:02:02.344-08:002019-01-17T08:02:02.344-08:00Thanks Nick - fascinating!Thanks Nick - fascinating!James Russellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03199461104138671799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912052734076308569.post-10937081913621412392019-01-17T08:01:22.599-08:002019-01-17T08:01:22.599-08:00Thanks - that's very kindThanks - that's very kindJames Russellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03199461104138671799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912052734076308569.post-83201923465284717262019-01-14T00:41:45.197-08:002019-01-14T00:41:45.197-08:00Thanks, James, for recalling Barbara Jones. I rem...Thanks, James, for recalling Barbara Jones. I remember her - & Tom Ingram - from my youth in Hampstead. They were friends of my mother, Patience Gray, whose recent biog ('Fasting & Feasting, the Life of…') has been rather successful. <br /><br />Patience worked with FHK (Henri) Henrion on the two pavilions he designed for the Festival of Britain. Barbara, if I remember rightly, was also involved. So were Ursula & Norman Mommens, They made souvenir ceramic lions & unicorns for the Festival. Eventually (1962) Norman & Patience ran away together in a 30-cwt ex-WD Bedford truck. It was Peggy Angus who’d introduced them. Both my first wife Corinna (Sargood) & my sister Miranda (Armour-Brown) did stints as Peggy’s wee slavies handprinting her wallpaper. I lived briefly in Peggy’s Adelaide Rd hallway, in a cubbyhole, and paid my rent by painting window frames at Furlongs, as did painter Christopher Stein, once a Hampstead neighbour & mate of mine, who died recently. <br /><br />I asked Miranda about her memories of Barbara and this is what she replied:<br />"Yes I remember Barbara Jones, who lived in a house reminiscent of a narrowboat, the entrance (kind of opposite Burgh House and Betty Massingham's house in Flask Walk) sloping down Willow Road. What a feast for the eyes entering her narrow house! She was so good at drawing, one of the people who later inspired me to go to the Royal College of Art, like David Gentleman, and she adored cats. Patience used to invite Barbara and Tom Ingram to Olive's [our grandmother’s] cottage at Hill View occasionally when we went to visit Olive on weekends. I remember one Spring weekend in particular when we walked together into the Combe with our drawing books at the moment when the bluebells were in flower, when the anemonies were starting to wane. It was warm and birds were singing. I just remember Barbara's sensual delight at sitting amongst the bluebells. The concentration of drawing and Tom's funny remarks. He was about half Barbara's age. In Hampstead Barbara loved the Fair at the Vale of Health. She always made Christmas cards every year. I remember one with Merry Christmas written in the markings of her tabby cat! Barbara Jones was one of the people Patience talked to when we lived in Well Walk, but I felt I got to know her better in the freedom of the country [Sussex], and I had the impression she got on well with Olive sharing an interest in gardens.”<br /><br />So there we are, my sister & I were brought up on the fringes of the Ravilious/Bawden/Trevelyan world. We are still in contact with Peggy Angus’s daughter Victoria and Julian Trevelyan’s son Philip (of The Moon & the Sledgehammer fame). And here am I down at the end of the world in southern Italy trying to interest the art establishment in the works & pomps of my late stepfather, Flemish sculptor Norman Mommens. He carved a Goliath for Leonard Woolf and it still stands in the garden of Monk’s House. ’Tain’t much to go on, but I’d be delighted if you’d care to take an interest in his oeuvre…<br /><br />Nick<br />Nicolas Gray<br />Masseria Spigolizzi<br />73054 Presicce (Le), Italy Nickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16611139841515192521noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912052734076308569.post-10606503604104881872019-01-14T00:40:01.014-08:002019-01-14T00:40:01.014-08:00Thanks, James, for recalling Barbara Jones. I rem...Thanks, James, for recalling Barbara Jones. I remember her - & Tom Ingram - from my youth in Hampstead. They were friends of my mother, Patience Gray, whose recent biog (Fasting & Feasting, the Life of…) has been rather successful. <br /><br />Patience worked with FHK (Henri) Henrion on the two pavilions he designed for the Festival of Britain. Barbara, if I remember rightly, was also involved. So were Ursula & Norman Mommens, They made souvenir ceramic lions & unicorns for the Festival. Eventually (1962) Norman & Patience ran away together in a 30-cwt ex-WD Bedford truck. It was Peggy Angus who’d introduced them. Both my first wife Corinna (Sargood) & my sister Miranda (Armour-Brown) did stints as Peggy’s wee slavies handprinting her wallpaper. I lived briefly in Peggy’s Adelaide Rd hallway, in a cubbyhole, and paid my rent by painting window frames at Furlongs, as did painter Christopher Stein, once a Hampstead neighbour & mate of mine, who died recently. <br /><br />I asked Miranda about her memories of Barbara and this is what she replied:<br />"Yes I remember Barbara Jones, who lived in a house reminiscent of a narrowboat, the entrance (kind of opposite Burgh House and Betty Massingham's house in Flask Walk) sloping down Willow Road. What a feast for the eyes entering her narrow house! She was so good at drawing, one of the people who later inspired me to go to the Royal College of Art, like David Gentleman, and she adored cats. Patience used to invite Barbara and Tom Ingram to Olive's [our grandmother’s] cottage at Hill View occasionally when we went to visit Olive on weekends. I remember one Spring weekend in particular when we walked together into the Combe with our drawing books at the moment when the bluebells were in flower, when the anemonies were starting to wane. It was warm and birds were singing. I just remember Barbara's sensual delight at sitting amongst the bluebells. The concentration of drawing and Tom's funny remarks. He was about half Barbara's age. In Hampstead Barbara loved the Fair at the Vale of Health. She always made Christmas cards every year. I remember one with Merry Christmas written in the markings of her tabby cat! Barbara Jones was one of the people Patience talked to when we lived in Well Walk, but I felt I got to know her better in the freedom of the country [Sussex], and I had the impression she got on well with Olive sharing an interest in gardens.”<br /><br />So there we are, my sister & I were brought up on the fringes of the Ravilious/Bawden/Trevelyan world. We are still in contact with Peggy Angus’s daughter Victoria and Julian Trevelyan’s son Philip (of The Moon & the Sledgehammer fame). And here am I down at the end of the world in southern Italy trying to interest the art establishment in the works & pomps of my late stepfather, Flemish sculptor Norman Mommens. He carved a Goliath for Leonard Woolf and it still stands in the garden of Monk’s House. ’Tain’t much to go on, but I’d be delighted if you’d care to take an interest in his oeuvre…<br /><br />Nick<br />Nicolas Gray<br />Masseria Spigolizzi<br />73054 Presicce (Le), Italy<br />nick.spigolizzi@gmail.com Nickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16611139841515192521noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7912052734076308569.post-91103812654767280122019-01-10T06:35:02.160-08:002019-01-10T06:35:02.160-08:00This period in British art, though long forgotten ...This period in British art, though long forgotten and swamped by the insensitive modernism that followed, is so inspirational and has so much to teach us.Thank you for the post.<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17899944323097119790noreply@blogger.com