One of my favourite weekend activities is to visit Bridport on a Saturday morning.
This is a lively market town: the market not only sells the usual tat, but you can buy local food, French cheeses and charcuterie, and a wide range of antiques and collectibles (whole stalls with nothing but old carpentry tools, chandelier glass and brass knobs, 1930s costume jewellery to name a few). On a sunny Saturday like the one just past, wandering along the streets watching the shoppers is a pastime in itself!
There is usually a band playing in the quaintly named Bucky-Doo Square (allegedly rhyming slang because the public toilets are nearby!). This Saturday, there was a band playing the blues - which brought a quick tear to my eyes, as it made me wonder if Humph was listening from on high. I usually scoff at people who say that they feel sad when famous people they don't know have died - but Humphrey Lyttleton was such an engaging presence on the radio, I felt I knew him quite well. (Anyone who hasn't heard his unique brand of humour can listen to some clips here.)
On to more cheerful subjects - we then visited the Allsop Gallery at the Arts Centre. I wanted to catch the Francis Newbery exhibition before it ends, and was glad I did. Such a treat to see paintings by such a consummate artist - though some of them needed cleaning as they were very dingy. I was particularly interested to read that, when he was learning his craft, he was taught how important it was to master the materials and techniques of painting and drawing. A message probably frowned on in these PC days of installation and conceptual art (and it shows).
http://www.franewbery.co.uk/ is the official web site.
The next event at the Arts Centre is one of those where you read the blurb and still don't really know what sort of right-on stuff will greet your eyes. Nuff said, really!
28/04/08 @ 15:40