The Vinyl Adventure
07-06-2010, 19:36
I had a slightly odd home life as a kid, my adopted dad remarried a lady who almost from day one didnt get on with me to well. the result of this was a family divide. my step mom and my step brother on one side and me and my dad on the other. on the weekends me and my dad would often spend our saturdays together, we would go in to worcester mooch about the shops a bit go for lunch and then either go for a round of pitch and putt golf or go for a walk up the malvern hills.
my dad died a few years back from alzhimers and these saturdays spent with him are the memorys i hold most dear.
there is an italien resturant in worcester called little venice, its been there for years - as long as i can remember anyway. this one one of the places me and my dad used to go for lunch, its a pizza express type place (in fact i think it used to be pizza express). for probably 20 years it had the same decor and the same pictures on the walls. many of these pictures used to fasinate me - there was a naked lady - aparently david baileys wife - probably the first naked lady i ever saw. there was a matisse print (that blue lady) and a piccaso (i cant remember what its called - the huge one painted about the spanish civil war), these were probably my introduction to modern art. but out of all of these images the one that most fasinated me was a picture of a black man stood in a back street of new york in a ott pose. i can remember sitting in that resturant with my dad being completely happy in the way only a child can be staring at these pictures....
so anyway, not so long ago me and hannah went for a meal there and i noticed they had changed all the pictures, i was initially horrified but soon realised if they werent on the wall they would no doubt be somewhere else and possibly might like to be sold to someone... maybe even me.
i asked andy the owner and he told me they were to be auctioned for charity - i gave him my number and told him to give me a ring when the auction was due to happen..... 6 months later i had heard nothing. i went for a meal with my recently found biological mother and was telling her the story about these pictures and she agreed i should own this picture of this man in a street in new york. i was a little tipsy and started babbling at the poor waitress about my dad and how these pictures hold fond memorys for me. she passed on this story to andy and low and behold the next day he phoned me and said i was welcome to buy the image i liked outside of auction... so today that is exactly what i did
http://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww282/hamish_gill/c15df517.jpg
the money was going to charity so i gave him £80 ... a small price to pay as far as i am concerned!
By coincidence the day i was in their with my recently found mother was also the day she presented me with a gift to commemorate our meeting. she had asked me a while ago if there was a peice of art that i really liked that she could get a print of and frame for me... i told her of a Edward wadsworth painting that i love called "dazzle ship" that depicts a first world war ship being painted in special camo designed to confuse those viewing them from inside U-boats. the problem was that it isnt available as a print.
she found out that it was in the canadian national gallery,wrote to them explaining that she would like a print. they said that wouldnt be a problem as long as she signed a document saying she wouldnt copy it... she did as they said and they allowed her to have a print... aparently someone took a photo of it, printed it and posted it to her, she then presented it to me the other day... basically im almost certainly one of the only people in the world who has a print of this painting.... or so we are lead to belive ... im not fussed either way to be honest if i am or not... i have a print of one of my favorite peices of art to put on my wall
http://cache.wists.com/thumbnails/0/f7/0f7c7a2944523e5606d0077cb8a6b806-orig
so as of today i have a picture that reminds me of some of the happiest times with my father before he was ill.... and an image to remind me of meeting my biological mom.... most pleased with my self i am!!
my dad died a few years back from alzhimers and these saturdays spent with him are the memorys i hold most dear.
there is an italien resturant in worcester called little venice, its been there for years - as long as i can remember anyway. this one one of the places me and my dad used to go for lunch, its a pizza express type place (in fact i think it used to be pizza express). for probably 20 years it had the same decor and the same pictures on the walls. many of these pictures used to fasinate me - there was a naked lady - aparently david baileys wife - probably the first naked lady i ever saw. there was a matisse print (that blue lady) and a piccaso (i cant remember what its called - the huge one painted about the spanish civil war), these were probably my introduction to modern art. but out of all of these images the one that most fasinated me was a picture of a black man stood in a back street of new york in a ott pose. i can remember sitting in that resturant with my dad being completely happy in the way only a child can be staring at these pictures....
so anyway, not so long ago me and hannah went for a meal there and i noticed they had changed all the pictures, i was initially horrified but soon realised if they werent on the wall they would no doubt be somewhere else and possibly might like to be sold to someone... maybe even me.
i asked andy the owner and he told me they were to be auctioned for charity - i gave him my number and told him to give me a ring when the auction was due to happen..... 6 months later i had heard nothing. i went for a meal with my recently found biological mother and was telling her the story about these pictures and she agreed i should own this picture of this man in a street in new york. i was a little tipsy and started babbling at the poor waitress about my dad and how these pictures hold fond memorys for me. she passed on this story to andy and low and behold the next day he phoned me and said i was welcome to buy the image i liked outside of auction... so today that is exactly what i did
http://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww282/hamish_gill/c15df517.jpg
the money was going to charity so i gave him £80 ... a small price to pay as far as i am concerned!
By coincidence the day i was in their with my recently found mother was also the day she presented me with a gift to commemorate our meeting. she had asked me a while ago if there was a peice of art that i really liked that she could get a print of and frame for me... i told her of a Edward wadsworth painting that i love called "dazzle ship" that depicts a first world war ship being painted in special camo designed to confuse those viewing them from inside U-boats. the problem was that it isnt available as a print.
she found out that it was in the canadian national gallery,wrote to them explaining that she would like a print. they said that wouldnt be a problem as long as she signed a document saying she wouldnt copy it... she did as they said and they allowed her to have a print... aparently someone took a photo of it, printed it and posted it to her, she then presented it to me the other day... basically im almost certainly one of the only people in the world who has a print of this painting.... or so we are lead to belive ... im not fussed either way to be honest if i am or not... i have a print of one of my favorite peices of art to put on my wall
http://cache.wists.com/thumbnails/0/f7/0f7c7a2944523e5606d0077cb8a6b806-orig
so as of today i have a picture that reminds me of some of the happiest times with my father before he was ill.... and an image to remind me of meeting my biological mom.... most pleased with my self i am!!