Don't almost do it … do it now!

Volunteer and find your passion

Don't almost do it … do it now!

By Lynda Cookson

Mary (not her real name) got out of bed on this particular morning and most things were just the same … her knees still cracked their beat; her ankles needed a few minutes to warm up to full movement capacity; her body looked suspiciously like a ‘z’ as she hobbled along to the kitchen; and her hands were flapping about, trying to look inconspicuous as they touched on walls and banisters for balance. A familiar scene? Mary didn’t care …. as a volunteer worker in a local charity she knew her day would only get better.

Oxfam Ireland

I spoke with two volunteers, Cathleen Hawkshaw and Maura Roche, both in their late 60s, who spend time in the office at Oxfam Ireland. Cathleen helps to keep the accounts in order for two days every week. She says it’s an absolute joy to come in – ‘I miss the interaction with people from my working days and the conversations we have here are very important to me. We chat about the books we’ve read, often exchange books, and simply enjoy the satisfaction of a good conversation.’ Maura spends one day a week helping to check donor addresses on the computer, fill envelopes and handle some of the load of phone calls to donors. She’s happy to turn her hand to any vital office job and said: ‘This keeps me in touch with younger people and their way of life – which is so different to my life! I really enjoy the contact with them and it helps me to keep an open mind.’

Oxfam Ireland is committed to ending poverty and suffering in developing countries; promoting understanding of the causes of these injustices; and campaigning for a world where every man, woman and child can live free from hunger, poverty and oppression. They have opportunities for volunteers in their 45 shops and Oxfam garden initiative as well as for their campaigns and overseas projects.

Volunteering Ireland

Volunteering Ireland is a membership based organisation which promotes high quality voluntary activity, by encouraging organisations which involve volunteers to adopt good policy and practice, and by acting as a link between such organisations and individuals who wish to undertake meaningful voluntary work. They match individuals who wish to volunteer, with organisations which offer suitable volunteering opportunities.

As a support and advice group, if you wish to discuss any aspect of volunteering, however large or small, Volunteering Ireland are there to listen and to provide practical support. Their Charter for Effective Volunteering will advise and inform you of your rights as a volunteer.

On their website, they speak of the importance of passion; how volunteers will only do, in the long-term, what they believe to be meaningful; enthusiasm for the cause you choose is absolutely essential. ‘A shared passion within the organisation is the ultimate ‘glue’ of the group; without this, it will crumble. To ensure ongoing motivation, keep reminding yourself what the world would be like if the group did not exist.’

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Enable Ireland

Enable Ireland is a leading national provider of services for children and adults with disabilities, and for their families. Many of the staff in the 19 retail shops are dedicated volunteers helping to raise vital funds. Money raised supports essential projects such as building new Services Centres, carrying out renovations, and building Hydrotherapy treatment pools.

Recently President Mary McAleese hosted a reception to acknowledge the contribution of volunteers who raise funds for charitable organisations under her patronage, and a selection of outstanding volunteers from each charity was invited to attend this symbolic event. Mary Gilmartin from Santry and May McNally from Drimnagh were among Enable Ireland’s nominated five volunteer representatives who met the President at the reception in Áras an Uachtaráin.

Mary Gilmartin has been an enthusiastic and committed collector for the annual Enable Ireland House-2-House collection for the past twelve years. May McNally is 84 years old, a widow with 12 children, and has worked as a volunteer in the Enable Ireland Camden Street Shop since the day it opened in July 1989. She is a regular volunteer from Monday to Friday and sets up the stock in the store room ready for shop opening each day. ‘It was a day with a difference’ said May ‘and I was delighted to meet the President and have such a lovely time at the Áras. It was a great surprise to be chosen to represent the work of Enable Ireland shop volunteers.’

Whatever your passion, whatever your interest, there is always a charity which will benefit from your input. As a starting point, if you have a computer, login to the Google.com search page, type in ‘Volunteering for the over 50s’ and sift through the sites that come up. Otherwise, pick up the phone and call the charity of your choice from those we have listed, or call Volunteering Ireland who will be only too happy to help you.

Forging ahead in leaps and bounds

The Hugh Lane Gallery

Forging ahead in leaps and bounds

By Lynda Cookson

Charlemont House, since 1933 the elegant home of the Hugh Lane modern and contemporary art collection, graces the far side of Parnell Square in Dublin. Stepping off the Luas at Abbey Street I wandered up the wide pavements of O’Connell Street feeling more and more light-hearted as I neared Parnell Square - thanks to Barry Flanagan’s huge sculptures of Hares leading me to the gallery. I’ll miss their bounding cheerfulness when they leave Dublin at the end of October after helping to celebrate the May 2006 launch of the expanded and refurbished Hugh Lane Gallery.

Another important celebration of the Hugh Lane’s watershed extension is the return of Harry Clarke’s stained glass ‘The Eve of Saint Agnes’ to permanent exhibition in pride of place as the first exhibit as you enter the gallery. You can’t help but catch your breath, readjust your spectacles (unless youth is still on your side) and gaze in wonder at the fineness of hand and clarity of imagination Clarke drew on to create his masterpieces. Childhood memories of fairy stories rush at you with an adult’s appreciation of the level of artistry, and it’s difficult indeed to move on to the Sculpture Hall … I turned, and stopped again at a small abstract stained glass piece – James Scanlon’s ‘Study No 2 for Miro 1985’ – which is sure to keep your eyes delving into the depths of colour and design. Stunning. Finally, I managed to pull myself away.

For the first time since 1913 Hugh Lane’s original collection of Impressionist paintings is hanging together. Failing to overcome difficulties in finding a permanent home for his collection in Dublin during the early 1900s, Lane bequeathed his continental paintings to the National Gallery in London. Just before his death on the liner The Lusitania in 1915 he changed his mind when London baulked at hanging the entire collection believing some works to be below standard. Lane added a Codicil to his Will leaving the famous collection of 39 paintings to the new gallery in Dublin – but the Codicil was not witnessed. A British commission decided that the works, including paintings by Manet, Monet, Renoir, Morisot, Pissarro, Degas and Vuillard, should stay in London. Lady Gregory, Lane’s aunt, fought for decades to prove that her nephew wished the paintings to go to Dublin and in 1959 it was finally agreed that the paintings be shared in a rotating arrangement between Dublin and London with the agreement being reviewed every 12 years.

The recent expansion of the gallery, on the site of the famous former national ballroom and utilising the gardens of two neighbouring houses which were bought in 1995, has doubled gallery space allowing for thirteen new temporary exhibition rooms, a dedicated children’s area and education resource room, a lecture theatre with state of the art equipment, and an extensive archive and storage area together with a larger bookshop and café opening onto an internal courtyard.

My eye was caught specifically by three pieces: ‘The Umbrellas’ by Renoir; George Clausen’s ‘The Haymaker’; and ‘There is No Night’ by Jack B Yeats, as I moved through the five galleries leading to the much-publicised Francis Bacon Studio and I sank onto a couch to watch a continuous video of an interview of the celebrated Dublin-born artist. What a difference it makes to be able to hear and see the artist speak. After having only a passing interest in his life and work, I became entranced with the person, with his unaffected manner and warmth – and I sat through the video twice. His studio is an incredible mess yet as my eye searched, expecting a mouse or two to appear from beneath the piles of paper, I realised that this gift of his studio is priceless – worth more as the essence and secrets of a great artist than any painting could be. Dublin is truly privileged.

I spoke to Barbara Dawson, Director of the Hugh Lane Gallery, about the gallery’s philosophy, of how new works of art are chosen: ‘Hugh Lane had been supportive of the living artists of his time so we focus on living art, on young, contemporary, national and international art, and in some circumstances established artists like Louis Le Brocquy, Patrick Scott, Francis Bacon and Ellsworth Kelly. We look at contemporary artists and see what their practice is and how it would relate to our reading of pioneering practice today. Although we like to exhibit two or three works by the same artist so that the visitor may understand the practice instead of just being presented with one example by many artists, our annual budget for purchasing is very low – so we strongly encourage specific donations.’ She went on to say that the Acquisitions Board looks to her for guidance. ‘They rely on my recommendations for focus – not the only focus – but a defined focus. A collection cannot be great in any way unless there is a definite focus and ours has a strong contemporary relevance.’

A visit to the gallery before 10th September means you will be able to catch Beyond The White Cube, a retrospective of pioneering conceptual artist Patrick Ireland. From December 2006 to February 2007 ‘The Studio’ will present work by artists who directly address their relationship to the studio – inspired by the Francis Bacon Studio. A series of public lectures and films will take place throughout autumn on Sundays at 3pm. Free guided tours of the collection take place every Tuesdays at 11.00 and Sunday at 1.30.

Further information can be gleaned from the gallery’s website : www.hughlane.ie

It’s never too late in Studio 10

Irish Museum of Modern Art

It’s never too late in Studio 10

By Lynda Cookson

‘When I was in my late twenties, I met a friend who was involved in art. I asked her about learning to draw but she said – well May, it’s a bit late now – now I know she was wrong, it’s never too late.’ These are the words of May Twomey, a member of the St Michael’s Active Retirement group who have been coming to Studio 10 at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) in the Kilmainham Royal Hospital every Friday morning since 1992.

A preoccupied murmuring and lowered heads above working hands greeted me as I entered Studio 10 one Friday morning. It didn’t take long for me to learn that there was mischief in those murmurs – the happy mischief that comes with a group of people thoroughly enjoying their time together while exploring their own abilities as well as that of established and famous artists.

The open studio with its drop-in programme – which means that anyone can join in whenever they wish, no previous art experience is necessary, no booking is required, nor is it necessary to attend every week – began this season in September and will run every Friday morning from 10.00 am to 1.00 pm until May 2007. Participants can work on their own projects in the studio or work with the facilitating artists on new projects. Frequent visits to the IMMA exhibitions and the resident artists’ studios are part of the programme to give participants a chance to discover the secrets of professional and famous artists producing modern and contemporary art.

There is no charge for these workshops and basic materials are provided. On the day of my visit participants were using pencils, rulers, carbon paper, charcoal and black felt tip pens on various types of paper to produce caricatures of the group as they worked, line drawings to challenge a mathematician, balloons and space ships, country landscapes, flowers and squiggles. Two artists, Claire Halpin and Chris Jones, were assisting 27 people in two spacious rooms with lots of fluid movements and concentrated moments discussing design, going on; big flourishing charcoal sketches were throwing down the gauntlet to scissors, small mathematical set squares and compasses while tracing paper and acetate worked their perfection. I was told that pottery and painting are also included in the activities during the season.

Over a cup of coffee in the café near the bookshop Lisa Moran, IMMA’s Curator of Education and Community Programmes, told me how, when the museum first opened, it was important to them to link in with local communities to involve them in the experience of the museum exhibitions; and she outlined the museum’s plans for the growth of the project: ‘It can go through stages of chaos with erratic attendance and we feel it’s still a new and experimental project. Studio 10, in its present open form, is only in its second year. We’re conscious of keeping the group’s attachment to the museum, emphasising what the participants are seeing in the gallery space; looking, discussing and responding to that in the workshop. We want to keep revisiting that connection, having the kind of discussions which question the artist’s intention and why they choose to use the materials they do. It’s facilitating experimentation, exploring and looking at things from a different angle and encouraging them to challenge assumptions and question the work. We’ve had some very interesting discussions. We constantly monitor the process, informed by people’s experiences, and if the project becomes too unwieldy we remain open to change. A strand of it may stay the same and become self selecting but we could also run parallel strands of the same model to accommodate the group’s needs. The idea is to give people a range of options.’

Wanting to know more about what regular attendees to the workshops felt I flipped through a report Lisa had given me entitled ‘Even Her Nudes Were Lovely’:

‘… even her [Mainie Jellett, artist] nude figures were lovely, they weren’t these big floppy fat ones …’

‘… and when you go home especially when you’re living alone you don’t feel so lonely because you know you’ve someone out there even though you’re not talking to them they’re there if you want them and you feel like one happy family …’

‘It’s all new to me because I went to school in 1941 … you were never ever brought to museums you were never brought to anything … the only thing I ever did in school was cooking … sewing and once a month brought walking to confession.’

‘Well through that really you kinda look at the world different, you don’t go around with your head on the ground, you’re looking at the shape of roofs and trees and the skyline and you see things.’

The Irish Museum of Modern Art is a comfortable five to ten minute walk from Heuston Station at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin 8.

The Morning After …

How are the Stricter Drink Driving Laws Affecting Pubs in Rural Ireland?

The Morning After …

By Lynda Cookson

In shoes big enough to float him to America, a work-worn suit with the jacket threatening to drown him, and a battered cap on his head, a local Connemara man nods his greeting as he rolls into the pub in Maam with a walk unique to himself …. long, measured steps which he’s cultivated to compensate for his slight build, or maybe so that he can cope with those huge shoes! He heads straight to the local's corner for his pint and a hearty conversation with his mates. Have the recent more strict drink driving laws affected his social and drinking life? Possibly only in that there are now less people to give him a lift the few kilometres home.

It was a Monday evening about 8.45 pm when I spoke to a couple of regular drinkers in the pub in Maam, deep in Connemara. Keane’s Pub (with its excellent reputation for an outstanding pint of porter) is the only pub Garrett Keane frequents – he lives hardly 200 metres down the road and always drives there and back: ‘The social lives of the older folk are going down the tube fast. There are no taxis here, and the locals’ cars are their lifeline, so they come in for their pint about 6pm and are out home by 7 pm. They can’t risk losing their licences. It’s a battle because country folk are not great TV watchers either and it doesn’t leave much else for them in the evenings. The eighteen and nineteen year olds have grown up with the drink driving laws – they’re used to them – and have no problem designating a driver for the evening so it isn’t such a problem or such a huge social change for them.’

Sitting next to Garrett was Martin Berry who found his solution before the problem arose – he gave up drink a long time ago, before the drink drive regulations, and now enjoys pub social life with a soft drink on the counter before him. So perhaps you don’t have to drink alcohol to be a part of the pub scene.

In O’Malley’s pub in Cornamona on a weekday at 4 pm I found Maggie behind the counter serving pints to five regulars - Martin Monroe, Michael Anthony, John Walsh, Sean Sullivan and Seán O’Gabháin. Not letting the changes get them down they declared there was no problem at all with the recent tightening in law. With at least one taxi operating in the area and a generous offering of lifts to and fro by neighbours and friends plus the added advantage of having feet on the ends of their legs ... ‘and hopefully you don’t walk into a heap of briars!’ … it didn’t seem to worry anyone. However, a little more chat revealed that the taxi service is a bit hit and miss and increasingly Maggie is hearing: ‘A coupla pints only please because I’m travelling in the morning.’

I heard these words from more publicans and regulars drinkers than just Maggie: ‘The recent random checks and morning-after checks have hit pub life big time. It’s a huge problem and rural pubs are closing down nationwide. Sunday night is a really bad night now because people have to drive to work in the morning and can’t risk the checks. Social life has taken a big drop.’

On the other side of Galway city, at the edge of Kilcolgan, is O’Donohue’s pub run by Michael and Mary O’Donohue. They’ve been there twenty-seven years and run a B&B as well as the pub. Mary outlined their struggle to keep going: ‘Yes, people have definitely stopped coming since the random testing was introduced. No-one is taking any chances now and it’s a disaster. The pub business peaked in 2001 and then fell away with the smoking ban making a small difference – we were hoping it would level out but it didn’t – and now the drink drive regulations have extinguished that light of hope. The taxis in the area are not reliable and I don’t feel I should have to organise lifts. We provide top quality pints, a warm pub with TV and quiz evenings but feel we are fighting against the wind. There are not so many older folk, with their card evenings, left now and the younger crowd here are different – drink is not their first priority.’

A little way down the road from O’Donohues pub is Raftery’s Rest, a cheerful pub and restaurant with lively session music one night a week. I spotted a shiny white courtesy car parked at the entrance to the pub and was told that it’s used to ferry drinkers home, at no set time, simply whenever the need arises. Albert Hynes was one of two men resting their elbows on the counter next to their pints late that afternoon and this is what he had to say: ‘People drink less and there’s a lot more home drinking now even although many people do live within walking distance. I usually have a family member drop me off and fetch me but it’s inconvenient and my lack of independence makes it a drag.’ Are some drinkers too embarrassed to use a courtesy car emblazoned with the pub’s logo?

The inevitable and necessary drink driving laws are badly affecting both pubs and drinkers in the rural areas, literally bringing it down to the survival of the fittest. So where will it go from here? Change always brings in new things and loses some of the old and familiar; it closes doors and opens others to fresh potential … are we game for sessions of music and companionable chat in bright new coffee shops in the back of beyond?

Be ‘Fit for Longer’

Be ‘Fit for Longer’

By Lynda Cookson

This article was written at the end of 2006 whilst I was living in Ireland. Twelve years have passed since that time, but this fun way of keeping fit in your senior years will never cease to apply.

‘Put your right foot in, put your right foot out, do the …..’ – no, the Hokey Cokey it is not; and neither is it line dancing, ballet or ballroom dancing; but you may dance in a line and you may dance with partners … although partners are not necessary. It involves some repeated exercises that may be familiar to fitness and movement class attendees; it uses a lot of popular dance music and a lot of specially choreographed sequences in keeping with the sound of the music. What is it?

With a huge grin on her face, dance teacher Philippa Donnellan says: ‘It’s contemporary dance. But please don’t ask me to define contemporary dance because it encompasses such a lot of different styles! Just follow what I do and enjoy the music.’

We’re in the Carlton Hall in Shelmartin Avenue, Dublin 3 where the Marino Active Retirement Group has gathered to experience a ‘Keep On Your Toes’ class, a free taster session to introduce the ‘Fit For Longer’ classes. Coats and scarves are happily being discarded as the group prepares to lunge and shimmy in time to swing and foxtrot music. A large circle is formed and the class starts with simple exercises like circling hands from the wrists, rubbing arm muscles and reaching to the ceiling. One of the exercises involves a hugging movement which elicits bold ‘Ooohs’ and laughter each time it happens

‘Keep On Your Toes’ is for people interested in staying active and agile, aimed at existing active retirement groups, and people who meet together on a regular basis, to encourage them to join ‘Fit For Longer’ classes. Another option for participants to consider is running a regular class in their own environment with Philippa coming to them to teach. The class combines easy stretch exercises to music which helps maintain flexibility, balance and co- ordination; and dance sequences which are simple to learn and fun to do.

Regular ‘Fit For Longer’ dance classes, are scheduled to run for two eight-week terms from the beginning of February 2007 until the end of April 2007 on Wednesday afternoons. Each session is an hour-and- a-half long, with a break in the middle, costs five euro per person per session, and is held in the centre of Dublin in St Teresa’s Church, Clarendon Street, Dublin 2. Classes are taught by Philippa as part of CoisCéim Broadreach for people in the over-50 age group.

The comfortable thing about these classes is that the dance and exercises can be done whilst either sitting or standing, accommodating people from all levels of health and conducted at a pace which allows participants to grow into the movements without feeling stressed or overworked. Emphasis is on enjoyment rather than ability and it’s a very social event. Philippa explained further: ‘Dance movement is an activity which brings people together, promoting well-being and a sense of togetherness even for those watching from the sidelines. The most benefit comes from regular attendance but if you can’t manage to be there once or twice, that’s not a problem. St Teresa’s has a café downstairs where after-class get-togethers take place - it’s a fantastic venue.’

She is a very able teacher who trained at the Martha Graham School of Dance in New York as a contemporary dancer and has many years of freelance dancing, teaching and choreography under her belt. She’s worked with a wide cross section of people – professionals and non- professionals; different groups and communities whether in dance, theatre or school; and many young people. In July this year she joined CoisCéim DanceTheatre in Sackville Place, Dublin as Community Dance Director and set up CoisCéim Broadreach.

Philippa told me a delightful story about ‘Gut Busters’, a large group of Dublin Bus employees, mostly bus drivers, who volunteered to participate in a two-month health programme recently. ‘They met once a week and we produced a show called ‘The Story of Joe’ about a man who was given a pair of red shoes and how he started to dance. He met a beautiful woman and then lost a shoe to the bad guys, but it all ended happily when the beautiful woman got the shoe back and found Joe! Some of these people had never performed or danced before and never thought they would get to learn about choreography, costumes and dance. Some of them made a fantastic mafia involved in a fight and others were very impressive as angels with silver wings. They were brilliant!’

CoisCéim Dance Theatre is a contemporary dance company with a mission to break new ground in creating and presenting dance theatre to Irish and International audiences. ‘Keep On Your Toes’ and ‘Fit For Longer’ are part of CoisCéim Broadreach, the new outreach programme designed to provide access and opportunity for people to experience dance as participants, creators, performers and observers.

Giving New Life to Centuries Old Art Treasures

Lingering Flood Damage in Florence

Giving New Life to Centuries Old Art Treasures

By Lynda Cookson

A breeze blowing off the Arno River flips my cheap umbrella inside out as I cross the Ponte Vecchio bridge, pass the lovers’ brass padlocks clinging to the railing around the statue on the bridge (the padlock keys have been flung into the muddy waters below), and squelch along to the Pitti Palace. I can see why the Medici family who ruled in Florence during the Renaissance wanted to build the corridor above the shops on the Ponte Vecchio from the Uffizi Gallery to the Pitti Palace … it’s a long way to walk in the winter rain or the summer heat, although I fear their intentions were more of a snooty nature than of distance and weather!

I have an appointment with Dr Ornella Casassa, Art Restorer and Curator of the Silver Museum in the Pitti Palace, and am led at speed through rooms and passages filled with paintings, frescos and antique objects. I want to yell: ‘Slow down! Slow down!’ so that I can absorb a little of their beauty as I pass. I had only been in Florence for a couple of days and my brain had not yet reached art saturation point, which it would do long before it was time to leave Florence.

Art Restoration

Dr Casassa, a tiny woman with a big twinkle in her eye, sat me down next to a vast expanse of paper-laden desk, facing three original oil portraits of the Medici family looking rather petulant, saying : ‘I chose to work with art restoration because of the big need after the great flood of 1966. My first job was to restore a most important work of art, the big cross, the “Crocifisso (Crucifix) by Cimabue” in the Church of Santa Croce, which suffered a severe loss of paint.’ She is passionate about the work she chose to do, leans forward, and the twinkle in her eye becomes intense as she tells me more about the restoration: ‘Apart from the big smell which was everywhere after the flood, the painting was severely damaged and needed cleaning and repainting where the paint had lost its colour. It was decided that the repainting should be done in a neutral manner with no attempt made to reproduce the style of the artist Cimabue. We feel that works of art are like humans who are scarred and wrinkled with life-events and time and that it is important not to try and reproduce exactly, not to try and make the painting look brand new, but to rather let it keep the character of its life. That means that where the paint has been erased forever, we do not repaint and merely clean; only where the paint still exists but has lost its colour do we restore with paint. The painting had to be removed from its support and we used a complicated and innovative technique incorporating a microscope and small soft brushes of animal fur made by “piccolo”. Special cream is applied to a very small area, a centimetre at a time, and gently massaged onto the surface with a brush until the white cream becomes discoloured with dirt. It is then wiped away and the next tiny bit is attended to. We do not work systematically along from left to right or from top to bottom but rather a bit here and a bit there, all over the painting. There is much analysis to decide which parts are to be cleaned first and in which order. We generally begin with the weakest colour and also have to decide when to leave a colour-change alone in order to keep the balance. For example, within white there may be some yellow bits which need to be left untouched. The process takes a very long time indeed.’

The last painting which Dr Casassa restored before becoming Curator was ‘The Primavera’ (Spring) by Sandro Botticelli which now hangs in the Uffizi Gallery. She says cleaning this painting was extremely difficult and needed time-consuming research before the restorers were able to decide which solvents to use so that the layers of dirt could be cleaned away without penetrating the grease tempera or the wood. She says : ‘I feel the process of restoration is like a conductor getting the best from his orchestra using a combination of techniques to create a piece of art from the original creation, yet maintaining respect for the original creator and for the process of time and age.’

The Role of Art History

My second visit, on the other side of the city in the imposing Fortezza da Basso, was to Sig.‘We only know art techniques from the 14^th Century and we suspect that techniques before that were very different so we have undertaken a lot of research in this regard in Italy. You see, the problem is not always just conservation but also one of the technique used in ancient paintings. The historical meaning is connected to the stylistic evaluation of the work and it is important to remember that the process of restoration is holistic and not just to beautify. There are always choices to make which can radically alter the process and if you know the history you can make a better choice. The more information you have, the less is the danger of mistake.’ During the last ten years the laboratory has been working on restoring eight paintings, but there are many more in storage awaiting their turn. It’s not been a question of insufficient money to carry out the restoration but rather a matter of researching the best methods to use. stylistic, artistic, technical, scientific and conservation angles have been studied. He says:

Sculpture

Finally, I knocked on the door of Sig. Patrizio Osticresi who co-ordinates the sculpture restoration for the Opera Santa Maria della Fiora. They have a workshop of eight restorers which I found in a side street off the Piazza Duomo, very tidy and filled with cool white men in marble, and sculpting tools. Sadly, at the time of my visit, I caught the last restorer leaving for siesta, so missed watching them work, but he allowed me in to take photographs. Part of the process of restoration is to first create a duplicate which takes the place of the original either permanently while the original resides in a more protective environment, or temporarily until the restoration is complete. A copy of the bronze ‘Paradise Door’ by Ghibertes was installed in the Baptistre in 1990 while the original is being restored, and it is due to be replaced at the end of 2006. Marble panels of the Bell Tower are also undergoing restoration and the original statues will be placed in a museum to preserve them from pollution.

The work of the restorers goes on and it’s hard to tell whether you are gazing in wonder at the original or the duplicate …

An artist tamed

CONQUERING CHARCOAL

An artist tamed

By Lynda Cookson

I am an artist of the spoilt brat variety. Self taught and revelling in learning what I want to learn, how and when I want to learn it; accepting the artistic challenges I am free to choose, when I feel ready. Heady stuff. Some of the guilt which comes with this exciting joyride was assuaged when I listened to the Francis Bacon video at the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin recently. His opinion on being a self taught artist was that he wanted to learn the techniques of painting in his own unique way, untainted by preconceived ideas and methods. Go Francis!

And then I went on a sketching trip in the Abruzzo province of Italy.

The first lesson, in the shade of the medieval ruined castle in the deserted hilltop town of Rocca Calascio, was very scary. Not only was it my first lesson, ever, in sketching (after more than ten years of being a professional artist) but the view stretched for endless miles - hot, hazy and distant mountains. Too intimidated at this stage to use charcoal, I grabbed a pencil and tried desperately to find a bit of that scene on which to focus my sketch. My personal style is to take a close-up view of the subject and to work with that. Finally, a few exercises into the lesson I realised that to capture the corner of the castle tower in my sketch gave me both the close-up I relate to as well as the distant hills we were being asked to portray. By the end of that lesson, having been put through a number of challenging sketching exercises too numerous and intricate to describe here, and being encouraged to look at the endless view with a different slant, I felt humbled but good. I had learnt to have confidence that my individual style will always win through no matter what the circumstances and that it will always be there, like an old and trusted friend.

That evening we were driven to Camp Imperatore, the Emperor’s fields, a high altitude plateau surrounded by mountains and populated with hundreds of wild horses. On the way to the plateau, we stopped off in the valley known for the filming of spaghetti westerns, and made stone sculptures in the dry river bed. We laid stones out in patterns and built them up as beacons, giving us light-hearted artistic relief before the last sketching lesson of the day. This time we were allowed to use paints if we wished – ‘Yay!’ I thought. ‘My comfort zone.’ Oh dear. In my eagerness I made such a mess of my painting! I totally over-worked it and was about to hide it and start again when the lesson ended. Now if I was back in my studio, it would not have seen the light of day and no-one would have been the wiser – but ‘the mess’ was whipped away from me and joined the pile of art to be analysed after dinner. I needn’t have worried. Most of the group felt the same and the tutors were kind and gentle, using very constructive criticism to nudge us all along the way.

Morning dawned fresh and hot and we were whisked off to the Masciarelli wine estate for a tour and another art lesson. After a huge lunch of delicious local foods we settled in the garden of the restored baron’s mansion on the estate, amongst ancient vines being nurtured for future experiments, and were set free amongst the pencils, paints, charcoals and inks. It was here that Miro’s ghost whispered in my ear and I produced my ‘Barbed Wire Abstract’ – not exactly a masterpiece, to put it mildly, but a wonderful release of my feelings of inadequacy which had been building up. I was quite happy to be left messing with paints giving a mere nod to the charcoal challenge which I was avoiding by basing my ‘Big Abstract’ depicting a corner of the mansion in charcoal. Big deal – a window, some outlined bricks and roof, and a sweeping pathway marked out in charcoal. Did I really think I was getting into the charcoal thing?

Another scorching day and we found ourselves perching on rocks in the shade of a tree amongst the roman ruins of Juvanum where I finally had to face The Challenge of the Charcoal. No choice. We were given five minutes to make a strong charcoal sketch of whatever we chose to focus on and then pass it on to someone else in the group. Each person then had to rub away the sketch of the person they had received it from, and produce a new sketch on top of that. We did this four or five times until our hands and the boards were black with soot. It was heart-breaking rubbing away someone’s masterpiece and yet wonderfully exhilarating to make a sketch, try out new techniques, feel free to make mistakes in the name of progress, and know that you were getting better each time you did it. I became quite fond of the haystacks I was drawing and was only sad that what I felt was my best sketch had had to be rubbed out.

Later that day we walked up into the old town ruins of Gessopalena, an area famous for its chalk quarries and where the name of the substance used to prime art supports (gesso) comes from. This was to be our last art lesson and this time I faced my challenge head-on and picked up the charcoal. I didn’t manage to finish the large sketch – probably because I was trying to be too precious about it and it ended up pretty messy and undefined, but I felt I had conquered my fear of working with charcoal and have now bought myself a few sticks to continue the challenge at home.

To meet your own charcoal challenge or to simply enjoy the light-hearted and fun company, expert art tuition, wonderful scenery and delicious food you’ll find on these art tours contact James and Kerry at Point 101.