Month: October 2018

David Hockney is an artist of extraordinary talent. He was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, in 1937 and attended two Colleges of Art before moving to Los Angeles. There he produced his series of paintings of swimming pools using a beautifully precise, partly abstract style with bright, pure colours.

He has created works in other media – photography, for instance – and has explored the use of modern technology, but he says that “painting can’t die because photography is not good enough, actually” (PBSNewsHour, 2018). This was at the time of his recent exhibition entitled ’82 Portraits and 1 Still-Life’. He is said to have described each portrait as a ’20-hour exposure’.

Another of his recent works was a stained-glass window at Westminster Abbey, commissioned to celebrate the reign of Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022). True to form, he used the latest technology – an iPad – to design its brightly-coloured countryside scene.

(Top images LtoR: Connaissance des Arts at Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 3.0 & Francisco Anzola at Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0)

The Chelsea Pensioners are retired men and women of the British Army who have no dependants. They receive care and comradeship in return for their past service to the country. There are currently around 300 veterans resident at the home of the Chelsea Pensioners, which is the Royal Hospital Chelsea. This was given to them by King Charles II (1630-85).

They have a blue uniform for casual wear and the famous scarlet for official occasions such as Remembrance Sunday. The annual Chelsea Flower Show takes place in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea.

(Image: Tim Parker at Flickr.com / CC BY 2.0)

In the early 19th century there was a very popular cookbook called ‘A New System of Domestic Cookery’ (1806, 1st of 65 editions) by the English author, Maria Eliza Rundell (1745/7-1828). In it was the first published recipe for bubble and squeak.

This is a delicious, low-cost, vegan dish of fried potato and other vegetables such as cabbage and brussel sprouts. Traditionally, it is a way to use up left-over vegetables after a roast dinner and it was eaten for breakfast, but today the vegetables are often cooked especially for making ‘bubble and squeak’ as part of the main meal of the day.

In Scotland this dish is called ‘rumbledethumps’ and in Ireland it is ‘colcannon’. The name ‘bubble and squeak’ comes from the noise that the cabbage makes when it is fried.

(Image: Kolforn at Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0)