dashing about

Panel 4/16 titled It's Aga Gaga and on the right some Happy Fish, two of Patrick's latest offerings

Following Sherborne, drove up to Film Farm where we worked on the promo until about 9pm. The following day I caught the train to London and was interviewed by a Japanese film company about FB (odd being the other side of the camera and also odd that I'm appearing on Japanese TV, have appeared on Hong Kong TV but have never appeared on British TV?!) ). If you have access to Japanese TV (and who doesn't) the programme is to be aired 8 May and is titled Bi no Kyojintachi. Thence back to FF and more work on the promo, same again Saturday and Sunday plus charging of batteries and all that palaver. Monday drove down to Jay and Jeremy who kindly put us up for 2 nights and on to the Reyntiens benefit at the Glaziers Hall.

And what a super evening it was, a great buzz about the place. Lots of Patrick's new autonomous panels were on display and hopefully selling like hot cakes (or even glass panels), the wine flowed freely, Graham Jones did an excellent presentation - followed by what was of course the highlight of the evening - our promo. We'd had quite a lot of fun with it because it's a completely different beastie from a long documentary, a mere 10 minutes, has to hit people hard (hopefully without hurting them) and it seemed to go down very well - lots of laughter and folks said afterwards that we'd captured Patrick perfectly. Not sure anyone noticed my Clockwork Orange moment or some of the musical subtleties - but I was pretty chuffed by the response. After another selling and imbibing break Danny Lane (an ex student of Patrick's) gave another amusing presentation (I like the idea of old Morris Minor Traveller Estates being described as half timbered). And then Patrick performed live - painting a glass panel (see right).

Talked to lots of Patrick's friends and ex students and was struck by how supportive they all were and how much they 'loved' Patrick. They also mentioned his obvious joy in teaching, or rather not teaching in a didactic way, but imparting and sharing knowledge, and a cunning plan started gearing up in my little noddle.

And when it was all over Charles persuaded me into a pizza parlour - don't get me wrong, I do like pizzas, but I only have to look at one and the weight piles on! Anyway I discovered they made doughnut pizzas with less fattening centres, so I was almost happy.
The following day a change of plans since John was judging a competition, so we interviewed Ray King in John's studio (Ray being another American ex student of Patrick, a lovely man, very modest), followed by Patrick glass painting (and he included a phoenix about which I was delighted - symbolism of Coventry and Cochem etc etc) and then an interview with Richard DeMarco who apparently studied with Patrick at Edinburgh College of Art. He says there's to be a Reyntiens exhibition at the National Gallery in Edinburgh this coming autumn which would be absolutely fantastic but, having curated exhibitions myself and knowing how long in advance they are planned, am somewhat sceptical because no-one else appears to have heard about it.

Ray King above, and below Richard DeMarco and Terry

Punk Patrick Stark raving ... and the Sanderson window

Early evening we drove to the Sanderson Hotel (used to be Sanderson's showrooms) in central London and met up with Patrick again to film him talking abut the huge stained glass window he and Piper made/designed. He mentioned that Piper may have been inspired by fireworks so Charles did some filming in that manner which was rather fun - shooting up the panel and exploding out at the top. Patrick was in great form despite his busy schedule and larked about conforming to the bizarre Stark furniture.
Wednesday an interview with the Master of the Grocers Hall (the Grocers own Oundle and so are responsible for the beautiful and ground-breaking windows in the Chapel) and then back to FF to collapse!

Andrew Dalton, Master of the Grocers' Company, together with bust of Mr Sanderson, a former notable Headmaster at Oundle