18th September 2017
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100 Views of Swindon
The 2017 Open Studios took place across the last two weekends. As ever this splendid event clashed with my birthday celebrations. And, as they always take place in London/Surrey, I miss it. I did though manage to get to David Bent’s studio and to Tim Carroll’s on the last day of the second weekend.
I was keen to get to see David to get a good gander at one of his latest aviation related works: ‘Circus’ – having only had a glimpse of it until now. So here it is with its artist.
But what and who I particularly want to talk about in this post is Tim Carroll, some of his work, and his book ‘100 Views of Swindon’.
Tim’s work came onto horizon some time ago now – well before I knew him – when I bought a small piece of his from Artsite and the Post Modern. I hung my nose over it for long enough and hemmed and hawed so in the end I bought it – despite being skint. I love it. I’m can’t explain why – I just do. And – as I’ve explained in this post – that’s enough! As far as I’m concerned anyway. Here it is:
Tim uses this motif a lot – sometimes in ceramic form. Others in painted form. Sometime they are more rounded – but I like the angular nature of this one. I like to think of then as synchronized swimmers.
100 views of Swindon
The other thing I wanted to talk about on here is Tim’s 100 views of Swindon. Doing a Ronseal this is exactly what it says it is: a collection of paintings that comprises 100 personal and intimate views of Swindon. #obvs
I love these paintings. I love the style and I love the colours. And yes, I love them because they’re of Swindon. I also love because they don’t focus on the iconic and what one might consider to be the picturesque but rather prosaic, everyday Swindon scenes. The ones that we see all the time but yet rarely notice.
And now Tim’s collected them all together in to a lovely little book.
As it says in the book’s foreward: ‘… Tim’s 100 Views of Swindon wholeheartedly embraces the town from his own perspective; at street level, peering round a corner or over a rooftop. He brings urban scenes to life by accepting the awkward angles from which you might approach them, including what might be considered obstructions to the view such as street signs and parked cars.’
It’s a super collection of work. When I was deciding which to buy I had a terrible time selecting one. And there had to be a choice as I simply don’t have the wall space. In the end I plumped for one that featured the David Murray John tower because I love that building. So I’ve contented myself with that one and a few others in postcard form – notably The Blondinis. This post shows Tim, a few years back now, doing some restoration work on this gorgeous and exuberant piece of public art.
I also bought one of the tented market to give to my friend Ash Mistry, owner of Eggelicious. Here it is in situ on the Eggelicious stand in the tented market:
Print by Tim Carroll – one of his 100 views of Swindon
NB: Eggelicious are now in the new food court, The Crossing in the Brunel Centre. And E2 on Wood Street.
Of course, what we have here is bit of artistic foreshadowing what with the tented market now earmarked for demolition. So not only is 100 views a super affordable (£10) coffee table book that’s a perfect gift for any Swindonian it’s also a unique record of a town that was three years in the making!
The gorgeous book is available from the central library on Regent Circus or from Linda Kasmaty. If you’re a Twitter user look for @kasmaty
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