The Gwen John Appreciation Society

I’m down in Sussex for a few days to see my mum - which is always a joy. We’ve been lucky with the weather and have managed plenty of beach walks and café visits - which are also always a joy!

Today, we caught the bus to Chichester to do some shopping and we were pretty successful in tracking down most of the things on my mum’s list, including a great pair of sneakers in a sale. She looks so cool in them! We also stopped for an al fresco lunch at Fenwick’s Café in Priory Park www.fenwickscafe.com AND restorative beverages at Trading Post Coffee Roasters www.tradingpostcoffee.co.uk/pages/trading-post-coffee-roasters-chichester before she caught the bus back home and I nipped into Chichester Cathedral for my first visit in far too long.

I’ve always loved the cathedral - especially the Arundel Tomb, as immortalised by Philip Larkin www.chichestercathedral.org.uk/visiting-us/cathedral-plan/delve-deeper-arundel-tomb and the window designed by Marc Chagall www.chichestercathedral.org.uk/visiting/cathedral-plan/delve-deeper-marc-chagall-window Today, I also saw the exhibition, ‘Resilience in Clay’ by the artist Kate Viner www.chichestercathedral.org.uk/events/resilience-clay featuring sculptures of people who are refugees or seeking asylum in the local area, and was reminded of how churches have traditionally been places of sanctuary. I also pondered on how ‘the church’ has too often been a place of repression and harm. Personally, I wish churches would be considerably more progressive on all sorts of issues these days, but I’ll spare you a rant about that!

After a saunter around the cathedral, cloisters and gardens I wandered over to the excellent Pallant House Gallery to commune with two things that feed my soul and soothe my spirit rather more than religion - art and friends! Pallant House is a beautiful gallery with a very good collection, a lovely café and a marvellous bookshop, but today’s visit was specifically to see the wonderful Gwen John exhibition https://pallant.org.uk/whats-on/gwen-john-art-and-life/ (I can’t recommend it highly enough. I was on the verge of tears several times just standing in front of her portraits and self-portraits and marvelling at them) and to meet up with my friends Debbie and Pete (pictured above) who I haven’t had a good catch-up with in far too long. It was so good to see them. 

After our gallery visit they very generously treated me to a delicious Thai meal at Lemongrass (also recommended if you’re in this neck of the woods https://lemongrassbynasir.co.uk/chichester/) and a good old chat before dropping me off at my mum’s. Thanks so much to both of them. 

They asked me whether I’d discovered any new music lately and I went a bit blank, but afterwards I remembered that one artist I’ve recently stumbled upon and have been enjoying is Joanna Sternberg, so here they are with ‘I’ve Got Me’ https://youtu.be/HJBbPyS68TE