đź“– 7 Books in 16 languages đź“š including: How To Change The World A Modest Book About How To Make An Adequate Speech.
Save the date - don’t make me laugh
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Hello Could I be better at planning ahead? Yes. For instance: I have a solo show of my magnolia pics in London next week, and only now am I announcing it. “Save The Date!”, he says, with two days to go. Cue hollow laughter. But there we are.
I’ve been planning this for years. Each spring - more or less before anything else comes out - the magnolias go ping! with their great prehistoric lightbulbs and I wander around the streets of Hampstead making pictures of them. I think to myself: I should put on a show! But then comes the wind, and the rain. The magnolias lose their flowers. And my attention wanders to the next thing. ​ This year, I decided to Do Something About It. I went to Burgh House, in Hampstead. It’s a beautiful old Georgian House with a gallery at the back. It happens also to be the place where I had a party to celebrate my engagement, four and a half billion years ago, so it means a lot to me. The nice people at Burgh House said the gallery was available either in mid-Feb or late April. And for FOUR weeks I procrastinated. ​ Should I do the show TOO EARLY (before the magnolias flower) or TOO LATE? Last Wednesday (with six days to go) I said, Yes, please, I’ll take it next week. ​ One of the first things I did was invite the local magnolia keepers whose trees have given me so much pleasure. I wrote a note, stuck a photo of their own particular tree on the envelope, and went out with beloved schnauzer Peanut to hand-deliver them. More soon. ​
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John-Paul Flintoff
đź“– 7 Books in 16 languages đź“š including: How To Change The World A Modest Book About How To Make An Adequate Speech.
Did you read yesterday’s email As well as drawing her - in her office in Wiltshire on Sunday - I took photos to use as reference as I continue to work on her portrait. “Her”? The former very senior editor at The Times, author and presenter of various flagship BBC radio programmes. The woman I mentioned in yesterday’s email. I hope you got that email. My intention is to send THIS email, which you’re reading now, only to people who received yesterday’s, and actively opted in to receive more in...
On Sunday I drove from London to Wiltshire. Just after Stonehenge I turned off the A303 and continued for a short distance until I came into a village. (Hello Reader. This is my newsletter.) There was scaffolding on the front of the first house and a cattle grid at the gates. I drove across, then along the driveway. I had come to start work on a new portrait. (I call this series Portraits of Interesting People in their Offices, or Poipitos.) The Interesting Person in question is a woman,...
Today’s date: 25 March 2025 Hello Reader This is the January newsletter for Special Projects members. Thank you for being one. Here’s a drawing of my friends Jo and Steve, at the gallery where I showed my magnolia prints and original paintings in Feb. I asked them to pose in echo of a well known Hockney painting, Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy. Various reasons: I wanted to make a picture while my magnolia pictures were on the gallery walls, as a kind of reminder to myself in years to come of how...