Hello Reader It’s three weeks since the 'Magnolias of Hampstead' exhibition at Burgh House. (Hello Reader. This is my newsletter.) Been a bit of a whirlwind, wrapping paintings very carefully, arranging couriers: and... . . . [ after an agonising wait ] . . . ...receiving confirmation that the deliveries arrived in one piece: There's something extremely satisfying about seeing these magnolias settling into their new homes. *** The exhibition itself feels like a bit of a dream now. I keep...
2 months ago • 1 min read
This woman, in this room? Unimaginable just four years ago. She was in prison, in Iran. And - more trivially - I couldn’t have dreamed that I would be doing a solo show of my art. (Hello Reader. This is my newsletter.) You may recall that in 2021 Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband Richard went on hunger strike outside the Foreign Office in London. He was protesting at the UK government’s failure to get his wife released. I went to see him. I wasn’t on assignment or anything. It was just me,...
3 months ago • 2 min read
A weird thing happened after I booked the venue for my solo art show: blood drained from my fingers, turning them yellow. They tingled painfully. I took photos to show my wife: After an hour, the blood rushed back and the fingertips went purple. (Hello Reader. This is my newsletter.) If you don’t know already, I’m doing my first-ever solo art show, at a gallery in Hampstead. I’ve loved it, but also panicked a lot. I think that must explain the fingertip thingy. Tomorrow is the last day....
3 months ago • 2 min read
I got some terrific replies to yesterday’s email. Thank you for being so kind, and funny, and wise. I’ve done a lot of the things I need to do. Other things will simply have to remain undone. I’m taking the pictures to Burgh House shortly, where I’ll probably write a description of them all by hand and stick that on the wall too. I may make some videos, probably for my Instagram, but who can tell. Great News This morning I received a Whatsapp message from K., a reader of this newsletter who...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Sorry, I know it’s COMPLETELY unacceptable to send out a newsletter just 15 minutes after the last one - but the fact is that I’m feeling really nervous right now. I’ve got 24 hours to get all my magnolia pictures together - I keep remembering new ones. Then decide which ones to show at the gallery - private view is TOMORROW - and which ones to leave out. I need to make a list of them all, with prices, and write something about "Me, The Artist”. Then make printed copies of it all to hand out...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Oops. Reader, I forgot to tell you these details, yesterday: Magnolias of Hampstead “Golden Hour Magnolia” by me, JPF Location: Burgh House, New End Square, London NW3. Dates: 19 to 23 FebOpening hours: 10 am to 4pm (Weds, Thurs, Fri and Sunday) - Eager to promote this exhibition, I watched a social media expert talk about making videos that go viral. He seemed to know what he was talking about. I followed his instructions and made a couple of <1m videos. Here’s one:...
3 months ago • 1 min read
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. (Hello Reader. This is my newsletter.) 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...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Yesterday I told you that my late father in law, Jack, could distinguish between 50 to 60 industrial grades of paper. That got me thinking. Recently, on LinkedIn, I mentioned that printed newspapers still seem wonderful to me - even accounting for stories and opinions within them that I don’t like so much. One of the people who commented on my LinkedIn post made an interesting distinction between digital media and putting something on paper. Print demonstrates a commitment, he said. There’s a...
5 months ago • 2 min read
“For many years, I have been wondering how I could turn the bag of letters written by my father, in West Africa between 1942 and 1944, into some kind of story.” That’s what someone told me an email I received last week. Hi, this is my newsletter. I was excited by the coincidence of this particular request coming in November, because every year in November I think about offering a month-long course* on making an heirloom of family stories. A family project of that kind seems like a good thing...
6 months ago • 2 min read
