Summer Staycation Art

 Summer in England is going to be controlled by the pandemic.

 Boris has messed up again by failing to close the borders allowing a dangerous Indian  covid mutation to enter the UK and spread. 

 This year we have arranged to go on vacation in England. A couple of hours in the car to a nice hotel in Aldeburgh in Suffolk

 No manic airport, no testing , no worries about that group coughing in the swimming pool or putting their unwashed hands into the dinner buffet.

A room with a sea view, six delicious dinners and breakfasts, nice little shops and cafes and a trip to one of the other nearby villages.

The Way We Were

  Here are some of my favourite paintings of summertime in England with reminders of how holidays used to be.

                                              

                                         

Two Women in a Garden by Eric Ravilious


This reminds of the days before frozen peas when sitting in the garden shelling home grown peas was a job usually given to me. I hated finding maggoty ones.

                                              

                                             

Sea Shore by Mary Fedden

 Family holidays spent on the east coast included my Dad buying us shrimping nets like these along with buckets and spades. Catching little crabs in the rocks was a great excitement.

                                                   

                             

Dandelions by William Nicholson


Picnics in the Cotswolds were popular with my family ,cheaper than cafes which were few and far between. Sandwiches, boiled eggs, home made cake and flasks of tea would be eaten sitting on a rug in a field like this. Blowing dandelion clocks were part of the fun.

                                                

Cambridge, St John's Bridge by Gwen Raverat, an LNER poster design

                               This is very close to where I live now.

Many people travelled by train to holiday destinations in the U.K. encouraged by posters of attractive places

                                             

 

I do not know who this painting is by  but it reminds me of my grandmother preparing to cook fish.

                                                                      

           

                                     Roses by Diana Armfield.

This artist is 100 years old this year. Her paintings of flowers and the country side are exquisite examples of a loose style of of art work. Reminders of the jugs of flowers from the garden my mother would have around the house in the summer.

Swimming by Janet Cockerill
Warmer days would offer opportunities to swim either in the sea or at a local lido.

       

                           

Green Fields by Joan Eardley



A Scottish painters work. Cliff top walks were a bracing afternoon activity by the sea.

                                                                       

Heat Wave, Janet Cockerill


Where ever you are going let us hope for a heat wave so we can all get our feet into the sea.