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Alison Stirling: You got the Power

Alison Stirling exhibiting at the Royal Academy of Arts 2019

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The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition is the largest open call for Artists, with over 16,000 entries each year. https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/

I’ve never found the courage to enter the show but always known it was there. It combines showing Royal Academians, who are selected automatically, with ‘other’ Artists who go through the brutal roller coaster stages of the selection process. Every year there is an exhibition coordinator. Last year, for the 250th anniversary, it was Grayson Perry https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/name/grayson-perry-ra who put on a Graysontastic barn stormer.

At the start of this year I decided that I needed to face the prospect of brutal rejection and embrace it like a flea riddled animal. To stand on the precipice and see where the wind takes me. With so many entries you know that the odds are stacked against you, but still getting an ‘it’s a no from me’ can still take the skin off the heel.

I saw that Jock McFadyen https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/name/jock-mcfadyen-ra was coordinating this year with the theme of art that describes the world. I’ve admired his work for years, he’s a painters’ painter. And there’s the added fact that he has painted the road I live on, not to mention scenes from the Scottish Isles which inspire me greatly. So it seemed right to try this year. It was clear that this year’s show would be one which I would find interesting regardless of the outcome. I spent a few seconds fighting back that faithful hound of doubt and entered two paintings: PYLON and E1. The submission went into cyber space and I returned to planning my next series of work.

You’ll know from my previous blog https://wp.me/pat44M-1iX that I love pylons. Another confession: I am a power station tourist. To be specific coal fired cooling towers. More of a groupie really. They are the crown jewels of the modern British landscape, or ‘the lads’ as they are affectionately known to me.

I’ve often tried to photograph them during my many trips up north visiting family. Most train journeys are spent with my camera pressed against the murky glass with the hope of at least capturing a decent line up of pylons. But when a gang of towers hove into view, that’s when the frenzy of trying to capture the right image begins. On my regular route to Liverpool I know exactly where they hang out, but on a diversion, or unfamiliar turf they can take you by surprise. On a fast train to the East coast of Scotland you can find yourself surrounded by concrete castles, flanked by forts of modernity. Their sudden incongruous presence can take your breath away when you are least expecting it. Then it’s a do or die situation with the camera.

I realised that I had never actually been up close and personal with them so on one dismal Monday morning as commuters flooded into Kings Cross I boarded an empty train to Ratcliffe-on-Soar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratcliffe-on-Soar_power_station Where? Here lies a beautiful monster. Built in the sixties it used to burn 5.5 million tonnes of coal a year. In the nineties it ran for a record 250,000 hours. Attempts have been made to tame it. One activist Mark Kennedy… that’s another story. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Kennedy_%28police_officer%29

With no idea of what I was to expect I arrived at East Midlands Parkway station, right at the foot of the sleeping towers. I asked a café worker if I could get close, right into the belly of the beast. She looked at me suspiciously and said, ‘if you do security will be all over you’. Only slightly phased, I began to take photographs from the station platform. Security warning announcements competed with the sonorous sounds of the rapids – water falling at the base of the towers. After moving on to the edge of the motorway bridge for some obligatory pylon photographs, I took a lonely path which led me to an open field. Sheep stood grazing, blackened by the shadow of the towers. Boats lay abandoned on the soft ground, from a time when the river soar flooded. The towers broad and tall dominated the arena. The sky turned blue and the mid-day sun began to beat. The surreal conditions were perfect: the chance meeting of a sheep, a concrete tower and an abandoned boat. Ankle deep in mud I took my photographs and unpacked my sandwiches.

The Gods of modern industrial structures were kind.

Back in the studio I reflected on the heat of the sun and the obvious cooling process of the towers. I produced a series of pieces which involved heating  and cooling materials.

Meanwhile, I checked my emails. Notifications were appearing on social media about getting through to the second round of the RA Summer Exhibition. And YES! PYLON had gone through to the ‘hanging committee’, a term which made the next round feel even more brutal. Another wait.

On the final notification day for applicants I checked my email and had a brief, ‘god this is stressful’ cry before reading it…. YEP. F%&KING YES! I was on my way to the royal Academy Varnishing Day!

Varnishing Day is a wonderful preview for exhibiting Artists – or commonly known as that bit in the Turner film where Timothy Spall adjusts his painting with red paint to attract attention and piss off Constable. It suddenly struck me that PYLON would be hanging out (literally) with Paula Rego https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/name/paula-rego-ra and Keifer https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/anselm-kiefer and too many others to mention.

On the day itself a steel band led us to a nearby church. I’m normally strictly weddings and funeral only but this was a service to bless the Artists, so I couldn’t miss it. I walked back to the RA somewhat awestruck by the recognisable Artists around me and the prospect of seeing my pylon painting along side their work.

Jock McFadyen created a splendid menagerie in the entrance to the exhibition hall. I had three thoughts, ‘this is incredible, where’s my work and my god that buffet looks good’.

I nervously sought my painting out and couldn’t be happier that it was placed in a room curated by Scottish painter Barbara Rae https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/name/barbara-rae-ra. The room was relatively sparse, works linked together beautifully with a clear nod to the environmental issues of today.

Former president of the Royal Academy, Christopher Le Brun https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/name/christopher-le-brun-pra gave a speech to the Artists against a backdrop of David Hepher’s monumental Hey Wayne on the Meath Estate https://se.royalacademy.org.uk/2019/artworks/david-hepher/272. A nervous ripple went around the room when he pointed out that our work is hanging on the same walls as Constable and Turner. He assured us that we should and must be proud.

It was great to take family friends and students to the subsequent private views and an added compliment that PYLON was bought on the first day.

I am grateful for all those who supported me and I am grateful for the beauty in the brutal.

If you’d like to see more of Alison’s work, including more stunning cooling towers, or if you’d like to know where she is exhibiting, visit her website https://alisonstirlingfineart.com/ or follow her on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/stirling.alison/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/StirlingAlison/ or Twitter https://twitter.com/StirlingAlison

You can also contact Alison directly about commissions or exhibitions at alisonstirling@hotmail.com

 

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Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Vigo RFC

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When I was a lad, before I went to college, and again during the 80s, I used to play rugby for Vigo RFC https://www.pitchero.com/clubs/vigorfc. I started out playing on the wing and then moved forward as I got older and slower.

Vigo RFC 50th anniversary book
Lineout at Sunset

Well, this year marks the Club’s 50th anniversary and to celebrate that they’ve brought out a limited edition book, charting the history of the club, edited by Trevor Newnham. I was delighted to be asked if I’d do some artwork for the book, based on old photographs. You can see one drawing on the cover, and three others inside.

The club, originally based at the Vigo Inn, near Fairseat in Kent, on the top of the North Downs, has an interesting history. This brief account is based on information from the 50th anniversary book and from Trevor’s article for the Stansted and Fairseat History Society https://stanstedhistory.org/groups-vigo-rfc/ Both contain some fascinating old images.

Rugby wasn’t always the game of choice at The Vigo Inn, formerly called The Upper Drover. Once upon a time, punters used to play ‘daddlums’ a form of table skittles. But everything changed one Sunday lunchtime in 1968 when a group of well-oiled local rugby players – regulars at the pub – came up with the idea that the field at the back of the pub would make a pretty good rugby pitch, and as such would offer ‘an ideal opportunity to combine beer and fitness’. Despite the field in question being ‘none too flat’ and more than somewhat muddy, their beer fuelled vision gradually turned into a plan. There were meetings, a committee and, in 1969, with telegraph poles as goalposts and a disused chicken shed to change in, Vigo RFC was founded. Lillian Ashwell, the pub’s landlady was elected as President – probably the first woman President of a rugby club in England.

Vigo RFC 50th anniversary
Tackle

A couple of players from nearby Gravesend RFC were persuaded to provide some coaching – a necessary first step as many of the prospective players had never touched a rugby ball before. But the team was enthusiastic and willing to learn and most players were soon judged to have ‘mastered basic rugby techniques’ and despite being ‘a little raw in one or two specialist positions, such as hooker’ were ready for fixtures with B teams from other clubs. In their first serious match, away to Deal in 1969, Vigo RFC recorded a ‘resounding’ 3-1 victory.

As the rugby became more serious, the club moved several times. Ten years on, it settled in current home at Swanswood in Harvel, not far fromthe original Vigo Inn.  A club member who was also a builder, supervised the construction of a clubhouse, with the players acting as labourers. And, over the years, through a number of fundraising initiatives, the clubhouse was improved and floodlights were installed.

Since then, the club has gone from strength to strength. It now fields four adult teams, a juniors team, and two junior mini-rugby teams.

Vigo RFC 50th anniversary
Try

As Trevor Newnham writes:
From the grassiest (and muddiest) of grassroots, the Club – Vigo RFC – came into being.  A pub side at heart, a determination to be independent of any brewer, professionalism, and a club that would offer a warm home to anyone who loves this great game.’

The 50th Anniversary Book: Vigo Rugby Football Club 1969-2019 is available now from the club at a cost of £10.

The originals of my drawings for the book and digital prints are available on my website. Just follow the links below: