SCRAPBOOK 14

                                Family home mid forties on the Essex coast. We moved there to be close to the Colchester military Hospital where my oldest brother was sent having been badly wounded during the Normandy invasion. For us youngsters it was heaven being surrounded by marshes back and front and high tide coming up to a few feet from the front door. We sailed both the Blackwater and the River Colne,both being in easy reach depending on the tides.The house had been converted into a fort during the early war years to guard the nearby Strood Causeway leading to Mersea Island so it was hard work bringing it back to a decent state and us children were give the task of moving hundreds of sandbags out.
   Once that was done it was Swallows and Amazons full time. In the 40s there was only one other house on the causeway road and no trippers to speak of.The locals used to tell them the salt flats were highly dangerous and could swallow them up instantly so it was rare to see anybody out there save the odd  marshmen and happily no jet skis or gin palaces to foul the peace and quiet. We only came into the house to listen to ITMA.
I even slept in the yard extremely cosy tack room as I had very muddy boots on most of the time.
 It was a sad day when we were packed off to the London house and our paradise was sold to some other lucky people.
One of my younger brothers ran away and lived in a tent out on the Pyefleet marsh for some months,I would have joined him but art school beckoned...
 Very odd blogland is...My labels are coming up with words I havent put in..what have "cycles" to do with marshes?

More Odds and Ends

                                                                          Oil on wood panel.........36x17ins...still working on it.

MUSIC MEMORIES 1 50s+60s

   Towards "end of party" music mid to late 50s
   ..

1000 HANDS

SEASIDE

                                       Artisan oil on canvas,tweaked on Wacom tablet....recent.

Feverfew

View of my yard

WILTSHIRE.......

     

  Oil on board.

House,before the stick.

Famous last words

YVES MONTAND

MODIGLIANI

STOURHEAD GARDENS

Worth a visit if you are my way..............here

FICTION

FIRST FLIGHTS....an unknown history

You're my thrill..........1934 (when I was but two)

Lew Stone and his band with Al Bowlley,my favourite singer of all time.
Cant help but smile at the film clip.

SCRAPBOOK 13

1950s party at 103 Lansdowne Road Notting Hill.I stood on the kitchen sink to take this photo as it was about the only empty space left in the house,but as usual, all the best action takes place in the kitchen.Upstairs two types of music,ground floor Trad Jazz,first floor Sinatra etc...worked well.

I think this was the one when a visiting Canadian airman who flew one of the first Comets(and who bought a copious amount of very strong gin with him) walked through an upstairs landing window thinking it was the way to the bog.He landed in the garden unhurt save a badly cut hand and had to be carted of to hospital,thank the lord he left the gin.Poor chap wasn't allowed to fly the Comet back to Canada though.

Good parties,never bettered,no trouble and those with to much of the hard stuff just found a bed and drifted off leaving no room for those with naughty thoughts hence no fights...!

Photo by Gee ....with trusted Rolleiflex 4x4

BBC Bless for ever.

Heh Heh...Radiation works...I drew this today...!

SCRAPBOOK12

A day out on Brighton beach..........1960s.

Rolleiflex 4x4

The arts

SCRAPBOOK 11

Some of the family,Blackdown Surrey.......late 30s (cigarettes were OK those days)

LISA HANNIGAN

Down at the old Bull & Bush

SCRAPBOOK 10

Dad,sister and family motor,late 1930s

When motors had charm

Picture from

SCRAPBOOK 9

Winter 1963.................Rolleiflex

1929

Photos from Mersea Island

Photos from Mersea Pearl

Majorca bound

SCRAPBOOK 8

My old newsreel dispatch bike,but I took the car that day.........softie

photo Rollieflex

SAND AND SEA

Very mixed media......................Oil on board+Wacom tablet. Painted last week.

SCRAPBOOK 7

London, Kensington Gardens,Sunday morning mid sixties..........................Rolleiflex 4x4

To the beach

Afternoon walk

Grandson and son....Olympus C80~80 digital

SCRAPBOOK 6

On the beach,East Wittering late 1950s Rolleiflex 4x4

Moon over Ray Island

Rising spring tide on the Essex marshes... painted on Wacom tablet

SCRAPBOOK 5

Ladbrook grove Winter 1963 Rolleiflex 4x4

SCRAPBOOK 4

Halcyon days on two wheels in Wales.

Scrapbook 3 KENSINGTON GARDENS

Brothers family conference by the Serpentine. Late 1950
Rolleiflex 4x4

Scrapbook 2 LONDON DOCKS

On a trip to Greenwich 1963........ Rolleiflex

J W TURNER

SCRAPBOOK 1

Welsh cottage and cat in a magic valley.

Landscape

Giuseppe de Nittis

About

CULTURE

STYLE

John French (1 March 1907-21 July 1966) was an English fashion and portrait photographer.
Born in Edmonton, London, French originally trained and worked as a commercial artist, becoming a photographic director in an advertising studio just before World War II, during which he served as an officer in the Grenadier Guards.[1]
In 1948 he set up his own photographic studio. Working originally with the Daily Express he pioneered a new form of fashion photography suited to reproduction in newsprint, involving where possible reflected natural light and low contrast. He also undertook portrait photography. French himself devoted much attention to the set and posing of his models, but left the actual triggering of the shutter to assistants, amongst whom were Terence Donovan and David Bailey.
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