ART FACTORY EXHIBITION ENDS

Artists at the Art Factory Norwich wound up their three week exhibition and open studios today. It was a really good experience for me, not just in exhibiting my first paintings in an exhibition but the interaction which took place among us and the 700+ visitors over three weekends.

I am beginning to find my way in paint! Lots more happening....

MILESTONES JAZZ CLUB - JUNE 7

ECLECTIC SAXOPHONIST BRINGS TOP BAND TO MILESTONES JAZZ CLUB

The next concert at Milestones Jazz Club on Sunday 7 June features a fiery new band led by a gifted saxophonist and composer - Carlos Lopez-Real's Mandorla.

Alto and soprano saxophonist Carlos Lopez Real's genre-mashing work delights in a fusion of opposites, inspired by Bartok, Steve Reich and Indian music as much as John Coltrane, Weather Report, John McLaughlin and modern jazz.

A former Oxford university student and Guildhall post-graduate who has also benefited from the tuition of Miles Davis' reeds guru Dave Liebman, Carlos runs the up-and-coming E17 Jazz collective and is a member of the ground breaking F-IRE collective. Carlos' versatile work with other musicians includes collaborating with Zoe Rahman, sasla king Robero Pla, The Tito Puente Orchestra and studying Indian music that led to winning the sax chair in John Mayer's classic band Indo-Jazz Fusions. But in spite of the eclecticism on show, Mandorla's bright and optimistic originals always retain a tight focus.

Gig-goers can expect lyrical and passionate melodies, global dance rhythms, grooves that engage and high-level interaction between some of London's top improvising musicians.

Said Carlos, "I've not played in Lowestoft before so I'm looking forward to bringing my new project here. 'Milestones' has got one of the best reputations in the country so I'm sure it'll be a pleasure."

The band's full, slightly changed line-up features Carlos Lopez-Real (alto / soprano sax), Simon Colam (piano), Jez Franks (guitars), Oli Hayhurst (double bass) and Jon Scott (drums).

Listen to Carlos Lopez-Real's music at http://www.myspace.com/carloslr

and http://www.carloslopez-real.co.uk or visit the club website at http://www.milestonesjazzclub.co.uk/

All Milestones gigs are held on the first Sunday of every month and take place at Hotel Hatfield, Esplanade, Lowestoft with the doors opening at 8pm. Admission - £7 / £6 (concession).

Self Portrait

WHISPERING IN THE WIND

Here are eight photos on a theme or themes: a notion of landscape as metaphor; a notion of surfaces and reflections being broken; and the displacement of the universe in the mundane. Here are whispers in the wind - in a photo of a galvanised pipe. Very little manipulation of the photo has taken place. Rather, this is part of my sketch book. Here are seven other sketches...

THE SEA

We have expectations of the sky far beyond land and sea. The sky is not only a romance but it covers all humanity in the instance and of course carries the weather. Weirdly, at the Financial Times they use weather metaphors to describe the Footsie - like stocks & shares are natural. Hooh!

The window, protective, inviting (the view looking out) is in this photo the reflection (looking in).

NOT AUTUMN

Car crushed into aesthetic charm...

SEEDS DANCING

BLUE, ICE, LIGHT

A metal sheet.

BED, MAP, DISTANCE

The emptied contents of a mattress gathering leaves, becoming a reflection of the clouds or just the map we were following, growing in distance the more you look.

TREES, GLASS, GUNS

Here are trees, here is glass and this is a gun shot.

WOOD, SNOW, ROCK

How good it is to get back to solid landscapes. Wood, snow, rocks...

Barking

Drains are fascinating... Unfortunately, Tracey Emin's latest exhibition of drawings takes the artist backwards with its lack of maturity and the awareness of a fast changing world. Her work is the product of celebrity and her audience has become composed of celebrities. Speaking to celebrities, selling to celebrities, the subject of her work, her life, has become the Stuckism she inspired - as a reaction - ten years ago. That is, she has not progressed her work and masturbation can only fill the vacuum of celebrity!

Monkey Puzzle Tree

Here is a monkey puzzle tree. Where?

Only A Hole In A Hedge

I remember my father playing a sentimental but haunting 78 record on a wind up gramophone gathering dust in the shed many years ago. The refrain was 'It's Only A Hole In The Wall,' referring to the singer's abode. I don't know why I thought of that song as I walked through this hole-in-a-hedge at Blickling Hall, a National Trust property once dripping with wealth.

Blickling Hall

Blickling Hall. I enjoyed the garden more than the hall, though I found the 'below stairs' recordings engaging. Ironically, for a stately home sold to the public for its place in history, there is remarkably little history in the building. That is, the layout for the visitor is cold and there's no information about the paintings, for example. It feels dead and dusty throughout. The history needs to come alive.

A Second Home?

Look, you can buy a second home cheap. Indeed, you can get everyone else to buy it for you! This MP's 'Second Home' comes with 'moat plungers' (£1 each) - a bargain at Julie's Car Boot, Burgh Castle, Great Yarmouth.

Sky Over Norwich Today

A Reminder

The Art Factory Exhibition, Hall Road, Norwich continues over the long bank holiday weekend from Thursday May 21 to Monday May 25, and then the following weekend, Thursday May 28 to Sunday May 31.

Studio 25 will be open 12 noon to 5pm each of those days.

TWO JAZZ GIGS

The Slippers

7.30pm, Saturday 23 MayThe Seagull, Morton Road, Lowestoft Swing band The Slippers perform their first concert in Lowestoft for over a year. The project that combines thirties songwriting skill and R&B instrumentation features Alan Bates (vocals/guitar), Stephen Mynott (guitar), Owen Morgan (double bass) and Mick Talbot (drums/percussion). The band treat songs personally, incorporating arrangements that can be understated and subtle or direct and arresting. Tickets are £6 from the box office (01502) 589726 or on the night.

To listen to The Slippers visit www.myspace.com/slipperswing or www.slipperswing.co.uk www.theseagull.co.uk info@theseagull.co.uk

The Tim Collinson Quartet

7.30pm, Saturday 27 JuneThe Cut Arts Centre, New Cut, Halesworth Those who attended Tim collinson's exciting concert at Milestones in April will want to see the band again in Halesworth performing more original compositions and standards that draw on many strands of modern jazz and popular music. Tickets are £8 / £7 from the box office (08456) 732123 or on the night.

To listen to The Tim Collinson Quartet visit www.collinson.eclipse.co.uk or www.myspace.com/timcollinsonquartet www.newcut.org info@newcut.org

DO NOT MISS THIS EXHIBITION!

Organised and hosted by the Norwich 20 group of artists, this is an exciting collaboration involving over a hundred artists and poets. Don't miss 'Voicing Visions' at St. Magaret's Church, St Benedict's Street, Norwich, until May 22nd - so snap to it! I've never seen such a well organised exhibition and there's a marvellous book of images and poems too - including a CD-ROM of vision and sound (which I'll be publicising here shortly).

Busy, Busy, Busy

'The Unextinguished Hearth,' a title taken from Percy Byshe Shelley's 'Ode To The West Wind,' showing at the Art Factory, Norwich. I'm showing my watercolours alongside fourteen other artists until May 31st. Full details can be found at The Art Factory.

Coming soon...

• On May 22 I will be publishing a quarterly online magazine (e-zine) of art and poetry, TEXTVISUAL. An exciting line up for the first issue is coming together. More details to follow.
• 30,000 'hits' on Rupert's Blog in two years. In the light of producing TEXTVISUAL - which will obviously be publicised here - I'm hoping to increase visitor numbers greatly over coming weeks and months.

The Sky this Bank Holiday Weekend

Blue skies and sunshine was promised for this bank holiday weekend but clouds were brought by gusts from the West. Still, a relaxing weekend visiting car boots in Norwich and Yarmouth.

Mundesley

A photo of sea defences at Mundesley on the North Norfolk Coast

Poetic Drain?

This is the Cooper Clarke drain - a poetic offering to both old and new Laureates. Carol Ann Duffy - our first female laureate and long over due to be - was on BBC Radio 4's 'Woman's Hour' this morning and said she would make an imaginary leap between Poetry and the Monarchy. Isn't that the problem with both? Far better to lift the cover off drains - a Cooper Clarke or a Ductile Warrior.