Hello everyone,
How super excited I am to invite you to join RICHARD & MATILDA DUMAS here on FRIDAY 29 NOVEMBER for a presentation and conversation about their extraordinary sailing adventure: A YEAR on EL ORO.
What a way I thought, as our attention turns to balmy days (and by then the fast approaching festive and holiday season); to lose ourselves in the lapping of waves..transported across the seas by means of image and words to far horizons, as the event year draws to a close.
For those who have been long time followers in this space, my invitation to this pair will not seem so far-fetched! Matilda is a longtime friend of Glenmore…some years ago enjoying the most delightful three-day exhibition of her colour-filled and joyful (mostly abstract landscape) paintings with a celebratory lunch and subsequent weekend painting en plein air, during the course of which so many visitors popped in to chat and immerse in the garden as she did so. Another year, Til gave a beautiful workshop in oil painting that still resonates with all who attended.
When her husband Richard accepted an out of the blue offer from an old family friend to “borrow his magnificent 70ft timber ketch” (an opportunity neither of them could resist) a year’s sailing adventure…of inevitable tales, trials and tribulations was realised.
Subsequently, Richard wrote a book ‘A Year on El Oro’ which is completely compelling (it may sound surprising but I do have quite a history with boats!). And I know it’s a captivating read because (soooo luckily as it turned out!) I happened to swipe it from the kitchen bench here on the spur of the moment and pop it into my hand luggage, just before boarding a flight that went all askew enroute to England in July! I devoured the entire thing whilst sitting on the tarmac in a plane going nowhere fast out of Kuala Lumpur – not a place we’d intended to land at all! Whilst everyone around me was getting quite impatient, I was lost in a world of sea-spray and anchor chains, port taxes and colourful towns; of landscapes and seascapes, the calm and the storms…alongside the generally good times as a flurry of family, friends and acquaintances joined Til and Richard as crew; and together they effectively sailed the East Coast of America, the Caribbean, across the Atlantic and through the Mediterranean…on a year-long…
Journey to Ithaka…the title of Til’s subsequent sellout exhibition at Maunsell Wickes Gallery; where an enchanting collection of oil paintings consisted of titles the like of Leaving New York, Chesapeake Tug, Container Vessel at Dusk, Transiting the Straits of Medina, Fishing Fleet in Petriti at Corfu, Bathers at Syracusa, Sardinian Fishing Boat etc. I could go on…and on! Are you hooked yet? This handful of captions alone, surely allude to a tantalising hint of the romance encountered during a year of slow travel that most of us can only dream of!
How all three of us would love to see you here! Richard will have a swag of books that he’ll be so happy to sign (they would make ideal Christmas presents!). Til is working away on just a few little paintings that you might be lucky enough to score to hang on your wall. Our lunch on the day will be shipboard-inspired: Til’s challenge aboard was to continuously feed 8 crew from supplies picked up at the last port and whilst we’ll definitely be sourcing fresh produce from the garden in this instance…it’s a stark reminder of the luxury that fresh, seasonal produce truly is.
All in all, this will be a day of storytelling and pure, utter escapism…of far blue horizons and gentle hull-lapping waters; of frothing, cresting, rolling waves, stiff breezes and billowing sails…which may either see you rushing off on your very own sea folly or…ensure you put the idea right out of your head! Either way, it will be a rollicking armchair adventure!
All the details and the booking form are here.
Sailing, takes me away to where I’m going…do-doo-doo-do…
With fair wind wishes to all,
Mickey
