In the plan chests

Another visit to 54 today, and an opportunity to see what Ella has uncovered in her work cataloguing Dave's work. 

At the moment she is working her way through the plan chests on the top floor. There are six of these, and another three on the middle floor. Each has about 5 or 6 drawers (they vary a little), and at the moment she is going through a drawer that holds a lot of work from Dave's school and student years. So far there have been 200 drawings in this one drawer. Of course the quality varies massively, and some drawers have more work, most less - but all are particularly interesting to us as Margaret and I have never had the time to go through them systematically, so there are lots of discoveries to be made.

The drawing above of a farmyard is a very nice example, but not untypical, and probably done by Dave in the late 1950s. It's on ruled paper from a large notebook. 

Add up the numbers and it could be that the plan chests alone contain 5 (drawers) by 9 (plan chests) by 200 (drawings) = 9000 pieces just in these plan chest drawers. 

This coloured pencil drawing will be from his days at art school, and if it's not directly part of the work for the 'Astronauts' series it appears to relate to it - so probably done by Dave in about 1960.

Comfort - and an exhibition

This week we will be starting getting the studio ready for Ella (see the previous blogs) so that she can commence work on cataloguing the Trust's collection. 

Even now, having sold several hundred pieces of Dave's work since his death, there is still no space for laying out drawings in order to photograph or archive them properly. So one of our main priorities will be to increase shelf space by buying shelving units that will provide 30 additional storage shelves. This means Ella will be able to catalogue and move the awkward piles of work that currently sit on top of the plan chests. These will then be filed away in acid-free boxes and, where necessary, individual sheets will be separated by acid-free paper. Having another plan-chest would be useful - anyone have one that needs a good home?

We'll also be working on making the place a little more comfortable - some racking in the kitchen, a microwave cooker, desks and a desk-lamp, plus a heater by Ella's desk. 

From the 14th January there's also an interesting exhibition of Dave's 'Bestiary' paintings from the late 1990s at the See Gallery in Crawshawbooth. It's only open by request through julian@seegallery.co.uk and contains a few large canvases such as the one shown above, and a good number of smaller ones. This series, inspired by Dave's interest in medieval bestiaries, occupied Dave for over 10 years and went through a number of different phases that are represented in this fascinating exhibition. 

Result!

In the event Eddie, Peter, Kay and Sean helped get those plan chest drawers carried right up to the top of the studio. Plus the drawings and paintings in them, of course. I worked at the top, beeswaxing the inside of the chests so the drawers ran smoothly. So, total delight at getting a difficult job done, and with a light touch and good humour too. 

Then, at the same time, a party of friends, old friends, and their friends turned up and spent a while investigating the studio. Everyone bought a work and left delighted. So - a good day all round.

Work starts on restoring the old studio

On coming back from a fortnights holiday in Italy I tentatively opened up Dave's old studio in Haslingden to see if anything had happened during my absence. I never should have doubted the builders - the place has been stripped of all the rotten plasterwork and upstairs (see photographs) the room is now open to the roof-timbers. It suddenly looks like a quite manageable job. I'm suddenly very conscious of what a big house it is...

In the meantime Margaret has been busy and found 5 plan-chests (donated by Manchester Metropolitan University, where Dave had worked for many years) that will be a godsend when we start the process of returning the work back to the studio from its storage. Speaking of which, I was surprised to find that business rates (totaling nearly £1000) need to be paid for the storage unit. This is a bit of a blow as Trust funds are running low, although there does appear to be an appeals procedure and the possibility of offsetting this additional rates with a reduction from the rates already paid on the empty building. Meanwhile, it means - paperwork.

On Friday I've arranged to visit the builders again; pay a second installment of their fee, and discuss some ideas I've had about improving the storage capacity of the building as well as getting a clearer picture of what the costs will be now that the full extent of the dry rot has been uncovered.