Tag Archives: archives

Distant Down walkers

My Walk this Week 129 – Atop the Down

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Looking at more pics from my archive of a walk on Rhossili Down four years ago takes me to the top of the Down where I met some Gower ponies as well as other people. The ponies are wild and there are many of them all over the Gower Peninsula moors and marshes. Strictly speaking, they must be (legally) owned by somebody these day but I’m not sure that makes any difference to anyone.

track in sunlight

I have left out many of the photographs I took that day only because the fifteen I have picked for my posts this week do a good job of feeding my memory and are sufficient to describe the place on a day like this one was – sun shining blindingly with a wind blowing up from the sea with the ridge of the Down providing an occasional and welcome respite from the bluster of it.Continue reading→

A lifetime of cars

My Walk this Week – Travelling in Time

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My walk this week is a little bit abstract in walking terms. There was some actual walking involved but I will get to that later in the week. Today I want to walk back in time first of all to 1915 and then 1942 and 1963.

by Alastair Duncan 1942

by Alastair Duncan 1942

In York recently I added a few items to my growing archive of images of my family. My intention is to digitise them over time but there is a huge collection going back many years.

Below are two photos of my Grandfather (known as Tiger) – one from each end of his life. It can be seen that in 1915 he was a soldier and in 1963 he was an artist. The next photo is of my namesake, Alastair, who died of septicaemia in 1942 – from the art and design work he had done that year at school, it can be seen that there was the potential for him also to go into the arts.

T. G. McGill Duncan (nee Brown) 1915
Tiger – T .G. McGill Duncan 1963
Alastair Duncan 1942
by Alastair Duncan 1942

An finally another reference to travelling in time – a list of all the cars my father has had from the first to the last.

Josef Herman Schools Award 2014 Exhibition

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The Josef Herman Schools Award is an annual project hosted by the Josef Herman Art Foundation Cymru which employs different artists each year to work with four South Wales primary schools. This year the Foundation is working with the Tate on a two-year project called Mining Josef Herman; part of a Transforming Tate Britain: Archives and Access programme.

The children enjoyed a promenade performance by Lighthouse Theatre followed by a series of drawing workshops with me in school and in Ystradgynlais, where Herman lived for 11 years. We worked with iPads and traditional drawing materials.

The children researched selected works by Herman provided by the Tate Gallery, London, and made presentations which were recorded on iPads. The exhibition features a selection of their drawing on paper and two TV screens showing both their presentations and animations of the iPad drawings they produced. The exhibition is at The Welfare in Ystradgynlais and will continue until mid September.

Josef Herman schools award exhibition

Josef Herman schools award exhibition

Josef Herman schools award exhibition

Josef Herman schools award exhibition

Josef Herman schools award exhibition

Josef Herman project logos