Preserved in Bronze



Well I finally finished it! It’s taken a while but this is the final result of my bronze head of Rolf Harris. As it was my first attempt at making a portrait bronze I’m quite pleased with the result. But it’s taken a while. I had no idea just how many stages and processes I needed to go through. Here are just a few of them.

I called in to see Rolf on Sunday morning, carrying the heavy bust as carefully I would a newborn baby. His family was there and there seemed to be unanimous approval of the likeness. I gave it a bit of a polish before I left home so the sheen of the bronze really shined through. Best of all Rolf liked it to. Here he is together with the sculpture.

Not sure Alwen’s cat approved though.


Last Saturday dawned very hot as I picked up Val, her friend Penny, and my cousin Jim, to take them to the Henley Show. Held once a year in vast fields at Hambleden, it’s one of the highlights of the year. The sun shone down mercilessly but as I had reserved a parking space right by ring one, apart from the loudspeaker right above us, we had a prime view of the goings on. You can see how baking hot the day was by this photo of cousin Jim.

I love seeing the parade of beautifully maintained carts with their very smart ponies prancing along in front.



And the vintage cars are also gleaming in the sunlight.



A number of little steam engines puffed their way round the arena. (I love the smell of the smoke).


Every year the huntsmen come on to the field with their hounds and all the children in the audience are invited to come out and join them. They have a lovely time talking to the hounds and stroking them.

On Sunday afternoon my young friend and I went out for a row down the river. It’s so easy now with the new rudder as I don’t have to keep looking round to see where I’m going. We sped along downstream at a cracking pace, which should have warned me that the coming back wouldn’t be quite so easy. And it wasn’t, as not only was the stream pretty strong but a really heavy wind was blowing. To start with I could hardly get the dinghy moving at all. However we got home OK – refreshed by a couple of stops to have a Pimms.

I finished the first of my two miniature portraits for my German client last week and am now part way through the second one. I’m finding them really interesting to do as there are to be perfect replicas of the original ancestral family oil paintings.

P.S. My insurance Company was brilliant over my lost camera. Just three days after I left it on the seat at Twyford Station I received a brand new replacement.