Stream

Just the seven miles on today's morning walk. There were lots of people about, some of whom behaved quite sensibly.  This photograph shows how low the water level has fallen in Hollingworth Lake.  The extra is some nearby marching pylons.

Today's first listen was to The Rides, a "super group" comprising guitarists Stephen Stills and Kenny Wayne Shepherd and keyboard player Barry Goldberg, amongst others.   The album was their first Can't Get Enough (2013) and my favourite song was That's A Pretty Good Love.

Frank Stella is one of the most influential American abstract artists. His style approaches minimalism as he specialises in massive canvasses making bold use of colour. On Delaware Crossing (1962), a series of six similar works, each work is a pattern of lines on a square canvas. Each uses a different colour from a range produced by Benjamin Moore.  He described his work as "systematic" and he sought to exclude representation and Romantic individualistic goals of self-expression. One might expect from those words that the images would be sterile and uninteresting but, to me, they are attractive and interesting.

One of his most striking paintings is Agbatana II (1968) which uses bold colours in curves and right-angles. It is named after the capital of ancient Persia (better known as "Ecbatana") and forms part of his "protractor series." Although the surface is flat and the paint was all applied in a single coat, the eye sees the semi-circles as running behind the frames or one-another. The overall effect is architectural.

Stella has also experimented with other materials, making images that are properly called sculptures, such as Empress of India (1965) made from four chevron-shaped panels, in different shades of red/brown and lines that are similar to those in Delaware Crossing.