My book about John Wonnacott is now available to pre-order. Instead of a conventional book launch on Monday 5th. September, I’m planning to show a small number of his recent paintings in our house in Stepney, including the Self-Portrait on the cover of the book. I’ve tried to get public galleries interested, but it’s an uphill struggle for an older generation painter – although the Focus Gallery in Southend did him proud a couple of years ago.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/John-Wonnacott-Charles-Saumarez-Smith/dp/1848225911/ref=mp_s_a_1_7?Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.x=85&Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.y=4&__mk_en_GB=%C3%85M%C3%85Z%C3%95%C3%91&qid=1647591820&refinements=p_27%3ASaumarez+Smith&s=books&sr=1-7&unfiltered=1

Last time, I passed the Jerusalem Tavern, it looked as if it was closing, so was pleased to see this afternoon that it is still extant under a different trading name, with its very atmospheric interiors:-

I was slightly surprised to see a man standing inside a clock at Paddington Station, even more so when I realised that he was painting on the time which could be a full-time job:-

I am re-posting the article on the front of the FT”s Life and Arts section a) because it’s free to read and b) because I found it a helpful and historically well-informed account as to why Putin has acted as he has, which otherwise is nearly impossible to comprehend. It helps make sense of the long history behind his actions, not that he is just bonkers.

https://on.ft.com/3i3pFWQ

We ate our sandwiches in front of the amazing gates to Chirk Castle – a tour-de-force of cast and wrought ironwork by the Davies brothers who lived locally and produced the gates originally for the entrance forecourt to the Castle. Quite something;-

We woke up to a splendid and fiery dawn sky:-

In the mass of news coverage of the war in Ukraine, I found the attached article by Lawrence Freedman very helpful: because it is not merely about the problems that Kyiv and Mairupol face, but about the broader issues that the Russians face – the scale of Ukraine as a whole and the fact that their massed armies are essentially so far only nibbling at the frontiers, however devastating and destructive that clearly is. Also, it’s relatively dispassionate at a time of ferocious emotion.

https://samf.substack.com/p/space-and-time?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&s=09