Church centre stage - and meetings in London

Looking at photos of Tom Pilston's photoshoot in Cornwall for I Packed This Myself - see a church tower in the centre of the landscape, in the far distance. Just as in Stubb's landscape. But in our picture the church is a mere landmark, not a vibrant part of the community. Or is that just received thinking about our post-religious, secular society? In fact, this is Breage church, and Breage church and its extraordinary vicar Penny Stephens played a very important role in uncovering some of the exploitation of workers at a farm near Breage, a few years ago.
But ... back to London and meetings.
Meet artist Patrick Coleman and discuss including his extraordinary relic box - or reliquary (his father's tool box, crammed with artefacts from the past half century, showing his Irish family's efforts to settle in England. It bears very poignant witness to his relationship with his father.)
Then (after egg and cress sandwiches to keep going) another meeting, this time with a sensationally bright MA student on taking this and other project forwards. And finally a discussion with Kemal Ahson, Bridging Arts non-executive director, on ways of mapping - charting the experience of migration and creating new work to reflect this.

Visions of rural England

Back in London this weekend and review the week. The rural landscape has totally changed since I grew up on a farm in west Cornwall (albeit decades ago). There certainly isn't an Arcadian countryside now - not that there ever was one, really.
Interested to see at the Tate Britain this morning that one room currently features 18th century paintings 'that helped shape a powerful mythology about British landscape.'
Some of this mythology - and a distorted picture - persists today. Most work on the land in this country now is done by migrant workers. In Cornwall though, for sure, these migrant workers remain largely invisible and the often tough realities of their lives are hidden from the rest of the population.

Back to the 18th century - painters like Stubbs, Gainsborough and Constable strove to create deliberately Arcadian landscapes.  In Reapers (1785) by Stubbs (above) the workers are spotlessly keen. The farm manager sits benignly on his horse, watching. The tower of the church, central to society at the time, can be seen on the skyline.
 And below, another rural idyll, this time from Gainsborough (1747), a peasant resting with the church tower central stage.

The Tate commentary continues: "British landscape paintings were prized for the expressive qualities and apparent truthfulness. However they often ignored the economic realities of modern country life, in favour of a sense of idyllic nostalgia which has endured until the present day."