A Trip Down Memory Lane

It has been a busy few months as I prepared for my annual work trip abroad. That explains the delay in sharing this. When I travel for work, it primarily involves going from one meeting to another with a bag full of samples, which is lovely but also physically exhausting. If I rest, I feel guilty because I believe my time away from my kids should be worthwhile. I can’t be ‘holidaying’ without them. However, this time I felt it was important to reconnect with my past, so I took a weekend away with dear friends and went to Cambridge, where my UK journey first began. I was just 16 years old.

As art students, we had access to the old Cambridge, which meant walking in and out of university campuses, museums, and galleries. Now, of course, you cannot enter some of these places without tickets.

But one gallery I have always loved is ‘Kettles Yard’, and revisiting it felt like taking a journey down memory lane with my best friends. I was so utterly lucky to spend three beautiful years in Cambridge and live in such a charming, historic town. I truly felt like I was in an Enid Blyton book, which I read a lot of as a little girl in India — the idyllic, quaint English cosiness. I especially loved reading ‘History of Art’, but I eventually went on to study fine art printmaking. Anyway, going back to Kettles Yard was simply the best, and I’d love to take you all there too. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, it was a house designed to also serve as a gallery space for the modern art collection assembled by Jim and Helen Ede. Architect Rowland de Winton Aldridge restored four cottages to create one space. The Edes donated it to the University of Cambridge after living there for a while.

And what a fantastic collection it is. I love this style of house and art, which is somewhat unpredictably reflected on the walls. I love the randomness and homeliness of it all. Here are some images of the lovely, cosy nooks in the house.

Image taken from the University of Cambridge Museum website

Alfred Wallis:

Three – masted barque with three small ships

Oil on orange card

A lovely little nook of a dining table

Ben Nicholson c 1928

Banks Head Cumbrian landscape

Oil on canvas

Who doesn’t love a corner bookshelf!

The highlight for me was, of course, the few textile pieces that hung there.

Here we see Ben Nicholson’s print of ‘Letter and Numbers’ c. 1933 

AND princess (kings and queens), c. 1933 Ben Nicholson

And this lovely Zoroastrian appliqued and embroidered panel. 

I love, love, love Alfred Wallis’s paintings:

From the Kettle’s Yard website, “Wallis was born in Devon. He worked as a fisherman and later a scrap-metal merchant in St. Ives, Cornwall. After the death of his wife in 1922, he turned to painting as a way of fending off loneliness.

Seascape – ships sailing past the Longships, c. 1928 (displayed at the bottom)

Painting

King’s College Chapel, 1966

Bryan Pearce 

Oil on hardboard

I can never tire of this house gallery, which is filled with layers of textures, and in every corner, there is something to discover, including the right-angled bookshelves. 

I also love the angled walls, which add so much character to the space.

Top: altash (or Devonport?), 1928-30

Alfred Wallis

Oil and watercolour on watercolour board

Bottom: St. Ives Harbour, undated

Bryan Pearce

Oil on board

Going up to the attic

And finally, the house sits next to a lovely church with beautiful blossoms, as it was autumn. 

So, if you ever visit Cambridge, UK please be sure to pop into Kettle’s Yard!