Finding Tom (Davies), BT Sport game changer? and Idea #191 is Impressionism

Tom in Hanwell

On Saturday morning we walked to the Ealing Council controlled Hanwell Community Centre to attend their open day it's a fine old building around a mile away from us which was at the time Charlie Chaplin attended in 1896 the   Central London District School.  I was interested to see what was on offer and was hoping to see my former Tabor High school art teacher Tom Davies.

On Target?

 In fact  I did manage to meet and  chat with Tom, he's 71 now and still painting as well as running Art classes, some in Hanwell. It was great to see him and have the opportunity to thank him for sparking an interest in art when I was at school.
Tom seems to have had an interesting life including 5 years in Cuba, I also met his daughter and a grandson. I saw some of  Tom's work some of which was on display it was representational and is generally oil on canvas.

The picture (right) shows Tom a few years ago in his studio in Hanwell from Marina's Blog.

In fact the community centre has quite a lot going on including Pottery, Archery and Keep fit and on Saturday Stephen Pound a local MP was there too

 

BT Sport the new non-pay TV channel for sport

Yesterday was a big day for Soccer fans as well as those at BT Sport as their new channel came under the spotlight and the Premier league for 2013/14 started up.
The problem is that the initiative is looking two ways at once as a means of aiding customer retention (the SD version free for Infinity customers) and for a business going head to head against Sky Sports.
The launch has brought focus on the customer services, expectation for TV customers during a football game is somewhat different from those who want their phone/broadband to work - particularly when they have other communication available through their mobile phone. This is not the first Sports TV service to compete with Sky (UK) but the history of those who've taken on the broadcasting giant is not good.

Big Idea Number 191 is Impressionism

In France in the 1860's a new art movement was in the ascendancy in Paris it became known as Impressionism.

Impressionism is all about concentration on the immediate visual impression produced by a scene and by the use of unmixed primary colours and small strokes to simulate actual reflected light.
Artists from this epoch who we still marvel at today include Van Gogh, Monet (His Water Lillies on the left)  and Cézanne.
Find out more about the movement below..