My Big Day Out - Billy the Seal Peter Howlett, 23 May 2012 Well, I thought things had looked up when I was put on display in the Clore Discovery Gallery. After so many years of just seeing the inside of museum stores it was great to be able to see visitors again!Then came news that the BBC were to film me for a piece in their series called Coast, and, even better they wanted to film me on Exmouth beach - a day out - wow! Easy for me to say but this meant quite a bit of work for my curator, Peter Howlett, who had to get me ready, strap me into the van and do all the driving.Anyway the big day arrived and I was loaded into a van for the journey down. It was great to see the world outside of Cardiff again - the first time since I was brought in on that trawler back in 1912. It was fantastic to see the sea again, even if it did get a little close during filming.I was filmed with the skeleton of a Common Dolphin (courtesy of the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust), I don't know about you but I think I'm far more impressive. The idea was to show why us Grey Seals are quite happy bouncing around on dry land when a dolphin ends up dead if it gets stranded. To explain this I had the company of one of Coast's presenters, Miranda Krestovnikoff. It took a while to set everything up but eventually they were ready and I got ready for my close up with Miranda - I think she was quite taken with me! It was rather nice being fimed on the deserted beach in the early evening sun.Sadly my day out was now over and I was put back into the van for the journey back to the Museum and the following morning I was back in my usual place surveying the visitors in the Clore Discovery gallery. Keep an eye open for my appearance, I should be in one of the programmes to be screened next spring/summer.Billy
Arctic Ocean exploration 12th May Peter Howlett, 21 May 2012 And so to Bodø. Unfortunately the first half of the MAREANO spring 2012 research cruise is at an end. We have arrived in Bodo, the largest city in Nordland county. The views from the bridge of the G.O. Sars reveal the port city (pop. about 50,000) as fairly flat, surrounded by picturesque mountains.At 10 o’clock, it is sunny and an exploratory walk to the marina and through the town is very pleasant; quite warm in the sun, but bitterly cold in the wind. A weekend marine festival is being set up around the marina and people are starting to arrive. Having got our bearings we return to the ship to say goodbye to many of our fellow scientists, who are catching a taxi to the airport. It is now 11 o’clock, the sky has darkened, and we have near horizontal snow! The sun reappears later, thankfully.Scientists for the second two weeks of the sampling are beginning to arrive. For this leg, the ship will travel south from ‘Nordland VI’ to an area between Kristiansund and Halten. They will concentrate on video filming the marine habitats there and will not be deploying grabs, trawls or sledges. You can keep up-to-date at with the latest news of the project here.After lunch we meet with Dr Børge Holte, head of the MAREANO programme, and cruise leader for the next leg. We discuss our work during the previous two weeks, and all agree that our participation with the Norwegian science team has been mutually beneficial. There was much in common between the MAREANO and our own series of scientific investigations of the seabed around Wales. You can find out more about the MAREANO project taxonomy here.Throughout the first leg, we had been comparing and contrasting our similar, but differing, sampling techniques and sample processing procedures. We also had many discussions concerning the animals we find in the seabed habitats off our respective coasts. It was a pleasure to see some of the species we are familiar with (as well as others we rarely or never encounter) in the Arctic region from which they were first discovered.The ship is set to sail at 3 p.m., so we say our farewells and go to our hotel for a brief rest before flying back to the UK on Sunday morning. Apart from the port, the tourist appealing landscape and outdoor activities, Bodø is famous for hosting the National Norwegian Aviation Museum. This is situated beside the airport and both have strong links with the UK. The British built the first runway in 1940, when Germany invaded southern Norway. Then, during the Second World War, two Norwegian fighter squadrons flew Spitfires from England. Naturally, the Museum exhibits include the Spitfire alongside the numerous other military and civilian aircraft in its 10,000 m2 floorspace.Once back in the UK we will post some photos of the animals we encountered during the trip. In the meantime, here are two photos of a small holothurian (sea-cucumber), Elpidia — affectionately referred to as a ‘sea-pig’ by all aboard the research ship. These interesting animals ‘graze’ the surface of the seabed. This particular species grows to around 2 cm in length, but this specimen (from 1,300 m depth) is only about 4 or 5 mm long. The animal can be seen in situ in a photo from an earlier MAREANO research cruise here
Spring Bulb for Schools: Results 2005-2012 Danielle Cowell, 16 May 2012 The ‘Spring Bulbs for Schools’ project allows 1000s of schools scientists to work with Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales to investigate and understand climate change.Since October 2005, school scientists have been keeping weather records and noting when their flowers open, as part of a long-term study looking at the effects of temperature on spring bulbs.Certificates have now been sent out to all the 2,933 pupils that completed the project this year.See Professor Plant's reports or download the spreadsheet to study the trends for yourself! Make graphs & frequency charts or calculate the mean. See if the flowers opened late in schools that recorded cold weather. See how temperature, sunshine and rainfall affect the average flowering dates. Look for trends between different locations. Daffodil Drawing Competition 2012. Congratulations to the following pupils who produced some excellent botanical drawings!1st: Sana Patel - Fulwood & Cadley Primary2nd: Markus - Stanford Primary - Age 93rd: Emilia Porter - Fulwood & Cadley PrimaryRunner's up: Marielle Matter - Westwood Primary - Age 9 Emlyn Piette - Westwood Primary - Age 10 Aleena Raza - Fulwood & Cadley Primary Lucy Turner - Fulwood & Cadley Primary Davina Vadhere - Fulwood & Cadley Primary Bradley Cox - Stanford in the Vale Primary - Age 9 Abigail Boswell - Fulwood & Cadley Primary Hasan Patel - Fulwood & Cadley Primary Tom Betheridge - Fulwood & Cadley Primary Mairelle Mattar - Westwood Primary - Age 9 Hasan Ali - Sherwood Primary Charlie Smith - Ysgol Nant Y coed - Oed 9 Many ThanksProfessor Plantwww.museumwales.ac.uk/scan/bulbsTwitter http://twitter.com/Professor_PlantFacebook Professor Plant
Graham Sutherland: Artist in Focus 14 May 2012 Graham Sutherland c.1940 © Estate of Graham Sutherland SUTHERLAND, Graham Pastoral, 1930 (NWM A 4042) © Estate of Graham Sutherland SUTHERLAND, Graham Welsh Landscape, 1936 (NWM A 4403) © Estate of Graham Sutherland SUTHERLAND, Graham Feeding a Furnace, 1942 (NWM A 4628) © Estate of Graham Sutherland SUTHERLAND, Graham Untitled (Wavelike Form), 1976 (NMW A 2271) © Estate of Graham Sutherland SUTHERLAND, Graham Study of a Palm Frond, 1947 (NWM A 4101) Graham Sutherland was celebrated as the 'outstanding painter of his generation'. The places in which Sutherland worked had a profound influence on his work: from the rural landscape of Kent, to the hills and valleys of west Wales and the heat and light of the French Riviera. Sutherland trained as a printmaker at Goldsmiths in the mid 1920s. Many of his early prints show his enthusiasm for the pastoral work of Samuel Palmer. Trees and woods are enduring motifs in Sutherland's work, from the nostalgic countryside scenes of his earliest prints, through to the blasted and tortured forms of his later images. They often become like creatures, capable of expressing emotion and physical sensation. Gradually Sutherland's vision began to take on a more personal style and note of menace. Sutherland in Wales He first visited Pembrokeshire in 1934 and said it was the place where he 'began to learn painting'. He recalled being fascinated by 'twisted gorse on the cliff edge... the flowers and damp hollows... the deep green valleys and the rounded hills and the whole structure, simple and complex'. Sutherland discovered in Pembrokeshire a landscape of 'exultant strangeness' but also felt that he was 'as much part of the earth as my features were part of me'. Following the outbreak of World War Two, Sutherland was appointed an Official War Artist. He recorded war work at mines, steel works and quarries in Cornwall, South Wales and Derbyshire, and the devastation of bomb-damaged Cardiff, Swansea, London and northern France. Sutherland visited steel works in Cardiff and Swansea in 1941 and 1942. He imaged the workings of the foundries to be like living creatures. He wrote: 'as the hand feeds the mouth so did the long scoops which plunged into the furnace openings feed them, and the metal containers pouring molten iron into ladles had great encrusted mouths.' Describing his first experience of the south of France in 1947 Sutherland recalled that: 'To see Provence for the first time is to know Cézanne properly, and the painting of van Gogh had suddenly for me a new excitement'. He was first encouraged to visit by friends including Francis Bacon . Sutherland quickly took to both the sunny climate and the intriguing appearance of the region's plants and animals. In 1956 he and his wife bought a modernist villa designed by the Irish architect Eileen Gray. Sutherland was to live in this house, on a hillside of the coastal town of Menton for much of the year for the rest of his life. In France, Sutherland discovered an array of new inspirational forms. Palms, gourds, maize and root-forms were all studied, dissected and reassembled into new arrangements. These increasingly took on the quality of creatures or figures caught in a process of metamorphosis. Palm leaves suggest the sun, heat and foreignness of the south of France. After the hardship and drabness of the war years they must have seemed exotic. However, they signify more than the simple enjoyment of a holiday destination. The razor-sharp frond edges recall the spikiness of Sutherland's earlier thorn studies. They suggest the potential for the co-existence of pleasure and pain. In 1967 Sutherland returned to west Wales for the first time in over 30 years. Nearly a decade later when he had once again been working regularly in the region, he explained that he had been 'sorely mistaken' in his assumption that he had exhausted the inspiration the place had to offer. Instead he had again soaked himself in the 'curiously charged atmosphere — at once both calm and exciting'. Sutherland wanted to leave a collection to Wales because he felt 'having gained so much from this country, I should like to give something back'. In 1976 he established the Graham Sutherland Gallery at Picton Castle where the majority of this collection was held before its transfer to Amgueddfa Cymru in 1995. This article was produced by Rachel Flynn as part of an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded Collaborative Doctoral Award with Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales and the University of Bristol. View a list of works by Graham Sutherland on Art Online External Links Oriel y Parc
Cardiff Creative Writers Grace Todd, 14 May 2012 Objects are evidence of somewhere, something, or somebody and as such all have stories to tell. Recently a class of adults studying creative writing at Carduff University attended a workshop here with me in the Clore Discovery Centre. They took on the role of a curator and wrote their own creative labels for some of their favourite objects in the gallery. Here are a few examples: Iron-Nickel Meteorite (Approximately 4.5 billion years old) I wandered lonely, in a cloud of fragments, beyond the Martian orbit, since the beginnings of the Solar System some four-and-a-half billions of years ago. A passing satellite, en-route from Earth to who knows where, disturbed my orbit, and I fell towards the distant sun. Later, I felt the pull of Earth, and spiralled down into its gravity well – faster and faster until in fiery glory I blazed across the sky, a meteorite. Though reduced in size, I fell to earth. A fragment of the ancient history of the Solar System – a messenger from outer space – here I lie in The National Museum Collection.David Edwards What is it? Popular wrong answers include a drinking vessel or a paperweight!! It is an axe head. Bronze Age man hafted it to a wooden handle and used the D shaped loop on the side for strapping. Butchering, wood-cutting and self-defence are among possible uses for this versatile tool. Mike Dolan A snakestone fossilthought to be magic,I was a cephalopodwith head and foot fused. In life I reliedon plain hydraulicsa siphuncle curledlike a twirling straw adjusted the pressurein my chambered coils,let me rise and fallas I dodged ichthyosaurs. Anne Bryan
