Scroll down for The Grinch opinion if you are not interested in art.

This was the day ordained to go around Bath Christmas Market before it closes next Sunday. By coincidence, though I never believe in such things, it was necessary for me to have an appointment for an intermittent toothache. We set off bright and early for my 10.50 appointment with my dentist who is also my role model in matters of dentistry standards.

Don’t ask me how much I’ve spent with him, it is in the thousands, but it all had to be done, but recently I have had concerns that I would get an eruption over the Christmas period and so I decided to have a check-up. What a good thing, as there was in my remaining teeth one had a hole in and the other one was rotten underneath the gum level so it had to come out.

When the job was done I caught the bus to the center of Bath and joined Francoise over a couple of coffee. Due to her knee injury she can only walk short distances without taking a rest so we had to modify the plans to suit this which basically means walking very slowly.

Bath was crowded but not overcrowded so we were able to walk without too many impediments though I had to get used to walking slowly.

This is the tackiest shop in town selling sugar disguised in a thousand different ways, all designed to rot your teeth though of course the manufacturers wouldn’t dream of admitting this. Some may appreciate the kick that sugar gives.

this is a lovely man who writes brief stories for people using just their name. I saw the same thing in Swansea Market. I love it that people are putting their talents to good use instead of just begging or selling Big Issue (my personal view)

We visited the city art gallery which consists of the annual exhibition of the Bath Society of Artists which was formed in 1904 and was made possible through the generous donation of a lady who lived in the area. Right from the beginning, they were 50/50 men and women which was for that era quite remarkable.

I have cause to reflect on the profession of artist and how it must feel. You definitely see the world in different terms for example in light and shade, in perspective, in degrees of abstraction, in the use of color, in the use of symbolism and I think this makes you stand apart from the ordinary everyday person. I think all artists need to have dialogue with other artists as they stand a much greater chance of being understood.

We met a lady in Bath who was a member of a community choir and she said that everyone can sing. I would say the same thing with painting or drawing. Everyone can do something. It is our instinctive way of recreating the world as we See It. Art is a huge stabilizer and therapist and I believe if people took to art there would be less depression in the world.

I’m also a great believer that all art should ask a question. It is possible for the artist to do everything and just leave the observer a passive person. I have always liked black and white photography because I think the color can be too alluring and distracting. Obviously, political art asks questions in spadefuls but I think every type of art and do the same, for example if you paint a picture of a glade of trees, are you not suggesting that nature should be respected and all its resources.

Another point is that if you could say it in writing you don’t need to do art at all so what is it about your artwork that is inexpressible in the form of the written word. Is it the joining of dots? Is it a perspective? Is it a juxtaposition of realities? I’m a great believer that we have a choice; we are either a living art installation or we are a robot. There is and cannot be a middle point i.e. no compromise.

A robot will not do anything to disturb other people upset the equilibrium. A robot will not empathize or go out of their comfort zone and this is the beauty of being a human being that you can do all these things and provided we have the over-mind in transcendence then we will in some way enrich human consciousness

I think the most subtle form of cruelty or torture is being with people that do not understand you. There is a difference between being alone and being lonely. I do not think artists are lonely because they have their own paradigm shift which keeps them in touch with the universe but I think the occasional feedback, honest feedback, from those who see their work and who do similar is immensely valuable.

The inversion of art is best exemplified in a violent movie where through turning the volume up too high and ditto with the contrast control you educe feelings and emotions in the audience that is violent, short-term, damaging to the psyche and dulling of the mind. We are all artists whether we like it or not

In extreme cases Michelangelo who painted the Sistine Chapel, the artist did not appear to need the stimulus of others because what he saw on the walls resided within him and this shows a very developed spirit but most of us need encouraging somewhere along the way. Edvard Munch, the painter of The Scream and other items used his isolation as a stimulus and certainly appeared to be an introvert figure with no need for other people

Alex Cooper – ‘Anthony’   I don’t know why I thought this gentleman was Scottish, maybe I thought at first glance at his trousers that they were a kilt but it is certainly someone that I would not wish to get on the wrong side of.

There are close to 400 works in the gallery which means that it’s probably worth making more than one visit if you want to get the most out of it and fortunately it is open until Saturday the 11th of January 2025.

By great coincidence, and  I have already said I don’t believe in coincidences, we arrived a few minutes before a weekly talk that took place every Thursday at 1:30 p.m. We were the only people that were around at the time so we had more or less a private tour by a  very knowledgeable volunteer.

I am not a technical person when it comes to art but I do have a very good eye for what people are trying to contribute something unique and personal so was able to recognize someone who was on the same wavelength and we had a very lively conversation with plenty of give and take and repartee. It is gratifying when someone gets what you are thinking before you utter a word.

Patricia Volk – Construction (4) commentated by Patrick our guide

When the artist was young she was told she couldn’t go to art school that iy wasn’t the right thing for an ambitious person to do but when she was in her thirties a friend of hers changed her mind and she went to back to art school and she came and studied at Bath Spa University. And she got a degree in ceramics and she now uses the ceramics to make sculptures because she says there is an invisible line between the two disciplines.

She works with clay, the type used for making pottery. The important thing with her sculptures is that she likes to paint them and the sculpture itself suggests what colour it should be painted. The inherent instability can go either one way or the other. Its in the act of motion – active movement and so on. She likes to juxtapose things that are stable with things that are slightly precarious so we have a solid object perched on a smaller basis, the plinth. The question that I asked myself was – what is the direction of travel.

Suzie Edwards  ‘Clash’   Difficult to portray here but this figure is actually reaching out of the frame in a three-dimensional way

This is a bit like the Rorschach inkblot test. Like all art, this asks a question. What is the relationship if any between the three women obviously all having been in the sea. Is there an element of competition? Are they trying to help do each other socially? There does not seem to be much warmth or empathy between them. Is the woman on the left being challenged because of her haughty attitude. What event might have preceded this stance?

I find the warmth and atmosphere of this photograph very comforting to the spirit. It reminds me of my time in France; an invitation to become involved and come and have a seat and a drink or a coffee. It is delightfully informal and evocative of the sultry summers day[

Theme and Variation 1. This is by an artist, Peter Randell-Page who works in unusual materials and creates themes that invite the audience to touch and become part of the work. When I saw it I wanted to touch it and establish what material it was from. I think we are all trained not too touch possibly because of contamination but in this case the surface was hard and not vulnerable to greasy hands

Peter is by any measure an interesting person.  at school he was dyslexic and decided to start making sculpture as a teenager. He started at Bath Academy of Art and then went on to do some conservation work on Wells Cathedral then spent some time learning marble sculpture he has received a number of commissions in Castle Park, Bristol, the Eden Project and in 2015 was selected as a Royal Academician.

We can sum up his attitude in this quote  ‘geometry is the theme on which nature plays her infinite variations and can be seen as a pattern book on which the most complex and sophisticated structures are based’. He also says that sculpture is a tactile communication with the observer. It is an object that must transcend verbal description. We could usefully occupy ourselves by trying to discover why a work of art is attractive.

I’m not sure why geometry is the basis of his work as I would have thought geometry is more to do with physical form than anything else. What about the other dimensions and what about formative electromagnetic fields which can affect the molecules of our body

Peter is fascinated by the concept of infinity and this particular piece is also about the power of a group. There is a lot to think about here but I think we need to consider the effect of a sculpture as a catalyst which bypasses the conscious mind and reaches infinite truth

I first of all thought this was a Virgin Mary type of picture but she seems quite a rebellious non-conformist person who will do things her own way and this I find very attractive. She is not looking at us, rather preoccupied with what she is doing which I cannot determine from the picture but she is suspending something, it could be a small creature, and deciding what to do with it

So, back to the city

This is one of the markets in proximity to the town hall and goes back decades and this is a reminder of life as it used to be in this historical City

In the closed market there is an amazing and extensive haberdashery counter which must look like Aladdin’s cave to fans of sewing, knitting, embroiderers, anything related you care to mention. The prices are very reasonable and I only hope they make money but in any event it is such a pleasure on the eye. I notice that foreign visitors were particularly impressed

So now I come to the The Grinch moment.

I have been to this Christmas market over the last 10 years and I found in the last year or so that most of the stands or stalls were not that interesting.

The originality of some of the stands were admirable but I asked myself

* Do I actually want to buy something the answer was in the negative.
* Do I want an overpriced wine punch for six pounds? No
* do I want a hamburger albeit made out of first class ingredients for 10 pounds? No
* do I want to buy works about when the walls of our property are full of such things? no.
* Is there anything else that I really need that I could get elsewhere? No
however I can see that the mood was jolly and people were set on having a good time. I don’t think this was aimed at me but people want to spend their money and have a good time and don’t really care how profound their purchase is.

I can see what the stall holder is trying to do but he does not seem engaged. If he didn’t have to pay 4,000 pounds for a stand he would be able to offer the products much cheaper and I do wonder at the end of the day most stall holders actually make out of it. In his case the price list is very wooden and does not have a Christmasy feel and I don’t know why people put £5.5 is this supposed to sound less than £5.50?

I would consider the investment as a PR exercise for work that might flow in for the rest of the year but if you are not living locally and you have to find a hotel for 18 night, parking your car, some eating and drinking, not to mention the cost of the materials and of course paying staff I don’t see it as money making for the majority. Tell me I am wrong, somebody!

I did go to the artist quarter in Abbey Street. The bike was popped outside as an attraction people were selling postcards, paintings and Christmas decorations. I was talking with someone when I noticed that one of the people there, who happened to be a stall holder, was taking an interest in what we had to say so I included in the conversation as I normally do with complete strangers. The benefits far outweigh any possible risk there might be imagined and it is purely in the imagination because people love to be involved in things.

Anyway I did my psychic bit plus by intuitive observation and so that she was a natural networker and she should really use her talents. She told me that no one had ever told her that about herself before, and that had made her day. I love hearing such things as it means that I have a purpose on Earth. I know what it is in theory already but it’s nice to get the warm glow of lightness when you say something that is right. The converse of course is that if you say something wrong and hateful you feel heavier, well I do anyway.

We should not give ourselves reasons for being silent for example that we might upset someone or offend someone or not be completely correct in our observations. But if we speak with a good heart and enjoy then I would have thought the attention itself will not do any harm and will probably do some good and raise the Spirit of some anonymous person

I went into the Bath Central Library to offer some second hand books. The Polish lady behind the desk who strangely was still wearing a mask filthy though it was, said that they had enough books, too many actually, and a charity shop would appreciate the donation. We had a coffee and cake at the attached Waitrose cafe and I was struck how clean it was, how the tables were spread out so you do not feel cramped and how reasonable the prices were.

As you may know I specialise in making outrageous comments to people. I was walking in the street as one does and I saw a lady go into a shop,  and she had a coat that was exactly the right colour for her it was a type of green not dark green.

Normally we would just note the fact. But I decided to break out of whatever meniscus or bubble I had temporarily been in to summon up  courage and actually go into the shop, touch her in the arm, and tell her that her coat was exactly the right colour for her. It must be in the shock and surprise all mixed up but she thanked me profusely for the comment.

I think we forget to thank each other for such simple things as making a nice meal, going the extra mile, and I think it’s part of Britishness about which I have been writing. I was watching a film this evening about people in the Caribbean and while I won’t say they wear their heart on their sleeves they are very expressive and open and caring and loving and this is what we all need, us in the guarded and cautious northern hemisphere