Some new merchandise has just landed on my website – a celebratory mug and a range of greetings cards – to join the Van Doodles colouring books that I made during lockdown. Those of you that know me or have been following my blog – and it’s been a while, I know – may remember that in 2015 I was in hospital for three months after I contracted sepsis. The sepsis resulted in me having to have a heart valve replacement. Organic heart valves have a limited life and last year at Christmas, while I was on holiday in Spain, the valve failed and I collapsed. I was rushed back to St Thomas’s to have th ..read more

Visit Duncan Grant’s gallery Beer and music… two of my favourite things. So how could I resist the opportunity to get involved in a project that combines the two. And from today, you can too. The music….. Gemma Cullingford, a musician, songwriter and producer from Norfolk, has collaborated with  Suffolk-based performance poet Luke Wright  on an EP FOMO which will be available on all digital platforms from September 2023. Today, they’ve launched the second single from that EP, also called FOMO. For those of you not down with the kids, ‘FOMO’ stands for ‘fear of missing out’ on st ..read more

Visit Duncan Grant’s gallery I’ve been living up in Norfolk for about 6 months now and really loving it. But what with settling in, working the day job and exploring the area, I haven’t really got involved much with the art scene here yet. Signed print of one of my beer can designs Norfolk Open Studios 2022 is giving me a chance to dip my toe into the water. I’ll be exhibiting about 50 pieces – some original ink drawings and lino cuts, and some Giclée prints, including some A3 prints of  my beer can designs for the Iron Pier Brewery in Gravesend, where I used to live. I’ve also got ..read more

Visit Duncan Grant’s gallery After a lifetime in Gravesend, in March this year I moved to Norfolk.  We’d always loved Norfolk and went on holiday there most years with the dogs. But good friends and various family and work commitments kept us living in the Gravesend Riverarea. Duncan Grant: Wells-Next-the-Sea Things change though. The pandemic meant my wife, Davina, moved her tutoring online. My mum was safe, well and settled in her care home.  I was offered the opportunity to do the same work in a new region. And as a few other bits fell into place, we found we were free to go. So ..read more

Visit Duncan Grant’s gallery It seems like ages ago when I was commissioned by  Gravesham Borough Council to create an installation in a telephone box, as a tribute to The Jam’s 1980 studio album, Sound Affects, as part of  the Winter Light Festival 2020.  But as with most things lately, COVID got in the way and the event  was cancelled. I got paid and I kind of forgot about it. But now it’s back again!  And my installation will be one stop on a circular trail of light around the ‘Heritage Quarter’ and along the river. The telephone box outside Gravesham Old Town ..read more

Cas working in her studio Visit Duncan Grant’s gallery I’m planning a move to Norfolk in the near future and one of the many things I’ll miss about my home town of Gravesend, in Kent, is the cultural centre and local landmark that is LV21. I’ve exhibited and run workshops there as have many of the artists that have featured in this blog. This month, LV21 is featuring new work, The Shipping Forecast, by Maidstone-based textile artist Cas Holmes, whose work is often inspired by her life, the journeys she makes, the places she visits and people she meets. She describes it as ‘painting with clot ..read more

Visit Duncan Grant’s gallery Apologies for the time that has passed since my last post. As things have opened up, life seems to have got busier for everyone. Robbie Humphries The last series of posts that I wrote featured the SILTings festival and the many ingenious ways that LV21 found to continue bringing high quality cultural experiences to Gravesham, despite restrictions on indoor events and social gatherings outside. Well we’ve come a long way, and on 28th October LV21 are hosting their first onboard ticketed performance since lockdown in March 2020, and it promises to be a most interes ..read more

Visit Duncan Grant’s gallery Imagine you are standing on a street in your town. What would it take for you to feel that you were in the presence of opera, that you had suddenly stepped into an opera house? The Invisible Opera House – NightWatchers It was this question that Tania Holland Williams, founder of Fat Lady Opera, asked the people of Folkestone in 2019, as part of her company’s first commissioned project The Invisible Opera House. Have a think about it. We’ll come back to it later. Early influences Tania grew up and went to school in Folkestone. As a small child, she fell in lo ..read more

Visit Duncan Grant’s gallery Beer and music… two of my favourite things. So how could I resist the opportunity to get involved in a project that combines the two. And from today, you can too. The music….. Gemma Cullingford, a musician, songwriter and producer from Norfolk, has collaborated with  Suffolk-based performance poet Luke Wright  on an EP FOMO which will be available on all digital platforms from September 2023. Today, they’ve launched the second single from that EP, also called FOMO. For those of you not down with the kids, ‘FOMO’ stands for ‘fear of missing out’ on st ..read more

Those of you who have been following this blog for a while may remember a post in 2019 about Art  on a Postcard. Art on a Postcard was founded, in 2014, by Gemma Peppé as a unique way to raise  money for for the Hepatitis C Trust.  It works like this. Invited artists are sent postcard-sized pieces of paper to decorate in any way they wish. These miniature artworks are then put up for auction. All works start at £50. There is a number of auctions each year  featuring work by  icons of the art world – for this auction they’ve got contributions from Grayson Perry, Gavin T ..read more