malibujojo and cuddlytogas, I come bearing some exciting news!
Do yous remember, aeons ago, I mentioned my dad's friend, the printmaker, who had been involved in making the prints of Sydney Parkinson's drawings?
Well, he told me he was talking to this same friend today, who told him that recently he had been invited by Kew Gardens to give a lecture on the printmaking project. After the lecture, during the social mingling, it - rather distressingly - transpired that hardly anyone attending the lecture had ever heard of Sydney, or his work.
But later on, he ended up talking to a guy from the Natural History Museum, who arranged for him to come and view their collection of Sydney's work. As in, getting to hold in his hands some of Sydney's original paintings, sketches, and drawings with notes for the colours to be filled in later. As drawn in the Endeavour's great cabin.
(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Yeah, so, if you're anything like me, you'll need a moment to recover from that thought. 8O
Anyway, the upshot is that there has now been talk of Kew Gardens and the Natural History Museum getting together, with my dad's friend as an intermediary and curator-type, to do some sort of project - possibly an exhibition or something similar - on Sydney and his work. I hope it goes ahead. He seems pretty excited to be championing Sydney's work, and it will mean that our Woobie will get some much-deserved limelight at last. :D
(Now all we need is for someone to start caring about poor Alex Buchan as well...)
