Sunny Heights: then & now, part 1.

As we've seen, from behind the house looks much the same as when Ringo lived there. The grounds have been significantly altered, however, with part sold off to provide land for another mansion.
The swimming pool is also new; it's situated on roughly the same spot as this very much tached-up photo:


Inside, the house has inevitably undergone a lot of renovation. But, fairly astonishingly, the none-more-psychedelic painting evident in a couple of Ringo-at-home shots from 1967 is still there:


From this angle, it's evident that it was painted straight onto the wall:


That subsequent owners have chosen to preserve this painting beggars belief, given the general attitude of Sic Transit Gloria Mundi ("Slash & Burn" to you and me) that usually informs renovation on St George's Hill; yet there it is. A small relic of the Beatle Belt abides.
More to follow...

Kenwood: art, August 1967.

We have seen the first pic of John before on here, but the real jerky of this post is the illustration beneath it. On the day the photo was taken in August 1967, John seemed to be having an open day at Kenwood. Many people were invited in for a bit of jibber-jabber, including, as readers of this blog will know, both Frank Lawson and Shaun Weiss.
What was John painting? Frank Lawson remembers it as a drawing which was "quite complex with lots of lines with faces interwoven and emerging from the lines," whereas Shaun Weiss says that John was "making out his Christmas cards for some of the closest friends and family" (a very untypically organised thing to be doing in the middle of summer). So which is it?
The illustration above was John's design for a Variety Club Christmas card, which would cover both bases, so probably that.