Rowley Gallery Blog
This was my favourite from the Mondrian & Nicholson exhibition. It is from the Courtauld Gallery’s permanent collection and very likely the inspiration for the In Parallel exhibition. There is a gentle spiralling movement to the forms in this hard-edged but soft-toned painting by Ben Nicholson. It brings to mind The Snail by Henri Matisse, though that came 16 years later. Continue reading “1937 (painting)”
This is a lovely exhibition. Two artists working side by side, each intent on being unique, but inevitably enjoying each other’s echoes. Mondrian||Nicholson:In Parallel at the Courtauld Gallery. Continue reading “In Parallel”
We put the clocks forward last weekend for British Summer Time and it worked. Suddenly it’s summer, in March. Today the temperature was as high as 23 Centigrade in London, that’s about 75 Fahrenheit. There are no leaves on the trees yet, but there is blossom everywhere. Here are two paintings by Mary Kuper of cherry blossom in Regents Park. Continue reading “In Regents Park”
Seeing Paul Finn’s Spring Blossoms Umbria reminded me of this painting, Elgin Crescent, Spring, Cherry by Isobel Johnstone, painted from her window down by Ladbroke Grove. Something similar is happening here with the interrupted view through the branches, and the tangle of foreground and background. The streets hereabouts are bursting with blossom now; I can see magnolia and cherry and forsythia. In this little painting I can also see Pollock and Tobey and Mondrian.
Spring Blossoms Umbria 2011 was started last year after visiting Orvieto again. A fine meal at L’Etrusca followed by a long walk into the fields surrounding Orvieto kick-started this one. In some ways it is a little different to the others in that it has a sense of being “in” the landscape as opposed to looking at a place from a distance. Looking through trees onto fields has created interesting tensions between flatness, illusion, realism, abstraction, pattern and surface. Although I will continue to make paintings of places there is something very interesting happening in Spring Blossoms Umbria. Continue reading “Spring Blossoms Umbria”
Well, after delivering some new work to The Rowley Gallery, I made it home in one go from Kensington back to the North East. Last time I got lost but kept coming back to the same place near Holland Park, three times! Try that with a Sat Nav! The drive home up the A1 was better than the outward journey and after some uninspiring, dour weather the sun came out later in the afternoon, bathing the landscape in golden winter light. Continue reading “My Work”
The postman just brought me this little catalogue of British folk heroes compiled by Jonny Hannah. Jolie Holland shares the same initials so she can sing along – Mad Tom Of Bedlam. Continue reading “A Wee Book Of British Folklore”
We just landed a fresh consignment of linocuts and screenprints from Jonny Hannah. He brews a rich mix of fairground maritime vagabond vernacular. New additions to folk-art traditions. Continue reading “Hannah Booty”
A circular walk from Harlington train station to Sharpenhoe Clappers and back again. The first leg memorable for a troop of scramble-bikes echoing around the combe up to Sundon. Then onto National Trust territory protected by kissing-gates, designed to deter motor-cycles. The stretch from Sundon Hills is the loveliest chalk downland, the birdsong only occasionally drowned out by model aeroplane enthusiasts. The views north towards Ampthill and Marston Vale are panoramic. Continue reading “Like The Clappers”
In the time it takes to eat a bowl of porridge at the kitchen window this morning, I’ve seen a wren constantly on the hop amongst the solanum; a couple of blue tits pecking on the fence; a small flock of long-tailed tits swinging through the branches of the trees; a blackbird sounding the alarm; the fleeting shadow of a bird upside down on the eaves of the shed, gone too quick to tell, about the size of a robin but upside down? No sign of the ubiquitous magpies or pigeons. Maybe that’s why there was so much activity, and the bright sun melting the frost. So much energy. Continue reading “Breakfast Birds”