Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Returning home from a family gathering in the North West we took a detour from our usual route, and despite the dark clouds and pouring rain and the warnings of queuing traffic and closed roads we found our way over the Pennines to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. It was our first visit and it was long overdue. The way was slow and wet and windy, but as we approached the sky cleared and by the time we left the sun was shining again. And in between the park was a revelation.  Continue reading “Yorkshire Sculpture Park”

Frames of reference

West Sussex Saturday

A month after my birthday and my present was to wake up under a new sky. We’d come away for the weekend and the bright morning window offered a fresh perspective, the fast-moving clouds seemed to suggest anything was possible. I’m writing this a month later, on the eve of a new dawn. Yesterday the General Election voted for a hung parliament, a brave new world where even Kensington seemed to be turning red. But here in Chichester the sky is perpetually blue. Continue reading “West Sussex Saturday”

Frames of reference

In Venice

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Palazzo Dona

In Venice I revisit views that I have drawn or painted before and feel more free to take liberties with, like Palazzo Dona in Campo S. Maria Formosa or the big palaces across from San Vio near Accademia. But there is nothing quite like a first ‘go’ at a newly discovered subject – last summer it was a view across the Grand Canal from Calle Giustinian, discovered near a sumptuous Sean Scully exhibition, and the little Oratorio in Campo Sant Angelo which I must have by-passed countless times but which I suddenly saw in a new light as I made my hot way home for lunch.

What a seductress – La Serenissima – I just can’t stay away! Continue reading “In Venice”

Frames of reference

Montserrat

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No trip to Barcelona is complete without an excursion to Montserrat. It had been recommended many times so finally we got the train from Plaça d’Espanya. The ticket price included a transfer onto the rack railway at Monistrol de Montserrat for the steep climb up the mountain. Continue reading “Montserrat”

Frames of reference

Stations Of The Crossing

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This railway bridge on Wightman Road crosses the Gospel Oak to Barking Line just as it passes under the East Coast Main Line out of Finsbury Park. I regularly cross this bridge, either going to work or coming home and many times I just sit here in a queue of traffic, but the view is often mesmerising, especially when the sun is shining on these timeworn panels of blistered paint. Continue reading “Stations Of The Crossing”

Frames of reference

Kind Of Red

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A quintet of five new paintings by Sean Scully entitled Kind of Red, at the Timothy Taylor Gallery. This is painting as a martial art: prepare, focus, get to work; there’s a no-nonsense approach to these blocks of colour thrown onto huge sheet metal plates, rocking in rhythm across the wall. It’s easy to imagine Scully dancing before them wielding a fat wall-painting brush. And in the exhibition catalogue there’s a wonderful, curious and perceptive essay by Richard Williams. Continue reading “Kind Of Red”

Frames of reference

Triptychs

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This is Pink Dark Triptych, 2011, oil on linen by Sean Scully, a donation to the Pallant House Gallery Collection and the catalyst for their recent exhibition, Sean Scully: Triptychs. It sounded like a great show, I was looking forward to seeing it, but I wasn’t quick enough and now it’s closed. I was disappointed to miss it so here’s my own compilation of Scully triplets and trinities and trios. Continue reading “Triptychs”

Frames of reference

Little Doric

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Doric is the title of a family of paintings by Sean Scully, an ongoing series inspired by ancient Greek architecture, first shown as a group at the Benaki Museum in Athens last year. Since then there have been Doric exhibitions at IVAM in Valencia, the Hugh Lane in Dublin and the MACM in Mougins. Continue reading “Little Doric”

Frames of reference