Strange Meeting

A mint condition 1966 record sleeve, of thick cardboard typical of US albums of the time, with eyeconic psychedelic artwork by John Cleveland. It is set in a deep bevelled mount with an incongruously rustic frame, seen here sitting on an easel. I veneered three faces of the moulding with a gnarly oak burr, then stained it and finished with French polish. Continue reading “Strange Meeting”

Frames of reference

Address As A Dress

At The Rowley Gallery we just rehung the back wall with Elisabeth Lecourt’s map-dresses. They look fantastic. We’ve had her work for a while but not had the chance to see them altogether until now. They seem almost magical in the way she creates one thing out of another thing, the transformation from map to dress to metaphor. Continue reading “Address As A Dress”

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Post-Apocalyptic Adobe Workout

Dei Gaztelumendi is a young Spanish illustrator from San Sebastian. This is a fascinating time lapse film of him at work, showing the process from pencil drawn sketch through Adobe Creative Suite and all the host of computer manipulation and enhancements that are now part of the vocabulary of slick graphic illustration. Norman Rockwell would have loved it.

Frames of reference

For Lucian Freud

This is weird. Straightaway Kensington rooftops then a glimpse through a window, as if I’d seen it before. These people are familiar. We see them on the street, in the newsagent, in those boots sometimes, shuffling. Why the hawk? A Peregrine Falcon? Keen eyes and full of energy. I had no idea this film existed until I stumbled upon it today, so now I will share it. Continue reading “For Lucian Freud”

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Wallace Collection Frames

On a recent visit to the Wallace Collection I was lucky enough to get to see inside the lecture theatre on the lower ground floor, where they display some of their historic collection of picture frames. Many of them original frames for paintings on the floors above, now exhibited in new frames. Continue reading “Wallace Collection Frames”

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Seeing Double

Phoebe and Lydia Lake are artists. They’re also identical twins, which means they know a thing or two about symmetry. So last year, when they were 20 years old, the Tate Britain decided to film their first encounter with one of the museum’s most famous holdings, The Cholmondley Ladies, painted sometime around 1600-1610 by an unknown artist. An inscription describes the ladies as members of the Cholmondley family (pronounced “Chumley”) who were born on the same day, married on the same day and “brought to bed” (gave birth) on the same day. Continue reading “Seeing Double”

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Paintings From The 1960s

A group of paintings by John Hubbard made during the 1960s will be exhibited at the New Art Centre near Salisbury, from 4 February until 15 April. His work from this time, though based on landscape, was essentialy dealing with atmosphere and the movement of light, rather than any specific feature of the landscape. He quotes Turner’s words, saying he was trying to consider “every part as receiving and emitting rays to every surrounding surface”. Continue reading “Paintings From The 1960s”

Frames of reference