Art – Page 30 – Frames of Reference

Main Street

Here’s a lovely thing, a Jonny Hannah video from Yorkshire Sculpture Park:

Visitors are invited to take a stroll down Main Street in Hannah’s vintage-inspired homage to the independent trader, until 28 February 2016. Transforming YSP Centre, the exhibition features three pop-up shops made entirely from the artist’s 2D and 3D artworks, all of which are available to buy. Navigate Main Street using Hannah’s traditional hand-painted signs suspended above the YSP Centre concourse; natter with the owner of the Record Store; and nip to The Hand and Heart junk shop to pick up anything your heart desires!

Further details at Yorkshire Sculpture Park and see more of Jonny’s work at The Rowley Gallery.

Florence At First Sight

Last summer, on the 10th of August, we made our first visit to Florence. We drove there without satnav and without a hitch, the roads were clear, no hold-ups and we left the car with a parking attendant in a super-efficient underground car park. It was all going surprisingly smoothly, until we hit the streets and joined the procession of pilgrims to the birthplace of the Renaissance. Continue reading “Florence At First Sight”

A Patch Of Order

Grey, white and blue on grey and pink

Drawing and painting is something I do in response to what I am seeing. This practice of working from direct observation was established in my youth. It was probably inherited from my mother, a flower painter and my grandmother, a figurative artist, and fuelled by visits to the National Gallery and subsequent juvenile attempts to replicate the realism of the Old Masters. It was the Dutch 17th century painters that had particularly caught my attention and I began using oil paint and developing an art practice by setting up still lives and going out into the landscape. Continue reading “A Patch Of Order”

Portrait Of My Father

Portrait of my Father, John Douglas Piper – Photogravure prints, each from an edition of 12

Sheet size 20″ x 16″ Plate size 10.5″ x 8″

Top row: G-clamp, outside calipers, child’s trowel circa. 1969, scratch awl

Bottom row: lacquer brush, wrench, spring dividers, tailors shears

Continue reading “Portrait Of My Father”

No.0844

The Tower of Babel was an art installation by Barnaby Barford at the Victoria & Albert Museum from September to November 2015. The tower was built of 3000 miniature ceramic London shops, and ours was number 844. When the exhibition ended the tower was dismantled and the shops were delivered to their new homes. Continue reading “No.0844”

Heaven’s Rope Swing

Heaven’s Gate is a Capability Brown designed viewpoint overlooking Longleat House in Wiltshire. It’s a wonderful spot, a place to relax and drift away as the clouds unfold before your eyes.

The ground rises sharply to the east as far as Park Hill and Prospect Hill, on the top of which a viewpoint known as Heaven’s Gate looks out over the park. The slopes are planted with hanging beech woods, proposed by Brown but planted towards the end of the C18. Continue reading “Heaven’s Rope Swing”

Chasing Rainbows And Missing Islands In West Ireland

Surprisingly, for all the Irish blood coursing through my veins I have never visited before, so this year I set out with my hardy friend Tom, an Irishman himself, to put that right. Our ten days split into two big chunks: Kerry, Dingle and the Skelligs and then Connemara. Continue reading “Chasing Rainbows And Missing Islands In West Ireland”

Alien Spacecraft Strike Terror Into The Hearts Of Art-Loving Londoners!

As we learned from the books of our childhood, alien fleets of spacecraft always invade London by flying up the Thames. The aliens know from their knowledge of British popular culture that the public links the threat of enemy action with the image of St Paul’s standing firm and reassuring against the invaders. And strange spaceships were always depicted as smoothly shaped craft, devoid of the oddities and quirks of our own aircraft or rockets. Concorde was the only one we ever built which could be said to have an alien sheen. Continue reading “Alien Spacecraft Strike Terror Into The Hearts Of Art-Loving Londoners!”

Andy Goldsworthy Cards

Bracken stalks laid on water amongst alders
Scaur Glen, Dumfriesshire, 6 March 1990

Continue reading “Andy Goldsworthy Cards”

Apple Day

The tradition of Apple Day began on 21 October 1990 when the charity Common Ground took over the Piazza at Covent Garden in London with a demonstration to celebrate the cultural importance of the apple, as an enduring symbol of diversity and local distinctiveness. It coincided with an exhibition of specially commissioned photographs of West Country Orchards by James Ravilious. Over the last 25 years Apple Day has become a popular festival, celebrated across the country in schools and museums, village halls and the Houses of Parliament. Continue reading “Apple Day”