Art – Page 52 – Frames of Reference

Kew Gardens

On the Spring Bank Holiday weekend, aka Whitsun Bank Holiday or maybe even Whitsuntide, we went down to Kew. It was a slow journey. There was a UEFA Cup Final at Wembley that evening and a Premiership Rugby Final at Twickenham that afternoon, there were roadworks in Ealing and there was a continuous traffic jam around the North Circular. There was a long queue to Kew. By the time we arrived I was stir crazy. Once inside the gates I was snap happy. The resulting photostream begins with eucalyptus, smooth-skinned and animal-like with aromatic blade-shaped leaves. Continue reading “Kew Gardens”

Open Studios

Continue reading “Open Studios”

A Life In Colour

Andrew Walton reminded me of Margaret Mellis when he wrote Schwittering. It prompted me to go looking for more. I found this film about her at Culture Unplugged. I also found a letter she sent me in 1996 (in a junk-mail envelope – she liked to recycle) inviting me to the Bede Gallery in Jarrow for an exhibition of her own constructions and of collages by her late husband, Francis Davison. His work gets a brief mention in the film at 49:25. For another mention please also see Postcard From Southwold. Margaret Mellis died aged 95 in 2009, one year after this film was completed.

Artists’ Voices

Every so often Jonathan Christie brings us a few new pictures. Never too many and never too often so consequently each new arrival is always eagerly anticipated. This time he brought Ghost House, a painting of a stone cottage so thickly covered with whitewash it appeared to glow in the dark. It also happens to be on Strumble Head, like Paul Finn’s earlier lithograph. Continue reading “Artists’ Voices”

Strumble Head

Lithography is a bit different from other print processes. Although I am interested in printmaking despite being a painter, I am no expert. Linocuts and woodblocks depend on the image being raised, and etching depends on the image being recessed. Lithography happens on a flat surface like a lithographic stone or zinc plate and depends on the antipathy between grease and water. The way a mark is made on a stone or a plate is the same as in a drawing or painting, you don’t need an etching needle or engraving tool. The mark is made with a greasy crayon or ink, and then the print is created on a press where alternate use of dampening the plate or stone with water and then applying ink, which attaches only to the greasy drawing, allows the image to be printed. Continue reading “Strumble Head”

Jonathan Gibbs @ The Rowley Gallery

We’re making an example of Jonathan Gibbs. The Rowley Gallery don’t do one person exhibitions, but since he just sent us an irresistible selection of paintings, and because he was the first artist we turned to when we began to exhibit pictures, we are doing the next best thing to a one person show and we’re making a featured display of his work. Please join us for the private view on June 11th from 6.30pm at The Rowley Gallery, 115 Kensington Church Street, London, W8 7LN. Continue reading “Jonathan Gibbs @ The Rowley Gallery”

From Saffron Walden

This walk begins where In Epping Forest ended. Butlers Retreat turned out to be the perfect place for breakfast, with possibly the best coffee in Essex. It kick started our trip up to Saffron Walden. Along the way we passed huge fields of cultivated rapeseed and roadside banks of wild cowslips, a yellow landscape that was once purple with crocus grown for their precious saffron. Continue reading “From Saffron Walden”

Brighter & Lighter

The title of the exhibition derives from an article by the artist in A Tonic to the Nation, The Festival of Britain (ed. Banham & Hillier), “I think that the Festival had a real and lasting effect on private life in Britain. Clothes, streets, houses and thousands of things in daily use have slowly got brighter and lighter ever since, and this change can be traced directly back.” Continue reading “Brighter & Lighter”

Closely Observed

Aaron Kasmin is showing his rarely seen chalk pencil drawings in an exhibition at the Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery from 5th – 29th June. Closely Observed features small scale still life studies of everyday objects. The private view is on Wednesday 5th June from 6.30 – 8.30. More details here.

Across The Buildings

These are the Fish & Coal Buildings on the Regent’s Canal at King’s Cross. Often when I pass there’s a cormorant sitting on the chimney. Now it looks like they’ve been ticked by Nike. Over the last few weeks these silver shapes have slowly spread over the surrounding walls and roofs so that now they seem to stretch from Camley Street right round to York Way. Continue reading “Across The Buildings”