Rowley Gallery Blog
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”
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”
This press release just arrived:
AKT 1 | Nina Wisnia & Karolina Woolf
Exhibition Dates: 23.03.12 – 26.03.12
Private View: 22.03.12 from 6-9pm
Venue: 178 Walton Street, London, SW3 2JL Continue reading “AKT 1”
At this time of year, when the almond blossom is in full bloom and it’s often windy my terrace gets covered with blossom and I like to incorporate it into my papermaking process. Continue reading “Making Paper In Andalucia”
We just received this flyer from Howard Phipps, whose wood engraving of Thomas Hardy’s Study At Max Gate is reproduced on the cover. Continue reading “Slightly Foxed”
