California Etching

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Pallant House in Chichester has been mentioned on this blog more than once. It has a fantastic permanent collection and over the years has presented some wonderful touring exhibitions. A year or so ago I saw an exhibition which brought together two artists I really admire, Gwen John and Celia Paul, similar I suppose because they might be thought of as being a bit reclusive. Continue reading “California Etching”

Frames of reference

Why I Depict Birds In My Work

Digital StillCamera

The object of art is not to reproduce reality, but to create a reality of the same intensity.
Alberto Giacometti

I graduated from art college in 2008 having specialised in drawing and painting. It had been a challenging experience and I stumbled into the real world with a sense that I had been existing in a bubble for five years. I was determined to become an artist, to retain my creative integrity and to develop and further the skills I had gained at college. My degree show was packed full of birds and animals, but at this point my inspiration was taken from drawings of the old Victorian cabinets of the Chambers Street museum in Edinburgh. Continue reading “Why I Depict Birds In My Work”

Frames of reference

A Cup Of Sue

Bird Cup

I first met Sue Ashworth in the mid 90s when I moved to Hove and rented space in a communal studio. She and her then partner were doing a commission for a Brighton pub. It turned out the pub owner wanted a ‘Boyle Family’ type of thing. Sue’s partner (a sculptor-cum-troubleshooter carpenter extraordinaire) asked me if I knew anything about the work of the Boyles. I said yes, their techniques for replicating 3D slices of our planet were legendary – and something of a guarded mystery. Continue reading “A Cup Of Sue”

Frames of reference

Seascapes & Seescapes

Harbour Scene at Sunrise, possibly Margate circa 1835-40 by Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775-1851

Two exhibitions, one in Greenwich, another in Margate, both featuring paintings by J.M.W. Turner, both spectacular. The image above is a watercolour from the Tate Collection, Harbour Scene at Sunrise, possibly Margate, so let’s begin in Margate. Continue reading “Seascapes & Seescapes”

Frames of reference

Bee-Composed

piano

My big sister Lily Hunter Green is a musician and visual artist based between Brighton and Suffolk. She’s currently working on an art installation project called ‘Bee-Composed’, which involves working with an apiarist and a sculptor to adapt a redundant piano into a working beehive from which she will then harvest the sounds of the bees interacting with the strings and the visual footage recorded from within the piano. This will form part of an exhibition later in the year and an original EP. Continue reading “Bee-Composed”

Frames of reference

The Uncanny

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This is a true story and it happened on Rosslyn Hill in Belsize Park, one evening a few years ago, though the pictures you see are not from there, no. These haunted trees are from the rookeries of the notebook, this winter’s trees signalling to each other through the pages. Continue reading “The Uncanny”

Frames of reference

For Paco De Lucía

I heard someone on the radio say that Paco de Lucía was dead. I was shocked. Then someone else said Pablo de Lucía and I breathed a sigh of relief. But when I checked I saw that Paco had indeed died, of a heart attack on holiday in Mexico. Born December 21, 1947, died February 26, 2014, the flamenco guitar maestro gone far too soon. I witnessed an astounding concert at the Royal Albert Hall thirty years ago when he played duets with John McLaughlin. He was a force of nature, together the two of them were supernatural. He will be greatly missed. See more tributes to Paco de Lucía at BBC News.

La Barrosa – Paco de Lucía, guitar and Juan Rainrez, dancer.

Frames of reference