Looking at Art Group

I'm a member of the U3A in South Bristol and we have started an informal group of people who are interested in looking at art (but not necessarily very knowledgeable about it).  We had our first proper meeting today.  Eleven people squeezed around my kitchen table, and nearly two hours of lively discussion on the four recent shows at the RWA.   Someone started the discussion on each one, rather like a book club, saying what they had liked, or not, and why.  It was a surprisingly good experience.  Everyone had something to say, and it was very interesting how we had seen and remembered details and specific images in different ways.  The Ravilious and the Fashion Photography got the most attention, and the most interest.   

Tim Walker, Lily Cole and Giant Camera (2004)

Image and further info from the RWA website here


Next month we are going to meet at the local Grant Bradley gallery and look at the show there, and then discuss it in their cafe.  We will also have separately been to see what's on at the Spike Island Open Studios on the weekend of 5/6/7th May.  And there are about 6 other people eager to join us for the next session.  

Edinburgh Overivew

I'm just recovering from Edinburgh - my feet, particularly, have taken a real battering.  But it has been a tremendously good experience.  I thoroughly enjoyed the feeling that I only had to think about art and galleries and drawing for 4 whole days.  What a treat!

                                                                   The Royal Mile

 I feel I have learned a lot about the business of selection and focus when 'doing' galleries, and about managing my time and energy levels.  I also got over my inhibitions about getting out my sketchbook in a gallery and just drawing.  I have done quite a few sketches of the things I've seen, and it helps in several ways - really looking at the image, and at the techniques, getting a sense of the artist's process and intentions, and also fixing in my mind what I have seen, so I will remember them,  Writing up this blog has helped too, for the same reason.  And because I have looked up artists websites and looked for other images of their work on line, i also have seen a great deal more than just the material on display in Edinburgh, and I have a record of it on my computer for future reference.

St Giles Cathedral

Plus, it as nice to be away and have some nice days in Edinburgh, to explore a bit on my own and still have people around to touch base with, to eat together with, and share reactions with.  I'm very glad i went, and very grateful to Jo and Julian and others for organising it.

Edinburgh Day 4

This morning I made time to go to the Scottish National Portrait gallery, en route to the train home.  The SNPG is housed in a fantastic, purpose-built Victorian red-brick building, which has lots of ornate carving an ceramic tiles and painted murals inside - very reminiscent of Castell Coch and Cardiff Castle - and from exactly the same period and kind of aristocratic/romantic mind-set.

The building in itself, then, was worth a visit, and had I had more time I would have done some drawings of the amazing ceiling and wall decoration.

But I only had about an hour and I didn't want to waste it, so I went up to the first floor where there was an exhibition of twentieth century portraits called The Modern Scot, mainly paintings but s few sculpted heads too.  I made sketches of two, one of which was the intense study of Naomi Mitchison done by Wyndham Lewis in 1938 which the SNPG were using as the flyer for the exhibition.

There was also a group of portraits of Pioneers of Science, which included a death mask taken from the first cloned animal, Dolly the Sheep, made in plaster by Peter Simmers in 2003.  I did a drawing of this.  The link with death masks was interesting, as there is quite a collection of these in the Gallery's Library, of famous old (mainly 19th century) Scottish dignitaries of art, literature, science and politics.

There was, thirdly, an interesting exhibition of paintings by Sir John Lavery, 1856-1941, who volunteers to be a war artist but wasn't allowed to go to france, so did a huge amount of work on shipping, and on war workers, from 1917-18.  Really interesting and good paintings, limited and rather gentle palette of colours, but clear, almost photographic studies of ships and naval things, and very sensitive pictures of munitions etc workers.  I particularly liked his picture of the workers' creche at the Woolwich Arsenal munitions factory, and of women making rope for the navy at a rope walk on the Clyde.

Apparently, Lavery always felt that he had not been a 'proper' war artist because he hadn't seen action, but his paintings give valuable visual evidence of some of the concern of people, especially some, working on the home front.

Finally, there was a photographic exhibition of photo portraits of Pakistani immigrants settled in Edinburgh and Glasgow since the 1960s, taken by Verena Jaekel and commissioned by the SNPG in 2009.  The photos themselves were well composed, striking images of a community which is both well established and increasingly integrated, but simultaneously distinct, different, and holding on to its original heritage.

I thought of Jo and her ideas for a photographic record of women in Easton, and will pass on the reference when I get back.

Then there was time for an extremely quick walk through some of the classical galleries on the top floor, which has a good collection of portraits from the medieval period onwards, including quite a lot of the Scottish kings and queens, famous people, wealthy landed aristocrats, etc.  Lots to look at if I ever come again.

Then a dash to the station to meet the others, and a long but ok journey home, reading a comprehensive book about composting - my plan, on avery small scale, for my very small back garden.

Edinburgh Day 3

This morning I headed off towards the Castle,  but got side-tracked on a mission to find the edinburgh School of Art where some of the full time students are applying.  I walked up with jesse, and we asked nicely of the security guards and were allowed to wander round and have a look, but without going in to any of the studios all we were able to see was the main sculpture/exhibition hall, and get a feel for the atmosphere.  The main building was, I thought, lovely, old, dignified, full of hard work.  The Jesse went to find the museum, and I went and explored the City Art Cetre and the fruit market gallery, both very near the Waverly Station and down the hill form the Royal Mile and the Mound.

The City Art Gallery had an interesting exhibition of contemporary craft-based works.  I particularly liked a huge wall-hangign made out of folded and looped strips of old printed paper, in the main ground-flor foyer, by Jo McDonald whose website, from which this image was taken, is here..

' UNIQUE RECOLLECTIONS ? '       Second-hand books and cotton warp

And some works by Jenny Smith (whose website is here), who had produced etchings to eat away the negative spaces around bold swirling marks (not unlike my own non-writing marks) , and then the a paper had been laser-cut so that only the black lines were left, and the middle bits had been removed.  the pieces were hung a little way away from the background card, so that the shadows added another dimension and depth.  The effect was striking, and the technique highly original.

'Circles'   laser cut and etched into paper, 37cm x 37cm        Image copied from the AA2A website here.
I also liked work by Fiona Hutchison, whose website is here , woven textiles, with simple colours and wispy threads, done in separate vertical strips, and mostly quite small.  This example is taken from her website.

WHERE TWO TIDES MEET    113cm x120cm

Also in the CAC were some striking paintings and drawings.  I particularly liked a rather delicate, tender, quite large painting by Victoria Crowe, whose website is here, entitled Last Portrait of Jenny Armstrong, 1986.  The composition and pose were well balanced and realistic, while the limited colour palette and the gentle brush work was very good.  her website contains images of a range of her work, which i like very much, its calmness and use of colour especially.  This isn't the portrait I saw at CAC, but is in the National Portrait Gallery, of Dame janet maria Vaughan, and the image comes from her website.

There was a pair of David Connearn's line drawings, which paper almost obsessional, and must have taken ages to produce (except that i have had a go at drawing in this fashion, and it is both compelling to do, and rather soothing to look at).   Image copied from IFF Gallery website here.

Then lunch, and across the road to the Fruitmarket Gallery, where there was an exhibition/installation by Anna Barriball (the Gallery website with further information and images is here) makes large drawings by completely covering a sheet of paper in heavy graphite or pencil, developing a deep grey colour with high sheen, and reproducing the indentations and shape of her subjects - often large but mundane things like interior doors or window frames.   I was surprised to find I rather liked these, found them good to look at and soothing too.

 Barriball had also made an installation along one entire wall of the gallery by drawing a regular pattern of pencil dots, some larger and darker than others, using a sound-insulation wall-tile as a template.  Crazy!  But it looked really interesting, and the scale of it made it look absolutely natural, and highly textural.

Then out and across the road again, and up The Scotsman Steps, newly restored and renewed by Martin Creed, (his website is here) as a commission from Edinburgh City Council and the Fruitmarket Gallery.  Each step has been renewed with a different coloured and highly patterned and veined marble, so as you walk up and down you seem to be treading on a slightly battered and faded series of rainbows.   My photos.

By this time I was almost worn out, but went slowly back through the Princes Street gardens to the National Gallery and the Scottish Royal Academy, where there were a series of three linked shows, by the
Royal Scottish Society of Watercolour Painters, (the RSW), the Society of Scottish Artists (SSA), and Visual Arts Scotland (VAS).   There was some degree of overlap between them, with several artists showing work in each one (including both Jo McDonald and Jenny Smith, whose work I had seen at the CAC earlier).  There was a great deal of work on show, very varied in terms of style and media, generally very high quality. I was almost too tired to take it all in, but made notes on several people and bought the catalogues so I can refer back in future.

What a day!  Sketchbooks session with everyone together at 6 pm, and then out for supper and a reasonably early bed.

There is an interesting piece in the Guardian art blog today about the colour of the walls in art galleries, inspired by the re-opening of the Musee d'Orsay in Paris, which has painted its walls in deep shades like this:

Suit you? … French ministers inspect the Musée d’Orsay's new-look non-white walls. And some paintings. 
Photograph: Pierre Verdy/AFP/Getty Images, copied from The Guardian.

The link to the Guardian blog is here. 

Jonathan James argues, amongst other things, that painting gallery walls white , at least for pre-20th century art, is a bad thing but is done partly to save galleries the bother of choosing something else (and for purely practical and economic simplicity too, of course).

It's an interesting issue,  and applies also to the coloured mounts sometimes used around pictures or prints.  Changing the colour can completely change the overall look and relative impact of an image.  Soemthing to consider in mounting my own work, or in presenting a portfolio.  At home, all my walls are white, and I have always thought that this was the purest and simplest way to focus on the image, rather than its location and surroundings.  But perhaps I've got it worn.  Hmm.  Food for further thought.