Art Exhibitions

Sophie Ryder Exhibition at the Lightbox Gallery in Woking

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Minotaur Sculpture in Wire Netting at Lightbox Gallery Woking

Closing soon unfortunately, this Sophie Ryder exhibition showing her amazing sculptures is on in the Upper gallery of the Lightbox in Woking. Not only sculpture but also her mosaics and tapestry are represented

I have never had the chance to look at her work close up before. I have seen individual pieces in places like the RHS garden at Wisley, where three dancing gigantic hairs amuse the onlookers. It baffled me as to how such detailed work could be done in wire netting, netting like chicken wire, but it has been. Different animal shapes are on show. Hares are obviously a favourite. The minotaur as you can see and I believe gigantic ones are set up in her sculpture park in Yorkshire. Dogs too, a re featured as she loves her dogs

I will attach towards the end a picture of a set piece featuring four hares contemplating a heap of scrap metal. I was told that this piece was inspired by 9/11. I fancied that I saw expressions of bewilderment and despair on the faces of the hares, as they tried to make sense of the destruction and needless loss of life. Whether it was there or not, nevertheless this piece has a meditative quality, and I stood there watching it for quite at time.

Sophie Ryder is renowned for developing the Lady Hare, with the body of a woman and the head of a hare, as a counterpart to the Minotaur in Greek Mythology. The female body is based on her own apparently.

Her work has been shown all over the world, and I believe 9/11 will be going to the United States.

Sir Brian May’s archive of spectroscopy at Watts Gallery near Guildford

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Illustration of boy using a spectroscope

This magnificent collection is on show at the Watts Gallery at Compton just south of Guildford

Watts Gallery, just to set the scene, is or was the gallery used by the famous Victorian portraitist George Frederick Watts. Not only known for his portraits but also his allegorical works, which often commented on the inequalities of the times he lived in. Plus ca change.. Many of his individual works became popular. A painting called Hope I believe is ex President Obama’s favourite painting. Today the gallery houses a considerable collection of his work, but other paintings of his are dotted around international galleries

Nearby is Limnerslease, the house he shared with is wife Mary. The house is open to visitors. Mary supported her husband in his work, but was famous in her own right for setting up manufacture of pottery locally to employ villagers from Compton and also to train them in producing items in clay. Many survive, especially terra cotta plaques for exterior work.

She also had built the magnificent chapel in the nearby cemetery. This was designed by her husband, and is a magnificent example of Art Nouveau design. I attach my own painting, as I don’t have a photograph. Actually I think my painting picked up the mood of the place especially on a winter’s morning

This special exhibition is housed in the main gallery

Sir Brian May started his collection as a boy with a freebie card out of a Weetabix packet. He sent for the viewer, and was amazed by the result in 3D. At the time as I remember, 3D was still high technology. He began taking his own pictures, and one of his father painting the ceiling is shown as an example. He took his pictures with a cheap camera from Woolworths. The name Woolworths has been consigned to history for some time, but it was the place to go for cheap goods. Quite tricky taking a second picture identical to the first, with the technology available at the time.

Having been hooked on the subject, he started collecting Victorian examples when he could find them at boot sales or auction houses. This was very much a Victorian pastime of course and many subjects were produced by card makers like Frith, covering famous names and places and many more

I attach a couple showing the iconic picture of Brunel the railway engineer, photographed alongside his famous steamship the Great Eastern. Also Charles Dickens preparing to deliver one of his readings,

A fascinating subject. I remember 3D as a boy, and being impressed looking at these cards through the viewer. There was also 3D cinema as well, although that was short lived as I remember, being replaced by new technology

Rossetti Exhibition currently at the Tate

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The Annunciation by Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1849-50

An early piece by this artist, may even have been his first

The exhibition covered the work and lives of the Rossetti family, from the father Gabriele Rossetti, a political refugee from Italy together with his four children. Gabriele was involved in translating Dante’s Divine Comedy into English, which was a work his children continued after his death. The family were poets and artists. Gabriel Rossetti is well known because of his association with the Pre-Raphaelit Brotherhood, but curiously his sister Christina the poet is better known. She was a prolific writer of poetry. Her poem In the Bleak Midwinter is very well known as a Christmas carol, and would appear in every Christian hymnal, regardless of sect.

Gabriel, his brother William, and five fellow art students founded the Pre Raphaelite Brotherood, the first art group to challenge the soulless painting found in the Royal Academy with its reliance on old master styles. They were to express themselves from their own experiences. They modelled for themselves based on their own interests,and Gabriel drew a portrait of Elizabeth Siddal, a fellow student, and later to be his wife. There is a wonderful collection of her work in this exhibition, as far as I remember the only time that I have seen her work on show. Sadly she caught cold whilst modelling for Rossetti’s painting Ophelia, when she had to lie in a bath of cold water. Colds were treated in those days with laudenum, a mix of opium and alcohol, and it was that that killed her. She was only 39 when she died.

Christina and her sister Maria both chose a single lifestyle. They lived together and worked in the community through an order of Anglican nuns. William would remain single until his 40s when he would marry the artist Lucy Madox Brown.

Christina was to become a celebrity after publishing Goblin Market in 1862 and William became a leading critic and editor alongside his civil service career. Gabriel went on to form a new group: the aesthetic movement , which would change art and design for a second time. he combined working-class women with feminine fantasy inspired by Renaissance portraiture.

The portraits were paired with poems. Double works of art.

Gabriels finalyears were dominated by his obsession with Jane Morris nee Burden. Gabriel met her outside a theatre and asked her to pose as Queen Guinevere. His team included William Morris the designer , as they were painting murals in the Oxford University Union . Morris and Jane were married shortly afterwards and set up house at the Red House at Bexleyheath

Gabriel and William Morris shared the tenancy of Kelmscott Manor, a country house in Oxfordshire. In the early 1870s Gabriel and Jane became lovers

Berlin Wall Art

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Part of what is left of the Berlin Wall (Der Mauer)

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Explanation of pictures

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Meaning is clear

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I am conscious of the fact that I haven’t posted anything for a while. the reason being that i haven’t painted anything for a while, so have had nothing fresh to say

yet having said that, in my archives I have images that haven’t seen the light of day, for some years, and on reflection, are well worth dusting off and bringing into the sunlight. I found a number of pictures recently of the Berlin wall, that I had taken some years ago. We went to Poland by train, and on the way in and on the way out, we had a night in Berlin. There was so much to see. The Reichstag was incredible. We went to see Sir Morman Foster’s extension which was fairly new then. we went int he evening when it was lit up, and very dramatic

The most emotive experience though was looking at what had been left of the Wall, der Mauer. I took several pictures and can share a few here. I think the pictures will speak for themselves. The themes are clear. Oppression, loss of liberty, suppression of speech and thought, these came to an end in East Germany when the wall came down. Sadly we see them reappearing in 2022.

Just a few images from my collection. Food for thought perhaps

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The Cartwheeling Dean–an old friend returns

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The Cartwheeling Dean

I did this painting in 2011, the year of the Royal Wedding, when William married Kate in Westminster Abbey. You may remember after the ceremony, that the Dean of Westminster did a cartwheel down the aisle, after the royal party had left, of course. Just something he did out of pure joy I imagine

The village of Pirbright, not far from where I live, and where I paint from time to time, used to put on an annual scarecrow festival, and the skill and artistry that went into making these scarecrows had to be seen. Tableaux usually of different things, book titles, events etc. In the parish church, a complete tableau of the wedding was created. It was amazing. I didn’t take a picture. I wish I had

Included in the scene, was the cartwheeling dean. I did photograph him and painted him later. I took him to local exhibitions, thinking someone would want him but nobody did. Eventually I sold him online and he went to someone in the north-east, and how strange is that. The man who bought him, wrote to me, and told me that he looked at this painting every morning and it made him smile. It was worth painting him just for that.

However, years later someone in the village is writing a book entitled ” Pirbright in Art”, and artists have been asked to submit paintings of, and around the village. I have sent in a selection, including the cartwheeling dean. It would be nice if he was included. We shall have to see.

Book Illustration… the continuing story

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The Three Mice Witches

I referred to the illustrations I have been doing in a previous post. I have enjoyed doing these, and as always when you try something different, you tend to surprise yourself.

John the author, a professional actor, whose tour has been interrupted by lockdown, which as everyone knows has closed theatres throughout the land, produced delightful sketches and memories on social media. Such was the response, that he collected them together into an anthology. I was asked to provide illustrations for the various chapters, just as visual footnotes, which I hope has done justice to the book.

The works of Shakespeare, as with many other well known pieces, crop up often. The Scottish play is no exception. Why is it unlucky to mention that play by name? Theatre folk are notoriously superstitious. Who else would say “break a leg” to someone just going on? I don’t know but must check it out before going further

One view put forward is that Shakespeare used actual spells during the witch’s incantations, by which I mean spells that witches used. I am not able to say whether they worked or not. It has also been pointed out that MacBeth, being a short play, was put on, at times of emergency, such as sickness amongst the cast. It came to be associated with misfortune. That sounds more feasible, but we don’t really know

As you can see the three witch mice are in full incantation. They are wearing their masks or their ‘blinds’, and they are looking convincing. If they are not convincing, they certainly look frightening. I wonder if we shall see them in print. I believe there is interest from two publishers, but of course it will depend on the deal. We shall have to see

Changing tack for the moment, I sold Horses in the Wetlands yesterday to a buyer in America. Always an extra buzz when the sale is international, I’m not sure why. Anyway the picture was picked up at lunchtime, and is probably going through Heathrow as I write this. In a year when real exhibitions were not possible, online sales have proved a godsend . I will leave with a reminder of the image

Horses in the Wetlands

Book Illustrating-a fresh departure

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Three Blind Mice

A good friend of ours, a professional actor and director, asked me if I would do some illustrations for a book he was writing. Only once before had I done that sort of work, so I was apprehensive, but still said yes

Covid 19 hit the acting community hard, as theatres were closed. John was on tour for the second year of the Mouse Trap, which had had a very successful first year. The decision to cancel the tour was quick. This all happened as we moved into Lock Down 1, which seems a long time ago now, March/April I think

A gloomy time. We, my wife and I were classed as vulnerable and had to stay in. Food was brought to us by family and friends and where possible in food boxes from businesses that sprang up to cater for the need. Queues at supermarkets became normal, as did senseless shortages caused by panic buying. Our health service was overrun, and staff close to breaking

During this miserable time, social media inter alia provided light relief. People wrote poetry, some painted and so on, and put their offering on Facebook or similar, just for us all to read something light

John was one of those who posted regularly. Poetry, quotations, charming anecdotes from his boyhood in Swansea, and with his gift for characterisation, the people he wrote about came to life. We started to look forward to his readings, as by now he was delivering them in person. As time went on friends suggested that he compiled these readings into a book and so he began to do just that

This is about the time that I started to get involved. We none of us knew where to start. I read his first posting again. It dealt with the cruel blow of the tour closing abruptly. Theatre lights were turned off, technicians and actors said an emotional farewell, or else did what actors always do and went down the pub. The idea came up of Three Blind Mice running through the book as a themed image. If you remember the play, this haunting tune is played from time to time and runs through the background. It was so very apt

I did some sketches and put them up for the team to comment. We had a team by now of talented people all making contributions. I refined the sketches until we were all happy. Thus started a very happy and productive collaboration.

My first finished drawing appears above. This was a bleak time. The theatres are closed and the tour is cancelled. The mice are on the streets and forced to beg. Later on we learn that the mice aren’t really blind, as the glasses and blindfolds slip off, but for now times are hard

Later as we go through lock down, things become more hopeful, and some optimism returns, but anxiety is never far away, as we all know. Now we go into a second lockdown, not as severe as the first, as we learn all the time, but nevertheless worrying. The manuscript is with publishers, and who knows but certainly this charming book will delight many if it is given the chance

In the Style of Aubrey Beardsley

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Social Distancing using the style of Aubrey Beardsley

During lockdown we formed a zoom art group within the family, mostly for fun, and yet some of the results were interesting. People who were new to art, were surprised at what they could produce. Old hands like me, who have painted in watercolour for some years, found, when they moved to other media, that they were beginners again. Digital painting was beyond me completely, whereas my grandchildren excelled.

We closed the group for various reasons, although the ground we had covered was amazing. My grandchildren had to devote more time to school work, and as lockdown eased different people were going on holiday

We have started the group up again, with grandparents and friends only. Grandchildren are now even more occupied with studies. How it works, one member of the group sets a task. The current one is to use the style of Aubrey Beardsley, the illustrator, within a scene that is topical. All these tasks make you scratch your head, I can tell you.

My effort is shown above. The topical scene is Social Distancing, some thing we are all familiar with, when queuing for the supermarket or any store.I haven’t been terribly original, as I have borrowed from Beardsley’s many drawings. I have added face masks, which is useful, as it saves you drawing faces. I have added the store front from his picture The Girl in the Red Gown

At the same time, we have to introduce another artist, whose work you were reminded of. I chose Utamaro the c18 Japanese artist who works in line like Beardsley. He, Beardsley was in fact influenced by Japanese art, as were many in the c19, especially the French Impressionists

My submission has gone in. We will see what happens and what the next task will be.

In between time, I am working on the Camargue horses. I have transferred the drawing to watercolour paper, which is the tedious part, and have applied the first wash

Sculpture by Simon Gudgeon in Kew Gardens

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Leaf Spirit

Just by way of a change, and for some relief from my paintings, let me show this wonderful sculpture in Kew Gardens where we were yesterday

Not a sculptor whose work I know, although obviously world famous to others, I stood in admiration of this piece for quite a long while. Entitled the Leaf Spirit, it put me in mind of our familiar Green Man, the tree spirit that our ancestors worshipped long before Christianity. Not difficult to see why plant life evokes spiritual awakening in the minds of man

The belief persists. We still touch wood as an invocation to ancient spirits to protect us from harm, especially after saying something boastful, which might anger the gods, whichever one we believe in. Possibly a reflex action today, or do we feel uncomfortable if we haven’t done it

I am inspired to attempt a water colour of this piece. I think it would work. Would Simon Gudgeon feel happy about that or perhaps not. Maybe I will ask him, but not today

Leaf Spirit Profile

Horses in the Snow — the finished painting

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Horses in the Snow

For some reason, I couldn’t access my blog until now, so a gap of about 10 days. Something seems to have changed in the format and probably I missed the update. However having taken advice, I have tried something different, and bingo, it seems to work

As you can see, I have finished the painting. I quite like it. The pallette was limited which I like. I used transparent brown with violet blend for the dark horses and cobalt blue with vermillion, which made a sort of pinky brown for the pale ones. The same mix only verging towards grey, worked well for shadows on the snow

The snow on the horses’ backs wasn’t so easy. I used the same blue mix with white gouache stroked across the backs of the horses. I am looking at the original now, and I think it looks convincing. I shall be taking the painting down soon, as I shall soon need the easel for something else

An interesting development this week. It would appear that some exhibitions are starting up again, after some months of lockdown. I have been invited to take part in an exhibition over the Christmas period to be held at Denbies Art Gallery near Dorking. Denbies is a well known wine estate with probaly the largest vineyard in the UK. They also have their own art gallery there. I’ve not shown there before so am quite looking forward to it

I shall need to do some pieces specially for it, and will no doubt show them here as I do them