Sunday, 29 May 2016
Own work: St Firmin, Thurlby, Lincolnshire
A sketch I made last week of the tower of St Firmin's church, Thurlby. Ink, watercolour and oil pastel on mould-made 100% cotton 300g watercolour paper. Saxo-Norman tower with Perp bell chamber and spire.
Saturday, 28 May 2016
London: Two exhibitions and one play
To a warm and sunny London Thursday to see a play and catch a couple of exhibitions. And a lovely day I had of it.
First to the Royal Academy and 'The Age of Giorgione' exhibition of Venetian High Renaissance art. The names are familiar: Bellini, Titian, del Piombo, Lotto. I think I may have said before that this sort of art doesn't usually do much for me - just another point on the slide down to the Baroque and 18th century Academic - all that chiaroscuro and rivers of brown varnish. However this exhibition, in the intimate Seckler Gallery of the RA was something of a revelation, having only really seen the majority of pictures on display in reproduction. The colours were vibrant and rich - in particular the blues and pinks. Often rather painterly too, that in a couple of works pointed towards the work of El Greco. There is in all a distinct sensuality to this Venetian art - which in this exhibition has been divided into four categories (one to a room): portraiture, landscape, devotional works and finally allegorical portraits. Each section is an exploration of that distinctiveness of Venetian art and how the artists of the city evolved a new language of depiction within the tradition - the difference between between Bellini's 'Portrait of a man' of 1505 and Giorgione's 'Terris portrait' of 1506. A distinctiveness of composition too, that in some of the work on display can seem awkward, even forced. All a long way from the art of Florence and Rome, which is perhaps more cerebral. I'm never quite sure as to how centrally the art of Venice is placed by critics. I think on the whole it is seen as provincial except for the artist included here. There are a couple of Durer's on view too to help give context; indeed there is a distinct 'Northerness' to a lot of the art on display. The long preceding tradition of 'Byzantine' culture in Venice was much less easy to detect. Any influence from further east, which is often now 'bigged up' (overly so in my opinion) in the context of Venice, negligible. The highlights; the tiny pen and watercolour drawing of a watermill by Durer - just exquisite; the two mythological paintings of the myth of Adonis (Though Adonis depicted is no Adonis!) Quite visionary almost like a Blake or Palmer. Also Giorgione's 'La Vecchia' - a piece of sublime portraiture and the 'Terris Portrait' of 1506. A treat too to see Titian's 'Jacopo Peasaro Being Presented by Pope Alexander VI to St Peter' 1508-11.
And then, finally to 'How the Other Half Love, at His Majesty's Theatre in The Haymarket - the real reason I had come up to town for the day. Incidentally the outside was designed by Nash as part of the Strand- Regent Street improvements post-Waterloo. The contrasting French Baroque/Rococco interior, I suspect, was the work of that doyen of Edwardian theatre designers Frank Matcham. Lots of plasterwork, gilding and scagliola. The play, written by Alan Ayckbourn was published in 1971. It is a play about adultery and the effects of badly planned deception - a nudge and a wink at the Permissive Society. The play is a six-hander: Nicholas Le Prevost, Jenny Seagrove; Jason Merrell, Tamsin Outhwaite; Matthew Cottle and Gillian Wright. Familiar names, then. I hope the latter two won't be insulted if I say that when they made their first entrance I was reminded of' 'Inspector Blakey' and 'Olive Rudge' from the 1960s/70s British sitcom 'On the buses'. There really was something down-at-heel, if not downright seedy, about the Matthew Cottle character in particular what with all his fears and pomposity, and who seemed to have been trapped in the Late 1940s - a world that was both High Minded and mean. But I wonder were all the characters in some way the same - all in various degrees suffering from some sort of delusion? Nicholas Le Prevost, for instance, going around in some sort of daze all the time and quite unable to figure out that it was his wife that was digressive. Perhaps the most clear-sighted was Teresa (Tamsin Outhwaite). A knockabout farce in many ways and very funny. It was very well acted indeed - the second act when there are two dinner parties going on simultaneously was an absolute tour du force of both writing and acting.
First to the Royal Academy and 'The Age of Giorgione' exhibition of Venetian High Renaissance art. The names are familiar: Bellini, Titian, del Piombo, Lotto. I think I may have said before that this sort of art doesn't usually do much for me - just another point on the slide down to the Baroque and 18th century Academic - all that chiaroscuro and rivers of brown varnish. However this exhibition, in the intimate Seckler Gallery of the RA was something of a revelation, having only really seen the majority of pictures on display in reproduction. The colours were vibrant and rich - in particular the blues and pinks. Often rather painterly too, that in a couple of works pointed towards the work of El Greco. There is in all a distinct sensuality to this Venetian art - which in this exhibition has been divided into four categories (one to a room): portraiture, landscape, devotional works and finally allegorical portraits. Each section is an exploration of that distinctiveness of Venetian art and how the artists of the city evolved a new language of depiction within the tradition - the difference between between Bellini's 'Portrait of a man' of 1505 and Giorgione's 'Terris portrait' of 1506. A distinctiveness of composition too, that in some of the work on display can seem awkward, even forced. All a long way from the art of Florence and Rome, which is perhaps more cerebral. I'm never quite sure as to how centrally the art of Venice is placed by critics. I think on the whole it is seen as provincial except for the artist included here. There are a couple of Durer's on view too to help give context; indeed there is a distinct 'Northerness' to a lot of the art on display. The long preceding tradition of 'Byzantine' culture in Venice was much less easy to detect. Any influence from further east, which is often now 'bigged up' (overly so in my opinion) in the context of Venice, negligible. The highlights; the tiny pen and watercolour drawing of a watermill by Durer - just exquisite; the two mythological paintings of the myth of Adonis (Though Adonis depicted is no Adonis!) Quite visionary almost like a Blake or Palmer. Also Giorgione's 'La Vecchia' - a piece of sublime portraiture and the 'Terris Portrait' of 1506. A treat too to see Titian's 'Jacopo Peasaro Being Presented by Pope Alexander VI to St Peter' 1508-11.
Then to the National Gallery and George Shaw's exhibition 'My Back to Nature' where there was plenty of 'north' and landscape on display. The forest to be precise. Shaw, born 1966, is the current associate artist at the National Gallery and this exhibition represents his response to the collection - the culmination of a two year residency. As a teenager he became interested in the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, at art college he became a conceptual artist before eventually returning to that deep, detailed painting style that characterized the early work of the Brotherhood in which he utilizes Humbrol enamel paint as his medium. He uses that technique to explore suburban Britain and here, the fragmented, liminal fringes of the City where countryside and suburban blend uneasily. Unease often characterizes his work, the best work has a sort of transient radiance. Shaw's forest floor bears the dint of man, scattered with the detritus of the illicit, and Shaw, in the excellent short film that accompanies the exhibition, links that to the debris scattered about the ground in some of the pictures in the permanent collection. I really wasn't sure what to make of this. I'm not entirely convinced that an analogy can be made between the two like that. Neither am I quite sure of the point he makes about the dichotomy, as I understand it, between nature and the gallery/created object. Having said that some of the work is very - well, perhaps not beautiful - but haunting, atmospheric and evocative. And perhaps a little more painterly? However I cannot help but feel that the exhibition space didn't help Shaw's argument. It's a rather awkward, unlovely space that's also in part a communicating space between grander galleries. Neither, I think, did the hanging. The sketches in the first room could have been better presented - framed? It all seemed a little makeshift.
And then, finally to 'How the Other Half Love, at His Majesty's Theatre in The Haymarket - the real reason I had come up to town for the day. Incidentally the outside was designed by Nash as part of the Strand- Regent Street improvements post-Waterloo. The contrasting French Baroque/Rococco interior, I suspect, was the work of that doyen of Edwardian theatre designers Frank Matcham. Lots of plasterwork, gilding and scagliola. The play, written by Alan Ayckbourn was published in 1971. It is a play about adultery and the effects of badly planned deception - a nudge and a wink at the Permissive Society. The play is a six-hander: Nicholas Le Prevost, Jenny Seagrove; Jason Merrell, Tamsin Outhwaite; Matthew Cottle and Gillian Wright. Familiar names, then. I hope the latter two won't be insulted if I say that when they made their first entrance I was reminded of' 'Inspector Blakey' and 'Olive Rudge' from the 1960s/70s British sitcom 'On the buses'. There really was something down-at-heel, if not downright seedy, about the Matthew Cottle character in particular what with all his fears and pomposity, and who seemed to have been trapped in the Late 1940s - a world that was both High Minded and mean. But I wonder were all the characters in some way the same - all in various degrees suffering from some sort of delusion? Nicholas Le Prevost, for instance, going around in some sort of daze all the time and quite unable to figure out that it was his wife that was digressive. Perhaps the most clear-sighted was Teresa (Tamsin Outhwaite). A knockabout farce in many ways and very funny. It was very well acted indeed - the second act when there are two dinner parties going on simultaneously was an absolute tour du force of both writing and acting.
Friday, 27 May 2016
Own work: Screens
Back in the day when I worked in an architectural practice I had to design a number of alternative screens for a project we were working on. Two them were of metal work (one based on a Spanish Reja, the other on Italian medieval precedents), two of wood, and the fifth stone. None of them were realized.
Monday, 23 May 2016
Friday, 20 May 2016
'English Style'
What can I say about this superlative book? Written by Mary Gilliatt and published by Bodley Head in 1967 it is a truly beautiful thing to behold. Not only is the photography, by Michael Boys, simply wonderful and often very atmospheric, but the design, by John Bigg, is terrific. In all a really stylish, well considered production.
I have coveted this book ever since it appeared on my friend Ben Pentreath's blog, and finally, now, I have my own, my very own copy. Anyway here is my selection from this lovely book - not an easy task not only due of the sheer quality of the photography alone but because I could happily spend quality time in any one of the homes illustrated. However there are, obviously, some I prefer to others. In fact Mary Gilliatt's selection is incredibly diverse, disparate even. (A notable omission, I've just realized, is John Fowler.) What, however, does hold them together is a common thread of eclecticism - a sort of portmanteau of styles and artifacts that is witty and clever and urbane and for her that is the English Style. It displays the innate conservatism of English taste and it's rejection of High International Modernism. Or a least a deeply ambiguous attitude to it. It is also in the last analysis humane.
For those discerning few who read both this blog and Ben's I hope this isn't too repetitious a post.
For those discerning few who read both this blog and Ben's I hope this isn't too repetitious a post.
The Chelsea home of Robin & Lucienne Day
The weekend cottage, in Suffolk, of Terence and Caroline Conran
The London home of architect Mr Nicholas Johnston
In the home of architect Mr Roger Dyer
The London flat of Mr & Mrs Peter Hall
The London flat of Mr John Vaughan, critic and photographer
The flat of design consultant Kathleen Darby
In the London flat of Mr Klein Lichtenstein
The Oxfordshire home of Mr David & Lady Pamela Hicks
The London flat of Miss Anne Trahearne
The dining room in the Kensington Palace apartment of HRH Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon
The bedroom of Professor & Mrs Fleming, Zoffany House, London
The London drawing room of Mr Hardy Amies
Bedroom by Jon Bannenberg
Daneway House, Gloucestershire
Stratton Park, Hampshire, designed by Billy McCarty
The London house of Mr David & Lady Pamela Hicks
A London flat designed by Billy McCarty
The Hampstead flat of Mr Leslie Waddington
In the home of architect Mr Roger Dyer
The London flat of Mr & Mrs Peter Hall
The London flat of Mr John Vaughan, critic and photographer
The flat of design consultant Kathleen Darby
In the London flat of Mr Klein Lichtenstein
The Oxfordshire home of Mr David & Lady Pamela Hicks
The London flat of Miss Anne Trahearne
The dining room in the Kensington Palace apartment of HRH Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon
The bedroom of Professor & Mrs Fleming, Zoffany House, London
The London drawing room of Mr Hardy Amies
Bedroom by Jon Bannenberg
Daneway House, Gloucestershire
Stratton Park, Hampshire, designed by Billy McCarty
The London house of Mr David & Lady Pamela Hicks
A London flat designed by Billy McCarty
The Hampstead flat of Mr Leslie Waddington
Friday, 13 May 2016
Wednesday, 11 May 2016
Friday, 6 May 2016
The Little Hall Museum, Lavenham
Yesterday the bf and I were in Suffolk for our annual treat, a Christmas present in fact - lunch at The Great House in Lavenham. Afterwards and slightly tipsy we went next door to the romantic, exquisite Little Hall Museum. This was our second visit and the first for me with a camera. As you may recall I first blogged about The Little Hall back in 2013. Way back then I gave a very short history of the place: a late medieval cloth merchant's house restored in the early part of 20th century by twins Robert & Thomas Gayer-Anderson who filled the place with beautiful things from the Middle East and Renaissance Italy.
Anglo-Irish, or 'Ascendancy', Thomas & Robert (a qualified doctor) served in the British and Egyptian armies. Both men were also romantics, adventurers, artists, homosexual, and avid collectors. Retiring in 1929 Thomas bought and restored Little Hall and it was to remain his home until his death in 1960. Robert remained in the Middle East taking a number of civilian posts with the Egyptian government. The medieval house in Cairo, Bayt al-Kradlea, which he bought, restored and furnished, and which he was forced to abandon due to ill health in 1942 and gave to the Egyptian government, is now The Gayer-Anderson Museum. It was to Little Hall and Thomas that Robert returned to in 1942 and lived there for the remaining three years of his life. The Little Hall then, I would guess, is primarily a reflection of the taste Thomas Gayer-Anderson. It consists of a main, medieval block to the street and a longer wing at right angles which in part, I think, dates from inter-war period. The garden is very English and quite lovely. The images reflect our route through the museum.
Finally I couldn't resist showing yet another view of the outside with its gorgeous ochre limewash.
Finally I couldn't resist showing yet another view of the outside with its gorgeous ochre limewash.
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