June is the month that Surrey artists open their studios for Surrey Artists’ Open Studios! I was lucky enough to be invited to the private view of artist and graphic designer, Cathy Brett. Continue reading Surrey Artists’ Open Studios
Tag Archives: exhibition
Evelyn Dunbar at The Watts Gallery
Evelyn Dunbar was the only salaried female World War II artist, yet the importance of her work is continually being reassessed and belatedly recognised. Continue reading Evelyn Dunbar at The Watts Gallery
‘Vogue 100’ at the National Portrait Gallery
Evelyn Waugh looks, frankly, like he’s just read a line from one of his own books in the silent section of the library, and is relying on his bracing hands on his knees to give him the strength necessary to resist the inevitable eruption of giggles from within. Waugh’s gaze seems past us, slightly over our shoulders, in Irving Penn’s square photograph from 1952. His thick wool suit is more creased than his forehead, near where the top of the photograph ends.
Snowdon’s verbose (can we use that word to describe an image?) photograph of Salman Rushdie in his London home shortly after he won the Booker Prize for Midnight’s Children shows Rushdie in a Windsor chair in the corner of the room, head turned towards us, chin in his hand, bathetic.
Continue reading ‘Vogue 100’ at the National Portrait Gallery
Painting the Modern Garden at the Royal Academy
It felt like Monet’s water lilies took my stare and enclosed it tightly in their gentle, pink, waxy clutches.
Continue reading Painting the Modern Garden at the Royal Academy
William and Evelyn De Morgan Exhibition at the Watts Gallery
After seeing the inspiring Richard Dadd exhibition, I went along to the William De Morgan exhibition in the next room at the Watts Gallery.
Continue reading William and Evelyn De Morgan Exhibition at the Watts Gallery
V&A Shoes: Pleasure and Pain Press Day
I’ve always thought of shoes as reified works of abstract art.
Cinderella. My favourite shoe story. Cinderella – the girl whose shoes helped elevate her to a higher status. The tale of the ‘slipper test’ can in fact be traced back to 1st century Egypt.
V&A Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty
“You’ve got to know the rules to break them. That’s what I’m here for, to demolish the rules but to keep the tradition.”
The words of Lee McQueen are written across the walls of the V&A’s hotly anticipated show Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, and I attended the press preview this morning to see the exhibition.
Glamour On The Go Exhibition
I wrote this for the Essential Surrey website – essentialsurrey.co.uk.
Our choice of make-up reveals interesting little things about us, while paradoxically covering us up. Trends in cosmetics reinforce current beauty ideals, social attitudes and economic conditions. With this truism in mind, an exhibition that explores the evolution of make-up and its shifting form and function is surely the most glamorous way to track and digest these changes.
Continue reading Glamour On The Go Exhibition
Matisse ‘The Cut-Outs’ at Tate Modern
Movement was very important to artist Henri Matisse (1869-1954). His art has a particularly playful energy, and none more so than in his later works. Health problems in the early 1940s meant that his physical mobility was limited, but he would not let his creativity be held back in the same way. He created a new method of working by using cut out shapes from painted paper to produce a new form of art. The exhibition at the Tate Modern explores Matisse’s development of this technique: The Cut-Outs.
A Taste of Art Exhibition at Guildford House Gallery
St Mary’s Guildford by Henry Pether (Image from Guildford Borough Council)
A local art exhibition has opened at Guildford House Gallery displaying beautiful images of Guildford past.
The collection includes paintings of the River Wey and atmospheric Surrey landscapes as well as ceramics from the borough art collection.
Landscape towards Peaslake by William Hyde (Image from Guildford Borough Council)
Guildford House Gallery lends itself nicely to the character of the paintings as it’s such a lovely building, with a fantastic feature staircase, intricate ceiling design and charming panelled walls.
‘A Taste of Art’ is on until 22nd March 2014. Open Monday – Saturday 10am-4.45pm. Free Entry.
T: 01483 444751. Guildford House, 155 High Street, Guildford GU1 3AJ.
