Artefacts for Abundant Living

At the Bath Artisan Fair today I saw the work of Asa Bostrom, who was showing wonderfully textural pieces of assemblage, with an arcane and esoteric feel to them. There were a few 3D pieces, objects adapted and added to, creating evocative and attractive antique artefacts. Then there were paper-based works, folders collaged and covered in collected papers and images, beneath layers of wax. Whilst wonderful in their own right, they also suggested possible avenues for my own work.

Asa is a Swedish artist, who has come to Bath recently, and has a multitude of skills and talents; writer, designer, yoga and writing teacher, as well her mixed-media art work. Her website has some wonderful imagery and art works, and links to her blog www.asabostrom.se

Bo Lee. Nocturne

Nocturne is the title of the current exhibition at the Bo Lee gallery in Bath. It is showing the work of two of its artists, Rose Sanderson and Patrick Haines. These artists have overlapping concerns and influences. Both draw inspiration from the animal kingdom and Natural History, both often make use of ready made objects, and both have a dark and sinister side to their work. Patrick Haines’ sculptures are the most overtly strange and unsettling, while Rose Sanderson’s deal more with fragility and mortality.

In this show Patrick Haines is exhibiting work that is larger in scale (includes more objects and items) and has more narrative (suggests a more detailed story) than I have previously seen.

Rose Sanderson has also moved from small intimate paintings of birds and butterflies on single book covers, to larger scale paintings which spread across several covers.

Patrick Haines creates delicate and detailed sculptures of birds and other feathered animals, and juxtaposes these with various everyday objects. Often he uses books, his sculptures eating into the fabric of the object. Other times he uses light fittings, rulers, and, in his largest piece here, furniture and fixtures from a Botanists study, which is alive with sinister beasts, and sinister animal parts.

Art in Bath

After my post on Art and craft at Just make, in Wells yesterday, here are a few photographs of pieces in Rostra and Rooksmoor Galleries in Bath today. Most of the work is by artists we are familiar with, but there are occasional surprises.

These ceramic figurines are by Jo Lucksted.

These, and other, paintings hung over most of the walls are by Christina Holvey. They have a lovely textural and painterly quality, and a detailed and decorative homely imagery. They have a simplicity and engaging freshness. 

These small paintings by Nicola Cooke of the beach and coast made us long for the Cornish Coast. We hope we might make it there before the end of the summer! They have the simplicity and lightness of sketches done on the spot, and not unlike something I might do.

Leaves in a book!

I am planning some slightly different work to my usual output, as the local library service in Bath is organising an exhibition and competition. To enter you simply choose one of the books they are discarding and transform it or alter it in some way. I am currently playing around with the idea of the double meaning of the word “leaves”, which could refer to the green things that grow on trees or the pages in a book. Over the last couple of days I have been thinking about layering and cutting pages, and these are two designs.

The first is a line drawing on a page/leaf from a novel, and the second is a photocopy of this on cartridge paper, with the addition of tome using cross-hatched lines.

I haven’t quite decided what to do with the background yet. I’ll keep you posted.

Stoney Littleton Long Barrow

An evening walk to find Stoney Littleton Long Barrow, near Wellow. You may remember our ill-fated attempt to find it a few weeks ago, when we were thwarted by mud, ice and big puddles. This time, being dragged by the dog, I made it. And very impressive it is. I had imagined it higher up the hillside, but it was quite a distance from the top, and difficult to get a view of it silhouetted against the sky. Very good views are to be had from the site, of the surrounding hills, and the longbarrow itself is in very good condition. You can enter the long Barrow, past the side chambers to the far end, then make your way out emerging reborn!

I did manage a few photographs and sketches before the whimpering and restless dog forced me to return home!

Visit the English Heritage page for this monument.

Colour and Texture at The Victoria Gallery

There are two interesting and related artists being exhibited at the Victoria Gallery in Bath. Gillian Ayres and David Brayne. Both artists have local connections, living and working in the Bath area.

Both artists have colour and texture as a central aspect of their work. One uses earthy and natural colours in a subtle manner, whilst the other uses manufactured and man-made colours in a bolder, more vivid manner. The complementary textural qualities in the artists’ work are created through the unique and individual processes they use. The physical activity and technique is very important to both artists, and the viewer is keenly aware of the materials and the way they have been manipulated to create a particular effect.

David Brayne has an unusual painting method, using rare pigments or sourcing and grinding his own pigments, some from local mines. He is literally painting with earth and the landscape itself, using dust bound together by a glue or gum (arabic). There are delicate and gentle variations in colour, tone and texture, created through meticulous layering on paper. The imagery of flat, watery landscapes is familiar, and has local references. The figurative aspect is the part I find weakest, and I prefer the images that focus on large abstract shapes, allowing you to study the pigment and texture.

The Gillian Ayres works cover her career, and include prints, drawings and paintings. All demonstrate her love of vivid and bright colours, and abstract, expressive shape, reminiscent of either Matisse or Kandinsky. She uses a range of printmaking processes, which seem complex and physical, often lending a textured and relief quality to the images.

The way Ayres uses titles reminded me of Howard Hodgkin, who I later realised she had taught alongside, and worked closely with, for a time in the 1960′s, and gives clues to their intention and inspiration. I do remember first seeing Gillian Ayres work, years ago whilst studying A Level or Foundation, at a point when I was beginning to enjoy the fluid textural qualities and vibrant colours of oil paint. Subsequently my interests developed in a different direction.

Apologies for the poor photographs which don’t do the pictures justice.

Books at the Bo.Lee

Some photographs from the latest exhibition at the Bo.Lee gallery, Bound. I have posted pictures by most of these artists before, but they are worth repeating. The exhibition celebrates the current Bath Literature Festival, and all the artists create work related to books and reading, reappraising and re-interpreting the received form of the book and it’s contents.

Rose Sanderson paints beautiful images of insects and birds onto covers which have been torn from the books. The animals are delicately and finely painted onto these discarded and tattered book covers, leaving the meaning of this juxtaposition for the observer to decide. Ephemeral, delicate and transitory. Caught, collected and catalogued.

The altered books of Alexander Korser-Robinson are getting increasing exposure in galleries and shows. Encyclopedias are carefully and precisely cut to create imaginative and richly populated scenes of historical, scientific and cultural imagery. You can lose yourself in the varied imagery, finding yourself creating constructed narratives and associations.

The large glossy photographs of Natalie Tkachuk reveal books that are animated and in motion, the pages apparently turning themselves. Like all the books in this show they are moving and changing, never stationary and static. The secret lives of books.

Finally, Mike Stilkey has painted a strange character, who could have come from a Chris Riddell or Lemony Snicket novel. He is painted on the spine and cover of a carefully piled stack of books.

Gainsborough at The Holburne

Visited the last day of the Gainsborough Landscapes exhibition at the Holburne Museum last weekend. A small but very interesting exhibition, surveying Gainsborough’s landscape output, his antidote to the drudgery of portrait painting.

This was a revisit for me, just to give them all another look before they travel on to Compton Verney. The exhibition comprised half a dozen large oil paintings, from all stages of his career, and several small sketches, putting the larger works into context.The sketches were done using a variety of media and supports, including chalk, graphite, watercolour and oil, some varnished, on paper, board and canvas. Quite a varied use of media.

Technically the oil paintings progress from a light and thin brushmark at the beginning of his career, to a darker, more heavily textured mark at the end. All the paintings display a technical mastery, and a detailed and accurate, if idealised or imagined, observational representation of rural landscape. However, stylistically they moved from a calmer, classical atmosphere in his early work, toward a darker, Romantic atmosphere in the his work. I even felt a John Martin-esque quality in his depiction of panoramic landscape and aerial atmosphere in the last work on display. In common with many artists at the end of the C18/beginning of the C19 Gainsborough travelled to the Lake District to come face to face with the sublime, and the awe-inspiring and threatening beauty of wild and rugged Cumbria; its lakes, mountains and waterfalls. A very good exhibition of rich and diverse work, placing the main work in an informative context.

Across the landing is a room full of his portrait paintings, many full-size, and it is interesting to compare these paintings from which he earned his living and reputation with his more personal landscape works.

Illuminate Bath

The last few days have seen a project called Illuminate Bath set up in Bath, consisting of projections and other light-based installations around the city centre.

Unfortunately we weren’t able to get into Bath during the week so didn’t see the Roman Baths illuminated, but we did see the rest. Clockwork City consisted of giant keys attached to everyday objects found in the streets, such as a telephone box, which, when turned, caused lights, sound and smoke to start. Pulse was a collection of short animations which related to the Georgian building they were projected onto. Animations included the cracking of the facade, and windows lighting up in sequence. Attracted to Light was a projected film covering the whole of a building, with butterflies flitting about and undisclosed activity taking place in various windows. These could have been isolated actions, or part of some narrative, depending upon how you interpreted it. There was also live drawing on a computer screen which was projected onto the Roman Baths. There were a number of other pieces as well.

The streets were quite busy with people looking at the art, and clearly enjoying it. It was good to see such large, bright and colourful images lighting up the dark and cold evening.

Walking in artists’ footsteps

Went for a stroll around Wellow last weekend. This is the old haunt of the Brotherhood of Ruralists, the group to which Peter Blake belonged when he decided to leave London and try the country life. This is a picturesque landscape of gently rolling hills, thick hedges, country lanes, beautiful old buildings, a few miles from Bath.

The art of the Ruralists exists in a peculiarly English tradition of landscape painting; one of detail and texture, of mood and atmosphere, of mystery and history, one where the imprint and connection with humanity is keenly felt.

Although the day started frosty, this had disappeared by the time we set out, and we hadn’t imagined it would be so muddy. We had a pleasant enough walk but it was cut short by our inappropriate clothing for the conditions. We will return and this time reach our destination-the long barrow!