The Ashmolean, Is the oldest museum in the world, as we keep reminding ourselves, but at the same time putting on some great cutting edge free exhibitions from time to time. The current example is a terrific display of gunpowder art – yes gunpowder art. Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang (b. 1957) is known for his…
Painting of the Month – January
2020, a new decade, maybe an allegory of perfect vision. I thought I might start the new decade with a peer back a hundred years to 1920 and celebrate that great but complicated British artist, Sir Stanley Spencer. My Painting of the month is The Bridge from that year. Spencer brings the excitement of the…
Oxfordshire Artweeks 2020
I have subscribed to The Oxfordshire Artweeks festival again for 2002. As I am also busy with studies this year I have decided to run a solo show again. It will be at Adlestrop near Chipping Norton again from May 9th – 17th.
January Painting of the Month
2020, a new decade, maybe an allegory of perfect vision. I thought I might start the new decade with a peer back a hundred years to 1920 and celebrate that great but complicated British artist, Sir Stanley Spencer. My Painting of the month is The Bridge from that year. Spencer brings the excitement of the…
Blake at the Tate Britain
Relevance is the key to great art. If painting is not relevant in its day then it is pointless. But when that relevance transgresses the ages it is even more valuable to us. William Blake is one of those greats whose message is as relevant today as it was 250 years ago. The Tate Britain…
Munich – The Lenbachhaus
Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider). I am never quite sure whether it is an art movement, a book, an exhibition or what. I do know that for a few short years before the First World War it represented a group of avant garde artists based in Bavaria, when Munich was the centre of the…
December Painting of the Month
Christmas looks like it is here again with trees and baubles everywhere. Italy is a little behind the U.K. in decorations but still good to see the trees and lights appearing here after the disastrous floods last month. Having seen so many biblical pictures recently I thought I would choose a different theme for my…
Florence and more Masaccios
Florence has so much renaissance art to offer the tourist. This morning we went to the Uffizi Gallery which must have more masterpieces per square metre than any other building I have ever been in… but more about that another time. The Santa Maria Del Carmine on the other side of the river was our…
Florence – Massacio’s Trinity
University staff have decided to go on strike so we have decided to skip Venice for a couple of days and see Florence. Have not been here for years because of all the low life but despite that you just have to stand in awe at the sites. Santa Maria Novella is first port of…
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
“Water, water, every where, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink.” Immortal lines from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s great poem of 1834, which I enjoyed and still remember class reading at school. So with me flitting back and forth between Venice and North Gloucestershire floods, I thought an…
