Kew Gardens, The Palm House and Art Galleries

Last week we visited Kew Gardens. This was not our first visit but we concentrated on the Palm House this time as it will soon close for a major refurbishment. Decimus Burton and Richard Turner unveiled this astonishing iron‑and‑glass cathedral of the tropics in London in the 1840s. Even now, the great curving ribs overhead…

The Istanbul Modern

Istanbul is a city we have been meaning to visit for years and we finally arrived a few days ago. But what to write about. The architecture of the old city is amazing from the Byzantine Hagia Sofia to the seventeenth century Blue Mosque. But I have chosen the Museum of Modern Art a few…

Maurice de Vlaminck, The Fauve at Chartres

Chartres is a city, some sixty miles west of Paris, that we have visited a number of times and we were there again this summer. It is a busy vibrant place and known the world over for its magnificent gothic cathedral, Notre Dame de Chartres. Like many buildings of the time its predecessor was consumed…

Sean Keating at The National Gallery in Dublin

Art has a significant role to play in pricking the conscience of society. In a recent visit to The National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin we saw this provocative painting by Sean Keating. It is my painting of the month for July. An Allegory was painted in 1924 when Keating was at the height of his career…

Goldworks at Somerton in Somerset

Gold paint on graph paper. Every now and then some art work completely surprises me, taking me aback with its originality, technical ability and emotional quality. We visited Somerton, the old county town of Somerset and found the Art Gallery. The building itself is quite evocative being built, originally, in the sixteenth century as a…