Joseph Wright of Derby’s 1768 painting “An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump” Covid 19. We now appear to be doing the hard yards with the pandemic, rolling out the new vaccine. Science can be so exciting and yet so concerning. My January Painting of the Month emphasises this most brilliantly. Joseph Wright…
Category: Painting of the Month
Art Deco illustration for New Years Eve
My last post of the year and what a year! Normally I would describe a piece of attributed art with an interesting history of iconography, or a serious exhibition. But for this one off post I will just use this gorgeous Art Deco illustration of ‘The New Years Eve Ball. The delightful little illustration reminds…
Happy Christmas Everyone from The White Box Art Channel
Happy Christmas everyone and wishing you all a great, safe, healthy and cheerful new year in 2021. The answer to earlier question A very Merry ChristmasAnd a happy New YearLet’s hope it’s a good oneWithout any fear Happy Christmas (War is over) written by John Lennon & Yoko Ono (1971), produced by Phil Spector for…
December Painting of the Month (3)
The Christmas Truce of 1914 is one of the great romantic stories of the First World War. Whether it was a truce or a few local unofficial ceasefires is conjecture but certainly some soldiers popped their heads out of the trenches and met in ‘No Mans Land’. This image was painted by Angus McBride in 1969…
December Painting of the Month (2)
The traditional Christmas tree and where did it come from is my second theme this month. It sort of begs the question what is ‘traditional’ as the origins of the tree are lost in myth. What does seem common practice is the decorating of houses and churches all over Europe with evergreen decoration during the…
December Painting of the Month (1)
December 2020. I think we are all getting pandemic weary but while we want to spread some Christmas cheer it is still a time for care and vigilance. So I thought I might post a few paintings this month looking at earlier and modern ideas of the Christmas story. Giotto is an ideal place to…
The apprentice sculptor who became a great Renaissance mathematical painter
Landscape paintings are always my favourite when it comes to headers for my blog site. And there can be no more evocative wide paintings than the three depictions of the Battle of San Romano by Paulo Uccello. And how about the locations for these great works: The National Gallery in London, The Galleria degli Uffizi…
November Painting of the Month – Remembrance
Remembrance Sunday is such an important event in our calendar. Not for its reference to war but to remember and honour human sacrifice. Even with our troubled present we are fortunate in Europe for those who paid the highest price for our freedom and Liberty. The Imperial War Museum has a wonderful collection of art…
September Painting – Dunrobin
Dunrobin Castle on the East Coast of Scotland features in my painting of the month. The ancestral home of the Dukes of Sutherland features a baroque mansion in the style of the French Chateau. The art collection includes works by Canaletto, Reynolds, Sir Thomas Lawrence and many of the best Scottish portraitists. David Herbert, a…
July Painting of the Month – Bathers at Asnières
Stultifying – now there is a word we do not hear very often but it is the effect a hot July day might have on you, down by the river, just passing the time away unenthusiastically. My friend Geoffrey Smith uses it when describing my choice of painting of the month for July. In a…
