Brexit; now there’s a word you don’t hear very often. Now we have cast ourselves away from Europe I thought I would post an image that evokes memories of starting a journey to a new exciting world,while still having a longing for the old (you may not all agree with this diehard European!) Ford Madox…
Category: Painting of the Month
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…
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…
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…
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…
November Painting of the Month
My Painting of the Month for November comes from the inspirational Indian pavilion at the Venice Biennale. “Zameen”, 1955, a controversial frieze painting, several feet long, from 1955; it has been alternatively praised and vilified by critics over the years but has become an established icon of Indian Modern Art. The theme is typical of twentieth…
October Painting of the Month
Venice. Where does one begin? There is so much wonderful art and architecture in this city, it is difficult to know. The Accademia, which is the city’s traditional gallery helped inform that choice by opening its doors to the public for free entry today. After the queues subsided late afternoon we browsed in relative calm,…
September Painting of the Month (2)
Spanish culture. This month I have decided to have a second painting of the month from the rich base of Spanish art. We have been touring some of the Northern regions of Spain. Having left Catalunya far behind we are now in the Basque Country. Ramiro Arrue’s Yo ou le Fandango is a Basque gem….
Catalan Painting of the Month
We have arrived into the Catalan region of Spain and cannot help but notice the politics, from the emphasis of the Catalan language to the myriads of flags hanging everywhere, even painted into the road surfaces. Looking around for a fairly neutral painting is quite difficult but I found this from the, originally New York…
Piero di Cosimo – The Forest Fire
The gift or discovery of fire has fascinated all manner of prehistory, mythological and cultural investigation from the cave dwellers to Disney (Baloo the bear). And it is the subject of my Painting of the Month for August. The Ashmolean has a great collection of artefacts including some iconic Renaissance panel paintings. The Forest Fire…
