315. JAR OF MARBLES by PATRICE LOMBARDI

Jar of Marbles, Oil on canvas, 120 x100 cms, 2012

I wrote in January 2012 (Blog 139) of Patrice Lombardi's Peach Blossom, then on show at the Medici Gallery. It  was part of a body of work based on the garden of Villa La Pietra in Florence. There Lombardi transformed the Limonaia (the lemon house of the villa) into a gallery where her work was exhibited. Her intention was to create a garden within a garden, where the internal space of the Limonaia was linked to the external space of the walled garden and then beyond to the rest of the garden. 

Her new exhibition is at the International Dispute Resolution Centre in Fleet Street. At the opening a distinguished Fine Art Consultant commented on the harmony and stillness of her new collection, reminiscent, she said, of some early Italian Renaissance painters. What came to my mind was the 20C Italian painter Giorgio Morandi's ability to bring out the unique qualities of an object, each of which  he 'approached with awe'.

I've chosen The Jar of Marbles from her new collection. Marbles, given an inch of leeway, scatter and run in every direction. For centuries children have played with them in gutters and in palaces. In the 1960s I bought for my own children a marble run and a three-dimensional set of Noughts and Crosses, where marbles have to obey the rules. Here in a humble preserving jar there are no rules. We have a crowd of different sizes, weights and colours. Their faces are jammed against the glass walls.The jar stands there on guard, like a regimental soldier. It has a sense of vulnerability. Breach those walls and the contents would spill and scatter and splinter far and  wide.

The glassy contents seem to shimmer against its strong background, which is nothing like the monochrome flat colours that flash past our eyes in advertisements. It appears to be layered, built up gradually, beguilingly different and alive. Jar of Marbles conveys a sense of time, of the stretch and reach of memory, and the invisible presence which made this  painting possible.

The Basket, Oil on Canvas,120 cm x 120 cm,2008

And here is a basket. Just a basket? Each colour is achingly simple and flows in harmony. The shape is familiar and has been used for centuries. Undoubtedly it has been a godsend to artists who tucked it under the arms of pretty maidens in a pastoral scene. But it jags at rougher memories of onions and apples, and spears of flowers drooping over the edge. And of being a scented portable pantry storing food through scarce winter months. Until you tire of restless associations, reach out to the unique qualities of this particular basket and approach it with awe.

http://www.patricelombardi.blogspot.com/
pl@rwbpl.com

314 THE RANT by KIM TATTERSALL

NOA 

 THE NATIONAL OPEN ART EXHIBITION

Somerset House, London until October 25th

When long-stored emotions finally break cover, the broken body writhes in pain and crumples into submission. So writes the artist of this artwork


The Rant is a wall-hung installation of great beauty, made by the textile designer and artist Kim Tattersall. It's made of paper, pen, wax and dye. From across the room it looks like a fragile scarf or even a liturgical stole. It's very still, but crumpled and tattered. It's monochrome but go closer and among its crimps and curls you can spy bits and pieces of letters.  They hang there - a frozen torrent of broken words and raw emotion.The image on the right is a detail of another of her works.

T

(c) the artist

While researching this artwork I happened to go to some sessions on the poet George Herbert, who was born in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and died just before the Civil War. The lecturer suggested that the poem The Collar contains a heartfelt and moving rant. To  "rant" is "to speak in a loud and angry way". The origin of the word is Dutch: ranten meaning 'to speak nonsense'.  After Herbert's death the Ranters, and the Diggers, and the Levellers were all  grass-root  English groups. They did speak some nonsense, but they also  challenged the church and state's many injustices.

They certainly questioned people's perceptions of what they were seeing. In the light of this, these words of the artist are interesting:
...By keeping fabrics simple, i.e. one colour, but adding texture through the print process, the fabric, moving on the body or in the breeze, changes before the viewer’s eyes, thus questioning their perceptions of what they are seeing. The chameleon effect, light and shadow – the essence of who we are'.

 www.kimtattersall.com/kimtattersall.com/Gallery.html
 thenationalopenartcompetition.com 
somersethouse.org.uk

The Rant is one of many works of art currently on show in London's Somerset House, short-listed by a distinguished panel in the annual National Open Art Exhibition, now in its 18th year. With prize money of  £60,000, it aims to nurture creative talent from both emerging and professional artists.
You can see the exhibition in Chichester at the Pallant House Gallery from Dec2 - 14
www.pallant.org.uk/
and at the Minerva Theatre Gallery, Chichester Festival Theatre from Dec 17 - Jan 3
www.cft.org.uk/.
Also back in London at the Works on Paper Fair at the Science Museum from 5-9 Feb
www.worksonpaperfair.com/

313 UNRAVEL by ALMUTH TEBBENHOFF

NOA 

 THE NATIONAL OPEN ART EXHIBITION

Somerset House, London until October 25th,
then other venues - see below

Fabricated steel, paint, 100 x 88cms

 One of the many pleasures of the NOA exhibition is the variety of art on show.  I visit  places where watercolours are gathered together, or  oil paintings, or pastels, or videos...But at the NOA show you cannot guess what's coming next. On one side of the gallery is a soft, fragile installation called Rant. Opposite  is  a strong. taut. rhythmic, singing  sculpture called Unravel. A strange title. Fabrics unravel, knitting unravels, even lives are known to unravel... but steel?  The eye begins to trace the geometrical perfection it expects. The circle doesn't exactly go to pieces, but it refuses to satisfy our expectations.

 'Almuth Tebbenhoff is inspired by process: she loves the way objects of beauty and intrigue can emerge from a noisy session cutting and welding steel, sparks flying in every sense, or from a quieter but no less messy afternoon pushing wet clay around'. She is described as an artist who, working with her hands, distills 'dull, reluctant matter' into pieces which are interesting, challenging, both witty and profound. And sometimes breathtakingly lovely.


If only a board room or inventor's studio or writer's study could see Unravel. Here is no Pollyanna-ish pledge of success and happy endings, at least in the short term.  Instead we are greeted by freedom, space, light and bright colours exploding on the wall, releasing a new and unexpected energy.

www.tebbenhoff.org/catalogue.php
thenationalopenartcompetition.com
somersethouse.org.uk

OTHER VENUES:
You can see the exhibition in Chichester at the Pallant House Gallery from Dec2 - 14
www.pallant.org.uk/
and at the Minerva Theatre Gallery, Chichester Festival Theatre from Dec 17 - Jan 3
www.cft.org.uk/.
Also back in London at the Works on Paper Fair at the Science Museum from 5-9 Feb
www.worksonpaperfair.com/

S

312 STANLEY by DANNY LYON

NOA

National Open Art Exhibition, Somerset House until Oct 25th

Stanley, Oil on linen, 20 x 26cms

'For me, a painting should always be recognisably made of paint – the harmony between the illusion and the reality. I am a figurative painter, working within a British, realist tradition'.

The realism of this work is remarkable. Look at the shadow. Someone famous was supposed to have said - when he first saw John Constable's landscapes - that they were so realistic he needed to wear galoshes. This painting almost needs the same safety warning as a Stanley knife:

•  Always keep hand clear of blade
• Always wear safety goggles
• Always be certain that the cutting material is secured when cutting
• Always be in a balanced stable position when using a hand tool

It's a trompe-d'oeil, an art technique that uses realistic imagery to create an optical illusion. Reach out towards the picture  - and mind you don't cut yourself. And he manages to keep the illusion while maintaining that  the aesthetic allure of oil paint is central to why I like to leave evidence of brush work, and why I am liberal in the application of paint. . I consider the style of a painting to be important as it acts like a signature, in that it alludes to the artist’s identity.


There is a further paradox. Danny Lyon says 'I spend a lot of time sourcing objects, props and things for my work that have symbolic meaning, but often the most profound objects turn out to be the seemingly banal bits of ephemera in the studio'. So here he has chosen an ordinary,  much-used and down-at-heel Stanley knife. But what is the title of the painting? This ubiquitous yet potentially lethal tool is now named. It's no longer just a brand. And what a name! It resonates with so much: the film comedian Stan Laurel ( Laurel and Hardy ); Stanley Baldwin, Prime Minister; Stanley Matthews, said to have been the greatest player ever in English football, and Henry Morton Stanley, reputed to be tops in British cool with his remark on finding the explorer deep in the jungle  'Doctor Livingstone, I presume?'


www.dannylyon.co.uk

 The National Open Art Exhibition
Stanley is one of many works of art currently on show in London's Somerset House, short-listed by a distinguished panel in the annual National Open Art Exhibition, now in its 18th year. With prize money of  £60,000, it aims to nurture creative talent from both emerging and professional artists.
thenationalopenartcompetition.com  
 www.somersethouse.org.uk
You can also see it in Chichester at the Pallant House Gallery from Dec 2 - 14
www.pallant.org.uk/
and at the Minerva Theatre Gallery, Chichester Festival Theatre from Dec 17 - Jan 3
www.cft.org.uk/.
Also back in London at the Works on Paper Fair at the Science Museum from 5-9 Feb
www.worksonpaperfair.com/

311 CROW FLEDGLING by JILL MEAGER

NOA 

 THE NATIONAL OPEN ART EXHIBITION
+-

Somerset House, London until October 25th

Crow Fledgling, Charcoal 112 x 82 cms

When a winter robin hops into our tiny city centre patio, I'm glad  to welcome her/him. But my approbation stops there. Birds are scary. They have too many options. Like spiders they can go in any direction, except backwards. In fact they are one up on spiders and humans in that they can fly. So you never know where they are going next.  And although they feel soft and feathery on the outside and may parade heart-breakingly lovely colours (and crows may have a green and purple iridescence), hidden in there somewhere are three very sharp fit-for-purpose pointy things - one beak and some scaly claws.

But I am completely won over by Crow Fledgling.  The work could have dipped into  sentimentality. Or it could have been squeezed dry and reduced to a text book illustration. Instead we have before us a moist, fragile, strong creature. As I try to step carefully around anthropomorphism - with its tendancy to attribute emotions or even speech to animals - I see a bird newly arrived, alert and dewy-eyed, bewildered but curious. Tenderness and wonder are the only reponse to this vulnerable creature, a reminder of the miracle of creation.which is happening around us day after day.

I wrote the above before I knew anything about the artist and her work. I have learnt since that she is also a linguist, a stand up comedian, a lecturer and course leader in creative thinking, visualisation and leadership. She says that her work as a counsellor with young and vulnerable people gives

 'me an insight into how we as a society protect and nurture our young. I paint portraits of my subjects and of young and vulnerable animals as a way of challenging the viewer to think about these issues. 

www.jillmeager.com 

She exhibits regularly at  www.espaciogallery.com, and has just been commissioned by Michael and Clare Morpurgo to design the 2014 Christmas card for their charity  farmsforcitychildren.org/

NOA      thenationalopenartcompetition.com  
Crow Fledgling is one of many works of art currently on show in London's Somerset House, short-listed by a distinguished panel in the annual National Open Art Exhibition, now in its 18th year. With prize money of  £60,000, it aims to nurture creative talent from both emerging and professional artists.

You can see it in Chichester at the Pallant House Gallery from Dec2 - 14
www.pallant.org.uk/
and at the Minerva Theatre Gallery, Chichester Festival Theatre from Dec 17 - Jan 3
www.cft.org.uk/.
Also back in London at the Works on Paper Fair at the Science Museum from 5-9 Feb
www.worksonpaperfair.com/

310 INFESTED CARPET by NICHOLA BEALING

NOA 

 THE NATIONAL OPEN ART EXHIBITION

Somerset House, London until October 25th

Infested Carpet, Oil on linen 152 x 122cm

Nicola Bealing enjoys absurdity. She likes the moment when characters or objects in her paintings flounder because their expectations have been tipped upside down. It happens to the viewer too. At first sight across the gallery this is an eye-catching carpet. Why not? After all it's the NOA exhibition so why not add textiles fairly and squarely among the fabricated steel, digitalised Baryta photographs, paint, galvanised steel wire, wax and charcoal which are just some of the materials other artists use?

But this is no carpet, it's an exquisite and surprising oil painting on linen.

We all know that carpets can be national (and international) treasures: expensive, precious, signalling wealth and prestige. But here have they met their come-uppance? The artist tells how she read her way through the world's fairy tales and mythologies as an eight-year-old at school in Kuala Lumpur ‘I still have a powerful sense of the world inside those books,‘ she says, ‘alternating dark and light, blood and forests, wind and sky and sea, eyes and teeth, long roads, high mountains, talking birds'. And here she paints insects - with eyes and teeth no doubt - tiny invaders of the sort that infest carpets and might chomp their way through with military efficiency.

On the one hand the insects are pinned down in patterns as if scientific specimens. Is that the walnut orb-weaver or the lace-webbed spider I see before me? Or are they imaginary?  Either way they are transformed from despised creepy crawlies into jewel-like creatures, some weighty and scarab-like, others so delicate they might flutter up into the air at any moment.
www.nicholabealing.co.uk
 www.nicolabealing.co.uk/paintings/
 www.nicolabealing.co.uk/about/

Infested Carpet is one of many works of art currently on show in London's Somerset House, short-listed by a distinguished panel in the annual National Open Art Exhibition, now in its 18th year. With prize money of  £60,000, it aims to nurture creative talent from both emerging and professional artists.
You can see the exhibition in Chichester at the Pallant House Gallery from Dec2 - 14
www.pallant.org.uk/
and at the Minerva Theatre Gallery, Chichester Festival Theatre from Dec 17 - Jan 3
www.cft.org.uk/.
Also back in London at the Works on Paper Fair at the Science Museum from 5-9 Feb
www.worksonpaperfair.com/

thenationalopenartcompetition.com 
somersethouse.org.uk

309 DEVON - WINTER VIEW by ALAN COTTON

MESSUM'S GALLERY, Cork Street

Devon - Winter View from the Artist's Studio.

It is a bold move when in September one person shows another person a picture of a snowy cottage. This is the time when catalogues and charity appeals and the lids of chocolate boxes are getting geared up for Christmas. But there is nothing sweet or sentimental about this painting by Alan Cotton. The lighting is particularly good in this gallery and the artist is determined to exploit paint's physicality, with the result that you can see the thick, crisp crunchiness of the snow, and feel the rough trees stripped bare of soft foliage.  In the bottom right hand corner you can glimpse a sheltered path making a sharp left-hand turn to we-know-not-where.

The catalogue contains an anecdote about how, through a network of mutual friends and acquaintances, John Berger made an impromptu visit to the artist's  house and examined some of his unfinished landscapes.. John Berger is distinguished in many areas, but his four-part series of 30-minute films in 1972 led to a book Ways of Seeing, a classic text  which profoundly altered the way many of us looked at pictures. Berger's reaction to Cotton's work was to encourage him to paint exclusively with a knife as  he believed Alan had 'a real feel for using paint'.

Devon - Dazzling Light at Hartland

While it may be possible to sculpt paint into fallen snow with a knife, what tools do you use when you want to depict slippery, shining water, which stands still for not one  moment? On the left is a painting not unlike one I wrote about earlier: Blog112 Devon - Surging Tides over the Rocks at Hartland.

It makes an interesting contrast to Michael Kidd's style of painting featured in  Blog 304 The Calm Before. In each of the works rows of 'battlements' point out to sea, but Kidd paints a serene beach, each pebble in its place, the silvery turquoise sea apparently in a moment of torpor and the groynes like guns pointing downwards with military precision.

Alan Cotton's work is not confined to beloved Hartland, in Devon, but includes Provence, Piemonte, Venice, Sicily, Cyprus, Morocco, Ireland and Everest. On the right, in the Mediterranean heat and haze of a Venetian canal, the ripples on the surface dance in a coat of reflected colours.before your eyes.

 Venice-Sunlit Ochre Reflections

www.alancotton.co.uk/

www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/artists/alan-cotton

www.messums,com