Before catching the train back to Edinburgh, I went off to Tate Britain. Mostly, I wanted to see Martin Creed’s Work No. 850, but whilst there I thought I’d catch the Bacon retrospective and see the works shortlisted for the Turner Prize, too; and make the use of my new Tate membership…

I was expecting to really dislike Work No. 850, if only because it is not what I would normally consider “art”: it basically consists of people running through the main hall of Tate Britain. One after another. Not painting; not sculpture; not even an unmade bed: but people in running gear, running through an otherwise empty gallery?
( Read more... )

I spent an afternoon in Tate Modern. Mostly, I wanted to see the Rothko retrospective (and I shall be making return visits to that), but I caught a couple of other shows and, having followed the lead made by psychochicken and become a member of the Tate, made the most of the facilities there (a good lunch, a couple of coffees, and a great view!).

Entering the Turbine Hall, I had expected to be assaulted by giant sculptures; but the Dominique Gonzales-Foerster exhibit, THX 2058, are hidden behind screens. This is art which was trying to tell a tale – there is a whole back-story to the creation of the giant sculptures – homages to Alexander Calder, Louise Bougeois and a couple of other people I didn’t know: giant versions of already large pieces.

( More about Gonzales-Foerster, Rothko, and Cildo Meireles… )

Last week, when I was out with my tripod, I returned to Old St Paul’s, to have another look at Alison Watt’s “Still” – and to try taking some more pictures: using the tripod would allow me to use a far slower shutter speed and so a slower sensor setting, getting images without having to manipulate them too much. I wanted to see what I could do with more freedom with the shutter.

It was a different visit to my last: having a tripod just makes me feel different – more self-conscious, more tied down (despite the greater flexibility it provides); and there were other people in the church, and in the chapel: they were cleaning the lamps in the chapel, and cleaning the church as a whole. So that was another reason for feeling more self conscious. Plus I could get the self-timer on the camera to work properly – the exposures were many seconds, and I used the self-timer to avoid shaking the camera by squeezing the shutter release.

I am not sure if the different exposure makes a difference to the images: perhaps they are clearer and cleaner, but less characterful.

( More pictures – and more words… )

Last weekend, I missed the bus that was meant to take me to the hills. Finding myself with a spare day, I decided to wander around some galleries.

I went first to the Ingleby Gallery for last exhibition in their current setting. The Ingleby is one of my favourite galleries anywhere: set in the ground floor of a Georgian townhouse, it is as if you have been invited into someone’s house to look at some art (which is, perhaps, how this gallery started: the upper floors remain a family home). It always feels like a privilege going to see art there: the scale is very personal. I love it.

For the last year, they have staged a series of duets: two artists showing together, one contemporary artist paired with another, usually less contemporary.

( Read more ... plus some photos from the Royal Botanic Garden )

This morning I went to see Alison Watt’s installation of four paintings, “Still”, an altar piece in the chapel of remembrance of Old St Paul’s Episcopal Church in the Old Town of Edinburgh.

I have been a couple of times before, and I always find it a very moving experience. This time, I was prompted by a recent programme on BBC1 Scotland about Watt’s current exhibition at the National Gallery in London.

“Still” is set in a side chapel; it is barely lit by a window to its right, and a small candle flickering directly below the painting. The left wall is a war memorial, a list of names of those who died – presumably parishioners – in the first and second world wars.

The painting is of hanging cloth, I suppose, and the luxuriant folds suggest loss and absence.

The combination of the painting the long list of names is deeply moving. The whole really is still; I had to sit a while, just looking. The light, the painting and the names are very affecting.

It is very, very beautiful.

Alison Watt is represented by the Ingleby Gallery.

F. and I went to see the Barbican exhibition “Seduced: Art and Sex from Antiquity to Now”. Seduced is not an apt description: it left me completely cold. As F. said, they must have worked really hard to make sex so boring.

( Read more... )

On Thursday, the tube I was on stopped at Oxford Circus, and I noticed that the walls of the tunnel were being stripped of layers of posters and cleaned.

Yesterday I went back and got off the tube to have a better look. It felt like I was an archaeologist, looking down through the layers to different ages.

It also looked like abstract paintings – particularly those by Clyfford Still: jagged lightning cutting across the walls.

I took a lot of pictures; here are some of them.

(Also, when I got back from Oxford Circus and was sitting comfortably at my laptop, looking through my friends page, I saw this post by the rather wonderful tubewhore, who had exactly the same idea, although she was at Leicester Square; perhaps they are scraping the posters away throughout the West End.)

( more pictures beneath the cut )

Northern Skies

Paintings by Jill Ashforth

You are invited to an exhibition of oil paintings
and mixed media from around Scotland.

July 1st-9th, 12-6pm.

Wasps Patriothall Gallery
off Hamilton Place, Stockbridge,
Edinburgh, EH3 5AY

Here is a map to help you find the gallery

You can view pictures from the exhibition here

Other examples of Jill's work can be seen here

A couple of weeks ago, I stuck a couple of my wife's pictures on my journal; and several of you liked her pictures.

She has now set up a page on Flicker containing paintings from a forthcoming exhibition - here's the link.

And here are a couple of my favourite pictures from the many she had loaded up...







If any of you are interested, I'll post details of the exhibition nearer the time.

For all the comments you left on my post about her being ill and about her paintings.

She quickly got better.

I'm glad so many of you liked her paintings. I shall endeavour to put some more here, sometime.