Kurt Jackson at Messums

On the day I  went to London for the Peter Sacks exhibition, I also popped into Messum's ( where I saw the David Tress) for the current Kurt Jackson exhibition: Olive and Fig:Provence.  We had a fig tree in our previous garden  but it only ever produced a few underwhelming fruits, nothing like the luscious qualities  of these. 

 I preferred the depictions of the fruit to that of the trees themselves as they had a more abstract quality  and were so well observed. Of the  tree paintings I like the mystery of the one below ( and how he uses text to  describe what he sees and hears ) , it reminded me a bit of Samuel Palmer. 

The studies  of many figs  carried out in different media , reminded me of the '100 Mussels' exercise,  the pleasure in the combination  of observation, how to portray the subtle differences , the enjoyment of  using the paint, the repetition. 

I loved the monoprints of the fig leaves and how they'd been incorporated along with  drawings, paintings and various objects in a number of collages 

My favourite was the painting of figs and snail shells on a sheet of newspaper, the contrast between the black and white, the hard and soft surfaces. 

A Day Out in Bermondsey

 On Friday  I met up with my friend Sue  ( who I haven't seen for months)  in Bermondsey. It's not an area I've visited for a very long time, the focus for the visit was the exhibition at the White Cube of Anselm Kiefer, but there's  lots of interest in the area including  this  delightful community sculpture 'The Shared'  that Sue spotted down an alley!

 'Walhalla' was the theme and the title of much of the work in this Anselm Kiefer  exhibition and  so much lead was used that you had to read a health and safety notice  about it's toxicity  before you entered!  I'd thought the work in the exhibition at the RA in 2014 was monumental but  this was of an even larger magnitude.  
Although thought-provoking I didn't particularly like the lead beds (and walls!) and other installations  but loved the paintings: the scale, the colours, most of all the incredible textures and surfaces achieved with variety of unusual media used.

 The huge 'books' of photographs with  clay  were wonderful .

 The close up (below) of this painting  give an idea of  how layers are curled back from the surface.

 Interesting unusual composition with the darkest areas at the top.

 The use of luminous colours  (especially the blue) and the sheen of shellac   gave a lift to these paintings ( which are huge!)

 Sue and I had a discussion about how on earth he made  such huge pieces and how  large his studio could be - the answer is apparently 200 acres!

  After a delicious long lunch at the Fashion and Textile Museum, we    visited the London Glassblowing   gallery. This spectacular, sculptural piece ( with its' shadows)  by Jochen Ott  was my favourite  but   difficult  to choose  amongst so much gorgeous work!

 Finished up at the Eames gallery  where I'd noticed on my way past  there was  an exhibition on 'Discovering Samuel Palmer' whose work I've long admired ( the exhibition at the British Museum  was exceptional)   It turned out to be even more interesting  as  his prints formed the basis of  varied interpretations by  a range of contemporary printmakers, rather a contrast in scale to the Anselm Kiefer up the road!

British Drawing: 1600 to Present Day

After a stimulating  Kew/NHM  networking day at the Natural History Museum on Monday ( 79 'lightening' talks of 2 slides in less than 5 minutes!!), with my head still buzzing, I went over the road to the V&A, finally getting round to see the exhibition of British drawings. It was a joy to be reminded of the work of Samuel Palmer - the catalogue from the 2005 exhibition was the first thing off my bookshelves when I got home. Besides his 'black works', perhaps because they reminded me of the rubbings of bark I made at Rydal, I particularly liked his drawings of tree trunks capturing the different textures, obviously enjoying the  marks made with his pen.  

More impressive marks made by David Connrean in 'Mappa Mundi: drawing to the extent of the body'  capturing the evolution of a line as its is copied imperfectly. I've tried something similar and can attest to how absorbing it is as an exercise  but never on this monumental scale where he used his whole body!
A different set of marks again in this charcoal drawing 'Head Study Two'  by Alison Lambert, almost sculptural  with  its patches of paper added  and drawn into.
I was also intrigued by the methods of Jane Dixon -  making paintings of photographs, then rubbings of the textured paintings on graph paper with graphite. Thought provoking studies making me wonder how I might take further the ideas I started working through in my daily art last year.

Despite buying several exhibition catalogues lately, I'm sure I'll be buying this  book  soon.
Meanwhile I couldn't resist this colourful kantha scarf in the shop - well it is my birthday next month and I'm currently researching and writing some blog posts on hand stitch for the 'And Then We Set It On Fire' Blog.  I'm sure it counts as 'reference material'!