Chichester – Good
Friday 3rd April
Oxmarket Centre of Arts – Awakenings
See also Water and Art:
This open exhibition was in main gallery, though
only filling about two thirds of it. The rest of the space was filled by Don
Noble’s Sussex Wild Plants, I liked
the Neanderthal collage on the end wall and the bird / nest collagraph -
collage. I had two paintings here: both mixed media on box canvas. Both looked
better than they did at home, benefiting from the bigger space in the gallery.
The smaller one (40cm square) depicted spring on the South Downs (right), inspired by
numerous walks and sketching sessions. The larger one (50cm square) was Stream
Awakening. Again the season was spring, but the Awakening I had in mind here
was the unexpected, unseasonal revival of the River Lavant in late spring 2012.
See A Surprise Return of the Lavant, June 2012.
I liked the Sussex
Wild Plants, too. These were along the Arun valley between Amberley and Billingshurst Teasels, grasses / reeds.
Wood
engravings at Pallant House
Leon Underwood and the Brook Green School of
Painting
Leon Underwood 1920s - WW2 – his focus was on
figures. A mix of drawings, oil paintings, etchings, linocut, wood engraving and sculpture. What
particularly attracted me to Pallant House, however was the exhibition of wood
engravings and linocuts in the meeting room across the second floor: the Brook
Green School which Underwood founded. Among its members in the 1930s were Blair Hughes-Stanton engravings all involving figures and Gertrude
Hermes. Both were fine wood engravers, but I know the latter was a big
influence on my father's work. There was a mix of figure work and landscape
here, including some relatively large blocks as wood engravings go (30cm
upwards). I was particularly taken with
her depictions of water lilies in two of the works here. Then there was Thames Near Source. This looked very unusual.
I didn’t realise there was a horse pregnant with a foal in there until I had
another look at it in my father’s book this evening. It came from on a poem,
apparently. Also vortices, flow.
Undercurrents – large, vertical format
with deep pool. Sun at top shining into water. Figures bathing. Whirlpool
vortex spiralling downwards towards big shark like fish in the darker depths.
Among
their permanent collection I saw they had brought out three of Ivon Hitchens's
oil paintings, including his Sussex River Near Midhurst, presumably the Rother.
Abstract made up of bold, broad, blocky brushstrokes. Long format / double
square. Larger than I'd remembered. Painting with block of cadmium red worked
well - clifftop maybe, though the one downstairs with the hut amongst greenery
looked very dull. This can’t have been intentional. Another case, surely of
oils dulling with time, particularly the darker colours?
Farnham Art Society 68th
Annual Spring Exhibition, James Hockey and Foyer Galleries, UCA, Falkiner Road,
Farnham – Easter weekend 4th – 5th April
I stewarded here on Easter Saturday and returned on Easter
Sunday afternoon briefly with my Literary Man and brother’s folk. The exhibition ran from 1st - 12th April.
I was very pleased to have had two of my paintings accepted
for this exhibition: a long format view of the Severn Bridges from Beachley
Point at low tide. This came about after the WOUGS trip to the Forest of Dean,
Beachley and Sedbury in autumn 2013. The
other was Race Against Time and Tide, a small near-square format painting
which was also accepted for last year’s Stride exhibition at Oxmarket.
To quote from the first page of this year’s catalogue: “Farnham
Art Society has gained an impressive reputation for the high standard and range
of work by both professional and amateur [word btw derived from French for the love it] artists.”. It is held in the James Hockey and Foyer
Galleries in what’s now the University for the Creative Arts (UCA), previously
known under various other names. It now attracts around 4000 visitors a year.
The Society is one of the largest in southern England, now with around 400
members. All the more of an achievement considering that the Society is run
entirely by volunteers. I know from helping out on their committee during the
2000s that a tremendous amount of effort goes into making it all happen.
The annual spring exhibitions include work by their
Associate members, all professional artists who tend be members of prestigious
organisations such as the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours (RI), the
Society of Women Artists (SWA) and Royal Society of Painter Printmakers (RE).
All the other work is by Exhibiting Members (EM). To become an EM members
submit three works to a panel of judges comprising professional artists. There
is then selection at each the annual exhibitions. As art groups, go, then this
is a relatively challenging, demanding one. When I first joined in 2000, this
put me off through my lack of confidence. As my painting developed, I grew in
confidence, thanks in a large part due to the workshops, demonstrations,
appraisals and outdoor painting days organised by Farnham Art Society. I
changed my mind and applied successfully two years later. Now, even after
moving out of the Farnham area to south Hampshire, I continue to be a member of
FAS, the rigorous selection keeps me on
my toes / at the painting face.
Well before joining the Society, I was well aware of FAS, my
father being a member for well over forty years. He’s now an Associate member.
Though he’s usually exhibited his paintings and relief prints, he’s showed
sculpture here during my childhood, too. Recall one of the family pet
labrador. The Annual Exhibition was
always over the Easter period, during the art students’ spring vacation. The
Foyer Gallery was added later on.
Thanks to a longstanding collaboration between Farnham Art
Society and UCA / its predecessors, the exhibition can take place in a purpose
built gallery with ample space and light to display over three hundred 2D
(paintings, drawings, printmaking) and 3D works (sculpture, ceramics) attractively.
This includes large scale canvases (1m upwards) which might not be accommodated
in a smaller gallery. A good gallery space makes all the difference with any
exhibition. All the more with the high level of talent clearly evident here.
There’s usually a member of the gallery staff on the judging panel.
It is always good to
have a range of sizes, including larger scale works. The larger works here certainly had impact. The only thing was - I realise I'm biased here as someone who tends to work on a relatively small scale - the bigger works perhaps tended to dominate, perhaps overshadowing at least some of the smaller ones. Even in a gallery as good as this one, some spots are better than others
when it comes to grabbing visitors' attention: generally, the nearer the front of the gallery the better. That said, I wouldn’t know what else to suggest all else being the same. I know, too, a good deal of care and
thought goes into hanging the paintings and assembling the 3D work on the
tables and plinths. It usually takes at least a full day, involving a team of
people. The overall results is always good.
The exhibition judges award several prizes, given out at the
preview even before the exhibition opens to the public. There’s a vote for the
Visitors’ Prize, too, where gallery goers can vote for their best painting /
sculpture, awarded after the exhibition when the votes are counted. At an
exhibition with such high calibre and variety, I always find it hard to decide,
particularly for 3D. Among the works which stood out for me this year were:
Gone But Not Forgotten
– a large vertical oil painting on canvas by R. Alan Ryder, near the Foyer
Gallery Entrance, depicting the now dismantled Cargate water tower near
Aldershot. This won the James Hockey Award for Painting.
Jackie Rennie – View
from Caesar’s Camp, Jackie Rennie, acrylic on canvas, square format. I
liked how she emphasised the middle distance and what looked like purple irises
growing on the hillside in the foreground. The landscape diffused towards the
top of the painting, the skyline out of the frame.
Greenwich Phoenix
– one of John Bryce’s variations on his multi-block Cutty Sark linocut.
Highly commended for the Henry Hammond Award for Ceramics
was Urban Rural by Glyn Jones. This
was one of several earthenware spherical or cone shaped ceramics with patterns
depicting a bird’s eye views over the landscape, with built up areas,
waterways, networks of roads. Resemblances here to what we saw around Shoreham-by-Sea on Easter Monday.
