September Arts Newsletter
Summer Wimbledon Garden, 96x76cm framed, oil on canvas. This will be on show at the Wimbledon Art Trail, venue 21
I hope you have had a lovely Summer and are ready to launch back into normal life. As well as having some fabulous holiday time I have spent much of the past couple of months working with Katie on the Wimbledon Art Trail which takes place on 12th/13th September.
We have over 80 artists across 34 different venues, all within a mile of Wimbledon station. There are painters, potters, printers, sculptors, tapestry makers - you name it. We are basically turning Wimbledon into one giant gallery for the weekend, come and have a look! I will be exhibiting at my house, along with 2 others, we are venue 21.
Later this week we will also be hanging a window in Elys department store with a small selection of artists exhibiting, look out for it Wimbledon locals!
Aside from the Art Trail, there are lots of other lovely exhibitions happening in London. A few suggestions below. If, like me, you didn’t manage to get Bayeux Tapestry tickets, there should be more being released in the coming weeks. I shall keep you posted.
Benton End: A Paradise of Pollen and Paint
To celebrate the reopening of Benton End Garden in Suffolk, the Garden Museum have a selection of artwork, letters and objects from the renowned art school and general arty mid-century hang-out. Run by painter and plantsman, Cedric Morris (I’m a big fan and have mentioned him in previous newsletters), Benton End was influential to people like Beth Chatto, Lucian Freud and Joan Warburton. There is also an excellent restaurant/cafe at the Garden Museum, it’s a great day out.
Garden Museum until 20 September
Musquiqui Chihying: A Life of Navigation
This is a small but interesting exhibition at the Southbank showing the work of Taiwanese Chihying. His work explores consumerism and the repetition of city life whilst also looking at the quirky and ingenious ideas that people come up with to deal with it. For example, his father created an inflatable version of his Toyota Corolla to save his Taipei parking space whilst he was out for the day. Not a bad idea…
If you are going to see the Anish Kapoor at the Hayward Gallery do pop in to see this too as it is free (unlike the Kapoor which is really expensive).
Portrait of a City: A Century of American Photography
Divers, East River, 1948 by Arthur Liepzig
This rare photography show at the Dulwich Picture Gallery runs like a who’s who of American photographers; Alfred Stieglitz, Saul Leiter, Dorothea Lange, Diane Arbus, Ilse Bing to name a few. It examines the evolution of the US city across the 20th century, from the Great Depression to the New Deal. There are some particularly sinister shots of After Dark New York.
It is the collection of DNB Savings Bank Foundation and is a very full exhibition. Whilst this may lead to several threads running through the show, sometimes confusingly, there should be work to please everyone.
Podcast Recommendation: Stories of Art
I have recently discovered this excellent podcast. It is presented by Art History crumpets James Fox and Alistair Sooke and they take a deep dive into different artists taking into account the surrounding historical context. I have enjoyed every episode but particularly loved the Holbein and Michelangelo series.
https://open.spotify.com/show/0nlFsagm4bNpFlFlouBFu4
Cowparsley verge, Oxfordshire. 87x107cm framed, oil on canvas. This will also be on display at the Wimbledon Art Trail
I was delighted to have one of my paintings chosen for the front cover of this month’s Kingston edition of Time & Leisure.
