An odd encounter

During our recent trip to London we went to the RA and saw a wonderful exhibition of paintings by Anselm Kiefer and Van Gogh (post will follow at some point), then walked to St James Park and wandered around there. I then went to the ICA to see another exhibition while Ken did another round of the park. When I had finished with the ICA exhibition I looked for a bench to sit down while I waited for Ken. 

No empty benches to be found as it was a nice day and the park was full of people. The only one was this one with a statue in the middle of it, but there seemed to be enough space so I sat down next to the man and the dog.

I texted Ken telling him where I was then sat for about ten minutes enjoying the lovely day.

Then suddenly the statue turned around and looked at me. What???

When a couple and their little girl walked past, I said to the little girl that if she came and sat next to the statue it would turn around and look at her.  She did just that, and was rewarded by a thumbs up. She burst out into delighted squeals, and run back to her parents laughing.

The next couple to go by had a little boy with them and again, I explained about the statue, so the little boy went and stood next to the statue who pointed a finger at him. Not the same reaction as before though - the little boy screamed with horror and even though I kept saying that there was no need to be scared as I was there, and his parents were there, he was not having it. His mother, laughing, took a photograph of the bench and then they followed their screaming  little boy.

The statue then turned around and very confidentially told me that they were trying to scare people and were making a YouTube video of it.  He pointed to the next bench where his friend was sitting, his camera pointing at us.

He also pointed to the sign on the bench which I had not noticed before.

I got up to take more photographs,  then Ken joined us

Eventually his friend came over as well and they told us all about what they are doing.

One more  photograph and then we left.

As we were leaving we passed another family and I told the two boys about the statue - they were delighted to see him move and they even shared a high-five.



 

A Different View

A Different View - Women Artists at Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum

Women have been creating and collecting artworks for centuries, but few have reached the status and renown of their male counterparts. Historicallly, they have been under-represented in national collections and excluded from art historical narratives. Since the 1970s curators and art historians have worked to challenge the accepted view and show how these artists have always been part of the story of art.

There is still a long way to go through - the National Gallery in London for instance, contains less than 2% of work by women. 

This exhibition showcases some of the work in Leamington Art Gallery's collection and includes the work of four contemporary artists as a way of looking to the future. The contemporary artists are Laura Adkins, Julie de Bastion, Lou Blakeway and Mary Riley.

Vera Morosoff, Portrait, 1938, (oil on canvas)

Celia Frances Bedford, Lady with Powder Puff, 1936, (oil on canvas)

Vanessa Bell, A Venetian Window, 1928, (oil on canvas)

Julie de Bastion, Figure with Mirrors, 1982, (oil on canvas)

Gertrude Lindsay, Sally at her Window, 1935, (oil on canvas)

Dod Procter, The Innocent, A New Day, 1935, (oil on canvas)

Procter is perhaps most acclaimed for her evocative portraits of young women and her subtle use of light. Procter was among the first generation of female artists that had unimpeded access to nude life drawing classes, adding further significance to this work. Her focus on figures on the cusp of womanhood perhaps tells us something of how she saw herself as a woman and an artist at a time of increasing female liberation.

Nan Youngman, Portrait of Alma Ramsey-Hosking, 1930, (oil on canvas)

Laura Sylvia Gosse, Trumpet Vendor of Enverneu, (oil on canvas)

Lou Blakeway, Rape In Culture, 2023, (oil on canvas)

Beatrice Mary Seccombe Leech, Bastia, The Old Fort, (watercolour on paper)

Elizabeth Whitehead, Amsterdam, (watercolour on paper)

Anne St John Partridge, Bruges Under Snow, (watercolour on paper)

Partridge was influlenced by the work of the Impressionists. From 1900 she became involved with the Women's Suffrage movement.

Alma Ramsey, Mother and Child, 1980, (marble)

Cathleen Mann, Jane Posing, 1931, (oil on canvas)

Anne Finlay, Ronnie At Bedtime, 1935, (oil on board)

Christine Borland, English Family China, 1998, (bone china)

A porcelain baby's head sits within a female pubis bone moulded from obstetric models. The porcelain is painted with traditional designs associated with 19th century English tableware. The work reflects on the original meaning of bone china, when porcelain was made of ground bone. It also associated the genetic links between mother and child and the repeated patterns on the china and considers the risks historically involved in childbirth.

Amy Sharrocks, Thistledown, 2018, (ink on paper)

Therese Lessore, Pulteney Bridge, Bath, 1942, (oil on canvas)

Tessa Beaver, Snow: Near Urbino II, 1970, (oil on board)

Alice Maud Fanner, Burnham Restricted Class Beating to Windward, in Pegwell Bay, 1927, (oil on canvas)

Mary Duncan, Whitesand Bay, (oil on canvas)

Lucy Kemp-Welch, Winter's White Silence, 1923-24, (oil on canvas)

Dorothea Sharp, Where Children Play and Seagulls Fly, 1928, (oil on canvas)

Winifred Nicholson, Summer, 1928, (oil on board)

In this painting, the frame of the window is omitted, creating an unusual, almost surreal, dual image of still life and landscape.

Nicholson was credited with pioneering this new and distinctive type of 'flowerpiece' in the 1920s and continued to experiment with the style throughout her life.

Here, she contrasts the naturalistic shades of the fields and trees with the vibrancy of the shimmering river and bright boats. The bold tones and forms of the flowers in the foreground provide the initial focus, however the artist keeps the eye moving around the image by repeating touches of the same iridiscent turquoise used to represent the river. These small vivid patches radiate outwards toward the edges of the work and in this way the foreground and background are unified and balanced.

Rhoda Bertz

Rhoda Bertz is an abstract expressionist artist who exhibits at Warwickshire Open Studios every year. Hers is the one venue I try not to miss as I love her work. She mostly works in oil and what I find amazing is how different her work is from one year to the next - she is constantly evolving.