The last picture show

The Last Picture Show, at the Stour Gallery, Shipston-on-Stour.

Sadly, this is the last exhibition at the gallery, as, like so many others in the last few years, it is closing down.

Christy Keeney, Flat Head

Keeney lives and works in County Donegal.

'I see my work more as 3D paintings than sculptures or ceramics. The form is built up and sketched till almost flat, like a canvas, ready to take the drawing, which will outline the head or portrait. These flat heads represent ordinary people. They are a study of the many varied features and expressions that make up the human face. The figures usually attempt to express the human spirit in its many forms. I like to work with the clay blindly, letting the moment dictate my progress. When I see the form develop to some conclusion, then I'll add the features'.

 Christy Keeney, Flat Head

Peter Wills

Peter Wills

Peter Wills

Peter Wills

Peter Wills

 Tim Andrews

Tim Andrews

Tim Andrews

 Chris Carter

John Pickering, Yellow Beach Hut, (acrylic on canvas)

Catherine Headley, After Visiting Halliggye, (oil on board) 

Sotis Philippides

Catherine Headley, Whisper, (oil on board)

Neil Canning, Crosswind, Porthmeor, (mixed media on paper)

Karen Morgan

 Caroline Fuglistaller

 Finally, two more 3D paintings by Christy Keeney - these are now mine.

The Artist

Mother and Child.

Canal Festival in Leamington Old Town

The Canal Festival has been a Leamington tradition for a number of years, but this was the first time we attended. Clemens Street was closed to traffic and street stalls lined the street. 

It was a hot, hot day and people sat outside the cafes and pubs, having a drink

and enjoying the music. The Peas, the group who were performing while we were there, were very, very good. We stood around and listened for a while

and then moved on to the canal to look at the stalls.

It's always good to see things being made

An old factory, I don't know what was being produced here

under the bridge.

There was a really festive atmosphere - the weather certainly helped

An enjoyable morning.

John Piper at the Mead

John Piper

at the Mead Gallery, University of Warwick.

Landscape artist, official war artist, a major advocate of abstract art, John Piper is one of the most significant British artists of the 20th century. This exhibition at the Mead Gallery at Warwick University shows how Piper worked across an extraordinarily diverse range of artistic disciplines.

Beach and Starfish, Seven Sisters Cliff, Easterboune 1933-34 (gouache, pen and ink with paper and fabric collage)

Hope Inn, 1934, (gouache and Indian ink with collage)

Houses in Surrey, 1928, (oil paint on board)

Foreshore with Boats, South Coast, 1933 (oil with printed paper on canvas)

Fishing Boars near Newhaven, 1934, (oil with collage)

Drawing for a Construction, 1934, (ink and gouache with collage on paper)

Construction Intersection, 1934, (oil and wooden dowels on canvas)

Construction 1934, 1967, (oil, zinc, wood, glass and dowelling on canvas on plywood)

Piper's abstract constructions were the first works he made after visiting Paris in 1934. They were only exhibited once as a group, in the foyer of the Experimental Theatre in Hampstead in early 1935, alongside works by Wassily Kandinsky, Joan Miro and others. He is known to have made around fifteen in total, but few have survived as the artist did not take great care of them after their making. He ultimately came to regard the abstract style as an 'exercise'. This piece was initially dismantled before being reconstructed by the artist in 1967, following a photograph and using some original elements.

Brighton, Regency Square, 1949, (oil on canvas)

Portland Stone Perspective, 1954, (oil on board)

Rocks on the Glyder Mountain, 1951, (oil on canvas)

Interior of Coventry Cathedral the Morning After the Blitz, 1940

Cartoon for Baptistery Window, Coventry Cathedral, 1956, (ink, crayon and pastel on paper)

Abstract 1956, (screen-printed rayon)

Abstract Composition, 1935

Baddesley Clinton

We hadn't been to Baddesley Clinton for a while, so it was a real pleasure visiting last week.

We started by circling the house and the moat that surrounds it.

The house probably originated in the 13th century when large areas of the Forest of Arden were cleared for farmland.

This last one, is my favourite view of the house and the moat.

The house has extensive formal gardens and ponds and as always, this is what interests us - walking around the grounds.

We took this wooded path,

one of the small ponds.

We then walked on and reached the large pond

The water lilies were about the bloom

with the pond on our left we continued on our way





through this gate

and into the formal garden

where peonies were in full bloom

We talked to a couple who had come especially for the peonies

and who can blame them...

We then walked up a different lane

which leads to St Michael's church,

which shares much history with the house.