Back in Greece...

 and swimming again.  Bliss....

A few gems from the Albertina

A few gems from the Albertina, Vienna.

Natan Altman, Portrait of the Poet Anna Akhmatova, 1914

Natan Altman, Petrocommune, 1921

I had never come across Altman's work before and am extremely pleased to have discovered him. Only seven years separate the two works above, yet stylistically and in their worldview and ideology they are worlds apart. It is almost as if they were not by the same hand, as if they dated from different centuries: in one, the elegant, bourgeois 19th century, and in the other, the century that swept away  three centuries of tsarist rule. Taking the place of the elegant fin-de-siècle realism is the Suprematist construction, permeated by propaganda for the state of the future.

Whereas he presents himself as a classical portraitist adopting the techniques of  Cubo-Futurism with his Portrait of the Poet Anna Akhmatova, he demonstrates themes and an artistic language consistent with the new era in his work from the early 1920s. In Petrocommune there is a concentration of images and ideas connected with a single concept: the formation of a new state. The use of the elements of the circle and the rectangle is his tribute to Suprematism, proclaimed by Malevich in the 1910s.

Natan Altman, Portrait of a Young Jew (Self-Portrait), 1916

 In the search of forms of new expression, experiments with new materials, and the discovery of new artistic media during those revolutionary times, did not affect the artists' interest in such traditional genres as the portrait. What had changed was the use of unusual materials and their completely novel combination. In this sculpture Altman teamed plaster and copper with wood.

Beatrice Sandomirskaya, Composite Portrait, 1929

Sandomirskaya created a sculpture in the spirit of Cubism, with the head reduced to a few geometric shapes juxtaposing  contrasting surface textures of sheet metal and wood.

Wladimir Lebedew, Cubism: Washerwoman, 1922

Kasimir Malewitsch, Portrait of the Artist's Wife, 1933

Warwickshire Open Studios - 2

Warwickshire Open Studios - 2.

Another small selection of some of the art that has been on display in the last three weeks.


Hilary LaForce:

Tea bowl, (pearl crystal with kintsugi repair)

looking in



Don Mason:

Athina Bastien:

Sally Lark:

Avril Leigh:

Vicki Behm:

Warwickshire Open Studios - 1

It's that time of year again, when for three weeks local artists open their homes, studios and other venues to share their work with us. Over 270 artists took part this year. Most artists exhibit in their homes: the highlight was one modernist house where I had to visit again not just for the gorgeous ceramics, but also for the pleasure of seeing the house again.  Other venues have included

the three lodges at the gates of Jephson Gardens in Leamington





and the delightful church in Ettington village.

Rhoda Bertz:

Bertz works in oils and mixed media. Too much reflection meant that I was unable to photograph many of her paintings  and even those that I have posted here, show reflection unfortunately.

Nicola Richards:

Elisabeth Barry:

Alice Shepherd:

Usha Khosla:

Russel Gain:

Claire Seneviratne:

Angela Gordon: