Giuseppe Penone and Richard Long

I've already been to see this exhibition at the Haunch of Venison twice, and I love it. Here is the film of the installations

Penone's work has such sensitivity in his exploration of and work with trees. In his hands they have souls. I particularly liked the block of wood carved away to reveal it's core of branching tree. I know this isn't new, I've seen much larger examples of his in Tate Modern, but maybe the smaller scale even made it more delicate and essential. 

And just as impressive, but for their huge scale, were his drawings of hugely magnified cross-sectional tree structures, graphite on matte black paper. They looked like maps, or emormous brass rubbings of even larger skin, and then as you moved and the graphite reflected the light, positives and negatives exchanged places. And when you look closely, the mark making is lively and quite loose. Very, very beautiful in a less-is-more kind of way.

Richard Long's work for me divides in two; between the representation of his walks by words (which I don't really get) and his installations, like the circles of stones, which I am drawn to. The one here that really made me reflect was the one made of a circle of rounded, white stones lying quietly side by side in one layer on the floor, bisected by a jagged line of dark grey flints, all fighting for position, balanced against one another precariously, and menacing anyone who might approach. Binary oposition in all it's force, and it works.

Royal Academy Summer Exhibition

Thanks again to Helen to her invite. We were lucky that it wasn't too busy so we could peruse at our leisure. It seems as if the RAs are all patting themselves of the back. I kept seeing work by the same people in several different rooms, and, other than the first big room, lots of walls with scarcely anything on them (looking a bit scabby!) as if someone had been too mean in their selections. Having said that, I found these gems:

Cape Cod by Ashley Hanson

Without any labels to any of the works, it took me a little while to recognise this as a kind of map. The colour, the texture at the boundaries reminding me of de Stael's work. And his website reveals even more colour and greater abstraction. Someone I'm sure I'll come back to.



from Dusk to Dark series, by Clare Winchester


Clare Winchester aparently uses oil paint wiped across waxed board to create these images, so she explains on her website. To me they resemble drypoint prints, partially wiped to produce monotypes. Hmm...inspiration to get those printing inks out.....

And then how could I ignore Gillian Ayres or Barbara Rae? They both produce such amazingly colourful work. So here are two treats:



Star Spangled  by Gillian Ayres

Ceanthru Thaidhg by Barbara Rae

Last month I just happened upon the closing day of an exhibition at Adam Gallery in Cork Street of Barbara Rae's paintings, prints and sketchbooks. There's obvoiusly a whole synthesis of stuff going on which then allows her such freedom of mark-making. I've just read and interview with the artist on the RA website which discusses her working methods: pure acrylic pigments applied to the paper, then lots of fluid on top so that the pigments merge. Sounds like an interesting experiment I might have to try......

There was obviously heaps more at the RA show, but these for me were the highlights...and they are enough inspiration to be getting on with....