Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting exhibition at Bankside Gallery of recent work by members of the Royal Watercolour Society. This year’s theme was based around risk mainly thinking about the risk of working in watercolour itself, how it can go wrong but how those mistakes might get incorporated into the final piece. As ever with this gallery the hang was clever and brought works together well. I loved the first section of flower still-lives leading into gardens. Shout out pieces include John Newbury’s “Nine Bottles”, Sophie Knight’s large picture of one end of Blackfriars Bridge, John Duffin’s “Thames Bridges at Sundown” which I think I have seen before and Nancy Mains’ pictures of Cornwall. Closed 4 November 2023    

Charming exhibition at the Bankside Gallery showcasing work by members of the Royal Watercolour Society and Royal Society of Painter Printmakers. Shows at this gallery are always hung well, setting up interesting themes from a diverse collection of work, and this was no exception. It is also refreshing to see watercolours and prints shown together but I did find the prices a bit on the steep side.   There was a lovely section of landscapes and I’d highlight Frances Hatch’s small but thickly impasto works and Martin Jacob’s beautiful “Where the Crow Flies”. Then a section on gardens including lovely bold flowers by Paul Catherall. It was nice to bring together the black and white prints and then to have a wall of the smaller, colourful pieces. My favourite was this picture in acrylic of the Thames in acrylic by John Duffin. Closed 10 September 2023    

Fun exhibition at Bankside Gallery of prints by members of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. There was a lovely variety of work and I was very tempted to buy but resisted. Highlights included the attached engraving of a staircase by Louise Hayward. I loved the different textures in it. I also liked a lino print of the Thames with mudlarkers and an old pier, some classic still lives by Annie Williams and the Hilary Paynter’s Lawyers London which a dense picture of the Inns of Court printed in sections and collages. Closed 2 June 2023

Interesting joint exhibition at Bankside Gallery of work by Quentin Blake and Linda Kitson. These artists’ work is different however the link between them is that they have been friends for over 50 years since they met at the Royal College of Art. Blake was showing imaginary portraits done with ballpoint pens. The works could easily be characters for books and were mainly made up of dense, intersecting lines and each one being a single colour. I preferred the slightly sparser compositions. Kitson showed delicate sketches of mountains in Italy and France along with older ones of London. These were alongside her more recent works done on iPad mainly of London Building sites. They were in startlingly, strange, bright colours but they were really effective. I particularly liked ones looking up through construction work or juxtaposing buildings. Closes 20 November 2022  

Interesting exhibition at the Bankside Gallery organised by the Royal Society of Printmakers and focusing on prints made from any form of relief printmaking including linocut, wood cut and wood engraving. There were some lovely images in this show and some more detailed that the technique would imply. I liked Chris Pig’s view over a town at dawn from a balcony as well as Frederick King’s fun picture of a bottom on a bicycle seat. My favourite however was Alexandra Buckley’s picture shown here of rain on London’s South Bank. Closes 24 November 2019

Nice exhibition   at the Bankside Gallery of new works by members of the Royal Watercolour Society and Royal Society of Painter Printmakers. The shows at this gallery are always nicely hung picking up themes between the pictures. Highlights in this show include Stuart Robertson’s long pictures of the British Museum and the Duomo in Milan, Laura Boswell’s peaceful Japanese woodcuts and Wendy Jacob’s cool square still lives. My favourites were Thomas Plunkett’s abstracts particular the picture I use here which made me think of a Venetian interior. Closes 15 September 2019

Lovely exhibition at Bankside Gallery of works by the Society of Wood Engravers. I always enjoy this show which demonstrates what a wide variety of work you can get from one technique. I loved Peter Lawrence’s clear, distinct prints of Kelmscott and St Ives and the detail in Trevor Hodd’s view of roof tops from the top of Drury Lane including people near the foreground on a roof terrace and people on the street below. My favourite this year was Anne Desmet’s picture of the view up a Georgian staircase in four versions of the print gradually getting lighter in tone. Closed on 24 February 2019.

Annual summer exhibition at Bankside Gallery showing work by members of the Royal Watercolour Society and the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers.   As ever this show was nicely hung with informal connections between images being set up. I liked Annie William’s still lives of modern ceramics in muted colour, also Joseph Winkleman’s tiny prints of London. However my favourite this year was Stuart Robinson with his architectural watercolours of iconic buildings against a squared background picking up the colours of the stone.   Closed on 9 September 2018  

Nice exhibition at the Bankside Gallery of work by members of the Society of Wood Engravers. As ever at this gallery the hanging of the works was excellent with good themes being set up gently and unobviously. It was nice to see videos of the how the work was produced and tool of the trade as well. I was most drawn to the very detailed work like Ann Tout’s picture of a curled up hedgehog, Geri Woddington’s picture of a woodshed with all the patterns of the ends of logs   and Sue Scullard’s delicate picture of tress. My favourite picture was Andrew Davison’s “The Woman who Befriended Ghosts” a figure in an archway surrounded by floating books with the ghostly figures their characters emerging from them.    Closed on 18 February 2018

Annual summer exhibition at Bankside Gallery of the Royal Watercolour Society and the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. This show is always fun with lots of affordable works. This year’s standouts included Peter Quinn’s nice watercolours of Venice and Sue Howell’s bright landscapes. I also liked John Duffin’s prints of Tube stations. My favourite piece was Karen Keogh’s “City Rooftops” looking across roofs towards Canary Wharf. Closed on 10 September 2017  

Nice exhibition at the Bankside Gallery of work by Loop, a group of print artists. Artists which stood out included Elizabeth Peer’s intimate pictures of people dining at La Manior focusing on individuals and couples. They reminded me of the sketches Vanessa Bell did of people in cafes in Paris. I also liked Marianne Ferm’s pictures of water, lovely still pictures yet which captured the movement of water. My favourite picture was a circle of oak leaves by Susan Turner. Closed on 18 September 2016  

Varied exhibition at Bankside Gallery from the Royal Watercolour Society and the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers as their summer exhibition. There was a Shakespeare theme to some of this show as artists from both societies had worked with the Globe Theatre on their Shakespeare celebration. I loved some of the theatre being built and Michael Barratt’s map of Shakespeare’s London. Other highlights included pictures of Venice by Peter Quinn and Martin Leman’s “Across the Bay” a view of the lights across a bay with two great horizontals of the sea and sky separated by the thin line of lights. My favourite was “Winter Sunshine in a West London Garden” by Liz Butler a lovely picture of light in tress and brick houses. Closes 11 September 2016.

Nice exhibition at Bankside Gallery of work by members of this society of artists. I was very impressed at the range of styles on show and the detail in some of the work. I’d pick out Fay Watson’s picture of Hall Place and Geri Waddington’s lovely pictures of plants. Most of the works were in black and white but it was nice that a few used colour such as Roy Willingham’s use of grey on orange. My favourite was Helen Roddle’s lovely picture of sea shells which filled the whole paper. Closed 21 February 2016  

Nice selling exhibition at the Bankside Gallery of prints and watercolours   by artists from the Royal Watercolour Society and the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. I loved the visual overload of this show with small works shown four of five deep at times. You eye picks out the works you like really quickly and you quickly recognise the artists you like. On the whole it was the print work which appealed. I pick out a lovely bright lino print of a station by Gail Brodholt, Brian Hanscombe’s stunningly fine engravings and Margaret Sellar’s bright silkscreen works. In the paintings I’d pick Wendy Jacob’s simple but lovely gouache works such as one of three quinces and Neil Pittaway’s picture of autumn light on St Paul’s Cathedral which makes it looks like it’s on fire. Closed 24 January

Interesting exhibition at Bankside Gallery organised by the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. All the works were for sale and there were some lovely things but I managed to come away unscathed! I loved two square landscapes by Louise Davies and a lovely picture looking up the Thames from the O2 by John Duffin. Peter Ford’s “Book Stack” was clever as it was a collage of a pile of books but each section had been hand blocked before being cut out and added to the composition. The show was hung very cleverly to create dialogues between the pictures. I particularly liked a picture of the Tate Modern extension next to one of an Indian fort of a similar composition.