Cathy's Art Diary

Super talk at the National Gallery between the artist Ben Johnson and Colin Wiggins, Head of Education at the gallery. This talk complimented the current exhibition of Ben Johnson’s work at the gallery which has included him working on a new picture of Trafalgar Square. It was really fascinating to hear an artist talk about the ethos of his work. He said he was fascinated by numbers and measurements and has always analysed pictures geometrically. It was interesting to hear how the current picture had developed over many years starting with photographs from the gallery roof and how he had then wondered if any pictures in the gallery equated to it. He found Canaletto’s “Stone Mason’s Yard” broke down into the same shapes and proportions. I liked hearing him talk about the Liverpool townscape in the exhibition as I had seen it in Liverpool as few years ago. He was very moving about how the people of the city had reacted to it and made the picture develop since he finished it.

Wo nderful exhibition/happening at the National Gallery of 2 townscapes by Ben Johnson plus a 3rd which he and his team were working on. I had seen his work before in Liverpool and was delighted that the Liverpool picture was in the exhibition. The new picture was of Trafalgar Square from one corner of the roof of the gallery and it was fascinating to see such a familiar place from a new angle. It was also so interesting to see it developing and to see the artist themselves working on it. He uses computer cut stencils and spray paint to build up the picture gradually into a wonderfully clear almost hyper real scene. I have had to go back since to see how it had developed and watch out for a blog on a talk he gave about the project. This was a perfect companion ehibition to the Canaletto one. Review Evening Standard