Cathy's Art Diary

Vibrant exhibition at Eames Fine Art of drawings, prints and paintings by Andrew Marr and Gillian Ayres. The works were mainly abstracts in bright colours with the artists using a similar palette. It was only later that it dawned on me that Andrew Marr is THE Andrew Marr off the telly who has turned to painting following a stroke. I liked his expressive mark making. Closed 12 July 2026

Interesting exhibition at Cristea Roberts of works on paper by contemporary female abstract artists. The show has been designed to complement the show at the Whitechapel Gallery I I’d been to shortly before extending the narrative into contemporary art. It had a small selection of work by each artist with a good commentary on them on a press release. I was particularly drawn to Rana Begum’s interlocking grids which gave different mixes of colour to give different effects. Closed 22 April 2023    

Small but striking exhibition at Tate Britain of work by Gillian Ayres who died last year. The show had just three big pictures and two prints but was a flood of abstract colour and a nice one to see on the same day as the Frank Bowling. I particularly loved the quotes from her which added to the sense of joy in the pictures such as “I want an art that’s going to make me feel heady in a high-flown way.” The paintings were very large but she had the decency to call one of them “A bloody big picture”. You have to warm to this person! Closes Autumn 2019