Cathy's Art Diary

  Stunning online exhibition organised by Raw Umber Studios of work by the Lot 5 Collective.   Lot 5 are a group of “classically trained figurative painters who believe in using skill, expression, and representation to create contemporary works.” I have been to a couple of their exhibitions before and love their work and their collective eye. I am sorry not to be able to see these works in the flesh but what a great way to display them and to have an exhibition in lockdown. I love the way the pictures as shown as a whole, with some also having a picture of a detail and a side view to replicate how you might first see them in a physical show.   I loved Ben Laughton Smith, Dutch style still lives and Lizet Dingemans more misty ones. I remembered SJ Fuerst’s beautiful tiny portraits on old floppy discs as well as Max Mansbridge-West’s tender and more loose pictures of people especially “Alf’s Saturday Afternoon”.   I think my favourite picture is Helen Masacz’s “How do...

Delightful exhibition at the Mall Galleries featuring the work of this collective of artists who combine traditional techniques to modern themes. I liked the Harriett Spratt’s wonderful rather Dutch style portraits particularly her triptych of three views of a young girl with a pony tail. I also liked Lizet Dingeman’s still lives putting objects and animals out of context particularly her wonderful dead duck. I was however blown away by the work of Helen Masacz. She seems to work in a number of genres but always using a realistic style. There were two lovely seascapes and some lovely self-portraits with a cattle skull. However my favourite was just a study of a rumpled bed with white bedding and a wonderful red morning light falling on it from one side. I also liked a shelf of weird slightly sinister objects normalised by the implication that it was part of an artist’s studio. Closes on 20 January 2017