Cathy's Art Diary

C olourful exhibition at Charleston Farmhouse of work by Nina Hamnett. As you walked into the gallery you were hit by these startlingly good, colourful pictures from still-lives to portraits with a fascinating room of drawings. I liked the way the show concentrated Hamnet’s art rather than her also colourful life often defined by her relationships with other people rather than her work. However a bit more background information would have been useful to cut down on the Googling later. I loved her striking portraits particularly those of her landladies including this one. The labels were nicely written and I liked one for one landlady picture which described their relationship as “a gentile war zone”! The middle room was dominated by a wonderful full-length picture of a man in a top hat from 1920. Including the drawings added insight to the paintings. My favourites were portraits of Lytton Strachey achieved in just a few lines. Most surprising were the lovely still liv...