Cathy's Art Diary

Charming exhibition at the Royal Watercolour Society of work by Tony Foster exploring ideas of time. The works, spanning a number of journey's and his home county of Cornwall,   look at four types of time, geological, biological and human as well as fleeting moments. The delicate paintings were often framed with samples of rock or flora or paintings of leaves. Closed 20 December 2025 Review Times

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    

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

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  

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  

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.