Cathy's Art Diary

Colourful exhibition at the Benard Jacobson Gallery of new work by William Tilyer, one of a series of shows to mark the artists 80th birthday. Despite the fact these were abstracts I loved them for their colour and technique. The majority of the pictures were made by squeezing paint through painted perforated metal with some over painting and manipulating of the paint. I love the texture of the work although it did remind me slightly of popping spots as a teenager! The star of the show was the large work “The Golden Striker”, five large panels ranging from rectangles at one end, through a gold haze to a circular effect at the other end. Closing on 24 November 2018

Beautiful exhibition at the Bernard Jacobson Gallery looking at works by William Tilyer illustrating poems by Alice Oswald.   The poems and pictures developed over three years with each inspiring the others with shared ideas and prompting. The theme is water and the lovely abstract pictures give as a sense of swirling water and reflections on it. Although lines from the poem are stencilled on the wall I would have liked to see more of the words. I did stand and read the book for a while but as it’s on the reception desk you don’t feel you can linger too long.   Closed on 30 June 2018

Colourful exhibition at the Bernard Jacobson Gallery of work by William Tillyer. The title work was a huge long painting which looked great in the space. It was great swathes of colour against a grey background. Up close you could see the wide brush strokes.   I loved the work opposite it, “Skydancer” which a mix between a painting and a sculpture. Acrylic paint had been applied to stainless steel mesh in an abstract pattern so that in places it escaped the rectangle of the mesh to form flat projections. Also interesting was a lovely conventional seascape from 1956 which was shown with four later pictures showing how Tillyer’s art had developed. On the upper floor I liked “Relentless” from last year which again was mesh but this finer with paint pushed up through the holes from the back as well as being applied to the front. It had a wonderful texture. Closes on 13 April 2017