Cathy's Art Diary

Fascinating discussion at Charleston Farmhouse as part of their garden festival exploring the value of vanishing rural skills and what we might recover when we live closer to the land. The event brought together hedge layer Paul Lamb and charcoal burner Ben Short interviewed by   Lulah Ellender. They read from their respective books then outlined how they had discovered their alternative professions and what it has meant to them to work on the land. They then discussed the importance of not losing rural skills and what they brought to the environment and to the people who practiced them.

Charming discussion at Charleston Farmhouse as part of their garden festival focusing on the gardens of four iconic female gardeners Annie Guilfoyle ably chaired the event and was   joined by Rebecca Lemonius, custodian of Long Barn (where Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson created their first garden); Julia Boulton, Beth Chatto’s granddaughter and CEO of Beth Chatto Plants and Garden and Claire Greenslade, former Head Gardener at Hestercombe Gardens designed by Gertrude Jekyll. Amongst the exchange of ideas they discussed what it was like to manage a historic garden and how they felt the influence of their predecessors. Lemonius said the wonderful quote of Vita “I hear her words but they are written”. Greenslade remarked on bad decisions made by Jeykll which they have to live with like planting in walls which breaks them. As ever the questions at Charleston were insightful and fun.  

Magical discussion at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival looking at the life and work of William Blake. Philip Hoare, author of a new biography of Blake was interviewed by the writer Michael Bracewell and led us through the artists life and work with excellent illustrations. Most magical was readings of Blake’s letters and poems by actor Jack Farthing which added an extra layer to the event.

Interesting discussion at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival looking at the life and art of Paul Gauguin. It brought together the author of a recent biography, Sue Prideaux, with Mette Gauguin, the artist’s great granddaughter chaired by Michael Prodger, associate editor of the New Statesman. Both had sought to place Gauguin as a man of his time rather than judging him by contemporary standards. They talked us through his life and I learnt that he gone to the Americas to help build the Panama Canal but it went bust before he got there!

Feisty discussion   at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival pairing contemporary artists Maggi Hambling and Sarah Lucas. At first this seemed an unlikely pairing but it turns out they are great friends, living close to each other in Suffolk. The discussion flowed freely ably chaired by art critic, Louisa Buck. They compared their studio practice and an exhibition in Hastings which had just been announced where they are to choose work by each other they admire. Hambling revealed that she has recently lost the little finger on her right hand so is increasingly working with her left hand in her daily practice of drawing. As ever her eye rolling said so much. Review Times Guardian    

Interesting discussion at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival examining the work of Vanessa Bell. The talk brought together Wendy Hitchmaugh, who had recently released a new biography of Bell focusing on her art as well as her life, and Kate Hessel, author of the successful "The Story of Art Without Men". The event was well chaired by Jon King, research fellow who also has a book on Bell due out in a couple of months. The all highlighted how radical Bell's art was and how she created spaces for people to gather and work together from the house whose garden we were sitting in to important art groups. They also looked at the barriers she faced to working and selling her paintings. Needless to say, if you know me, I bought the biography and got it signed.  

Fascinating discussion at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival with two members of the activist group Led by Donkeys. Guardian columnist Zoe Williams interviewed James Sadri and Oliver Knowles, two of the founders of the group. Before the talk I hadn't thought I knew their work but as they spoke I realised I had come across it but more from the press than galleries etc. In fact in the introduction they admitted they didn't think of their work as art but more as political statement. However I think it is a type of art so here I am blogging it. There was an excellent rolling display of their projects from the Covid Memorial Wall, through Tweets from politicians turned into billboards and a very moving installation of children's clothes on Bournemouth beach representing children killed in Gaza. They explained their work in a humorous but inspirational way. Just let’s say I've done a lot of Googling since and have followed them online wherever I ca...

Interesting online discussion from the National Gallery focusing on posing. Aliki Briane, artist and art historian, interviewed two contemporary artists who make work by posing for images. Peter Braithwaite, opera singer and artist, recreates historical portraits of black figures, and Dominic Blake, is a life model at the Royal Academy as well as being an art theorist and has taken the modelling out of the studio into other spaces. I enjoyed their insights but I would have been interested to hear them talk more widely about the work of models over the centuries and about what it is like to pose for long periods rather than just posing as an art form.

Interesting online discussion from the Victoria and Albert Museum on Jewish country houses. The group brought together the editors of a new book on the topic, Natalie Livingstone and Juliet Carey, with the photographer for the work, Helene Binet, as well as biographer of the Rotheschild women, Abigail Green, all ably chaired by Ollie Cox, head of academic partnerships at the museum. Livingstone and Carey began by outlining the reasons for the book and how it came about with 17 authors each writing a chapter on a house from England and around Europe. They outlined the main themes and introduced us to some of the houses. Binet then explained her working practices and how she looked for aspects of a house that were less well known and reflected the people who owned it, rather than the architecture, in her photographs. Green talked about the roles of two Rothschild women, Hannah and Charlotte, in developing and using the houses. There was a good discussion with an insightful Q...

Lively online   discussion from the National Gallery looking at fashion and masculinity via portraits in the gallery’s collection. The event was chaired by Jacqui Ansell, an expert of the history of fashion, who brought together ph student Holly James Johnson dressed as her drag king alter ego Orlando and fashion journalist Mark O’Flaherty. They started by looking at the clone like male fashion in Manet’s “Music in the Tuileries” from 1862 then looked back to the 18th century to discuss how styles had changed from a more ornate aesthetic.   They looked at the ideas of the Macaroni and Dandy and the clothing of the Grand Tour and how styles which look feminine to us were considered masculine at the time. I liked the free flow of this event with some fascinating facts and stories coming out of the discussion.

Fascinating discussion at the National Portrait Gallery bringing together three past winners of their annual portrait award. Broadcaster, Louisa Buck, interviewed Tai Shan Schierenberg, Ishbel Myerscough and Stuart Pearson Wright from 1989, 1995 and 2001 respectively. To each she asked how they made the work that won and how winning influenced their careers. It rapidly widened out into a discussion of the current state of portraiture and what an artistic career really means. It was a great insight into the lives of working artists.

Excellent discussion at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival on the craft of pottery. The event brought together YouTube potter Florian Gadsby and Rose Schmits of ‘The Great Pottery Throwdown’ to be led in discussion by Nancy Durrant. They talked about how they both got into the craft and whether they considered it a craft or art. They talked about the technicalities of the work from the role of the ‘kiln gods’ to potters’ ankle as well as the role of social media in selling their work as Schmidts said “more people will see the image than the finished work”.

Fun discussion at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival about the process of putting together stories of queer love from the ancient world for an illustrated book. Poet Seán Hewitt and artist Luke Edward Hall were guided by the chair Nikita Gill though describing the collaborative process, from which stories were chosen to how the book was put together. I include the event in this blog to recognise the charming illustrations by Luke Edward Hall and I will be looking out to see more of his work.  

Stimulating discussion at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival on the role of architecture and public space in society. Thomas Heatherwick introduced us to his ideas about humanising the built environment. He talked about the emotion buildings inspire and how many buildings are designed to be looked at from a distance whereas we mainly experience them by walking past. He talked about how the average life span of a commercial building in Britain is 40 years. Demolition is wasteful and disruptive so how to we create buildings which people won’t want to pull down. He felt we need a national conversation about architecture and to change the narrative of the construction industry that the public are ignorant. I loved the call to alms for architects that they need to stop speaking “archibollocks”.  

Fun discussion at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival discussing the role of fashion and beauty from 1860 to 1960. The event paired the author of a new book on the topic called “All the Rage”, Virginia Nicholson, with psychoanalyst Susie Orbach, author of “Fat is a Feminist Issue” to discuss the reasons for and effects of changes in beauty and fashion. They looked at how some changes reflected female liberation while others drove it. Nicholson had lots of lovely anecdotes from her research and women she had interviewed. Orbach wanted to bring the discussion into the present day.

Interesting online discussion as part of London Art Week focusing on the 17th century portrait artists Mary Beale. Christopher Baker of the Burlington magazine chaired a discussion between two curators who had produced shows on Beale, Lucy West of Dulwich Picture Gallery and Ellie Smith of Philip Mould & Co. Smith focused on the life of Beale and took us through themes in her show which was on at the time at Philip Mould & Co and I have since been to see it.   She talked about how Beale made her money from commissioned work but also painted her family and friends often using them to experiment with new material and ideas. West looked back to show on Beale’s studio from a couple of years ago which focused on her technique and the experiments of her husband, Charles, who was a pigment expert and salesman. She talked about his notebooks which documented the work of the studio. It was fun to hear the speakers discussing Beale’s work which they had obviously grown to lo...

Interesting online discussion from Medieval Art Research looking ecology-related museum practices. Heather Alexis Smith from the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St Louis talked us through a recent exhibition she had curated “ The Nature of Things: Medieval Art and Ecology 1100-1550 ” which looked at how medieval art objects relate to the natural world. She explained how they looked at how art making affected environments both temporarily and permanently and at how the environment affected the production of art influenced types of work and imagery. The show was arranged by type of environment forest, earth, field and quarries. Julia Perratore from The Cloisters in New York then discussed measures the museum are taking to aim to be carbon neutral including a recent test geothermal well which has proved to be a viable project. She also talked about work to interpret the collection emphasising environmental issues starting with the Saint-Guilhem-Le-Desert cloister from a Benedictine mona...

Insightful online lecture/discussion from the Victoria and Albert Museum on how the tombs for the Doges reflect their history. Toto Bergamo Rossi, head of Venetian Heritage and the author of a book of the same title as the lecture, and Bruce Boucher from the Sir John Soane Museum, took us through the tombs of the Doges in chronological order. I’m pleased to say, as a frequent visitor to the city, I recognise most of them. It was a bit of a whirl wind overview but there were great illustrations and it built an interesting narrative. The talk also fit in well with a recent course I’d done on sculpture after Donatello. I liked their descriptions of the pieces and how they relate to one another within churches.

Brain expanding discussion at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival looking at whether we all see the world on the same way. Will Gompertz, talked about his new book “See What You’re Missing” which looks at how 20th century artists have used different ways of thinking about how we see and this was paired with neuroscientist, Anil Seth, talking about his work on perception. It was a lively and far-reaching discussion which left me with lots of ideas to think about. I had heard Gompertz talk about his book before but this event gave it a different emphasis. I am off to try out Seth’s Perception Census .    

Fascinating discussion at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival on the social and historical role of fashion. Ably chaired by journalist and broadcaster Bidisha Mamata, designer/artist, Osman Yousefzada and x editor of Vogue, Alexandra Shulman, discussed their relationship with clothes. This then branched out into current sociological and economic impact of the fashion industry from the fact we have invented fabrics that can take 500 years to decay to the role of second-hand clothes. Charleston Festival had over 40 talks over nearly two weeks and I booked to go to them all! If I blog all of them I’ll be here for ever so, as last year, I’ll cover events on art, fashion and design in the blog. That’s not to say ask the others weren’t fabulous too. It was also sometime hard to find an appropriate picture so I’ve used photographs I took of the garden instead.