Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting exhibition at Flowers Gallery of landscapes, both real and imagined, by contemporary artists. This was a lovely selection from the traditional to the more abstract. I loved this one by David Helper which, on first glance, looked very usual but when you got close you realised the brown layer at the bottom is earth applied to the canvas. There was a striking work in the window by Tai Shan Schierenberg and a lovely realistic picture of wild flowers by Gerard Neumaier which felt quite Flemish. I was interested to see a Welsh landscape by David Dawson who was Lucien Freud's assistant and inherited his studio. It's good to see him work which is less Freud like. On the more abstract side I loved Lucy Jones' bright picture of trees along a path. Closed 7 August 2026

Gentle exhibition at Tate Modern looking at the work of land artist Richard Long. Long creates work by walking. His walks and the sculptures made along the way are recorded through photographs, maps and text works. His names often comes up in the context of being a new landscape artist.   The show included a selection of his maps and walk pictures made on his walks as well as photographs of his temporary sculptures in landscape which were shown around three of his circle sculptures designed for galleries and a recreation of one of his mud paintings which he did for the opening of the gallery.   The show worked like an installation and had a very calming effect. No end date given.

Delightful exhibition at the National Gallery showcasing Mexican artist Jose Maria Velasco. I hadn’t come across this 19th century artist before but having done a number of courses on landscape recently he fitted stylistically to a post Turner/Constable period and reminded me of Hudson River School work. I particularly liked his wide vistas which often combined new industry with the natural landscape. The show explained how he took a scientific interest in the world around him devising “Flora of the Valley of Mexico” , a short-lived publication for which he made precise illustrations and became a draftsman for the Museo Nacional in 1880 recording archaeological sites and geology. Closes 19 August 2025 Review Guardian

Excellent online lecture from the National Gallery looking at the rivalry of the landscape artists Turner and Constable. Matthew Morgan, who had been the director of Turner’s House clearly outlined the difference between the artists both in their art works and characters. He looked sat each in turn discussing their lives and influences. He then went on to compare and contrast their work taking moments when they painted the same subject such as Stonehenge, Salisbury Cathedral and the Chain Pier in Brighton. he described how Constable created a sense of calm but Turner looked to heightened emotions. He ended by look at the famous Royal Academy show where they were showing side by side and Turner added a red buoy to a seascape on varnishing day. There were insightful Q&A sessions and I suspect more than one of the audience had recently done the National Gallery course on the artist out of doors which I had also done. This talk made an interesting postscript to the course. ...

Interesting exhibition at Messum's London looking at contemporary landscape painting. I am currently doing a National Gallery course on landscape painting so this mirrored some of the themes and ideas.   Shout outs to a clever diptych of a swimming pool by Claudia Pons Bonham displayed around the corner of the room, two beautiful square small pictures of Berkshire by Harry Martin and a dramatic picture of fire by Jelly Green. Closed 16 November 2024  

Beautiful exhibition at Compton Verney looking at how art has reflected the history of gardens. The show was nicely arranged with a good balance between history and art. The first section looked at the chronological story from formal gardens, through the grand landscape gardens of places like the venue to 20th century ideas of smaller flower gardens. There was a lovely mix of art including a stunning Turner and a couple of nice Stanley Spencers. The second section looked at how art has created landscape with a section on artists gardens, sculpture in landscape and finishing on land art. I loved a Tissot of ladies in his garden and some water colours of Sandy’s garden. This was the first time I’d been to Compton Verney so a big shout out for it. It had a great balance of a country house and modern art space. The reception at the visitors’ centre as we bought tickets was delightful. It’s rare to see a ticket seller showing such enthusiasm. Sadly I went on a very wet day so we didn...

Five interesting exhibitions at the Centre for British Photography looking at how people impact the landscape. I am cheating a bit by combining these shows into one post but they all fit the theme of the main show and I must admit I’m quite behind with blogging so this seems quite convenient! The main show featured work by a selection of photographers looking at how the past is visible in nature and recent inclusions into the landscape. Highlights included John Davies pictures of aeroplanes vapour trails, Paul Seawright’s photographs of the sites of sectarian murders in Northern Ireland and Mitra Tabrizian’s strange upside down work, or is it? Downstairs there was work by Mandy Barker reacting to plastic pollution in the ocean. She brought together similar artefacts found on beaches into montages often looking like kaleidoscope images or in one case a Dutch floral still-life. She aims to raise awareness of the issue via her art. Upstairs was three small displays Helen Seats la...

Interesting exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery looking at female, contemporary artists’ approach to landscape. There were some interesting pieces in the show but I found the commentaries impenetrable. Can I make my usual plea for simpler labels. What does women “who work with full agency to define the worldwide view from their own perspective” mean or “revelations of suppressed libidinal energies”? I liked Dannielle Hodson’s fantastical scenes which oddly reminded me of Titian’s poesies despite them being more Bosch. There was a lot to see in them but I’m not sure they were a landscape. Kirsty Harris’s pictures of atomic bomb explosions were very topical with Oppenheimer having only recently come out. A couple of the artists, Melissa Kime and Lisa Ivory, drew on British folk law. Closed 28 August 2023  

Comprehensive online course from the National Gallery looked at the concept of the Sublime. This four-week course was led by Matthew Morgan, Director of Turner’s House and covered the philosophy of the Sublime and how that is seen through 18th century landscape and contemporary art. I always forget that the meaning of Sublime has changed over the years and originally is about the beauty that comes from something which induces fear and awe. This was a wide-ranging subject and Morgan cleverly used Caspar-David Friedrich’s “Wander above the Sea of Fog” from 1818, shown here, as a punctuation point in most of the lectures as well as the current Kehinde Wiley exhibition which includes a contemporary response to that work. We compared the earlier period when that sense of awe came with a sense of God and the spiritual to contemporary art where we still see the Sublime but science has replaced the divine as the source of awe. We also talked about how the Sublime can be used to consider...

Fascinating online lecture from the Wallace Collection looking at how Gainsborough was influenced by and compared to Rubens. John Chu from the National Trust took paintings called “The Watering Place” by both artists in the National Gallery to compare their styles and to then to discuss whether Gainsborough had seen the Rubens and indeed whether he had used elements of it in his own work. He then discussed the role of landscape in Gainsborough’s career and proposed, that like Rubens, it might have been more of a leisure activity for his and a way of relaxing while still producing art. It may have also been a way of commenting on the issues of the day such as The Enclosures, as well.

Fascinating online lecture from York Festival of Ideas looking at 19th century Russian landscape painting. Elena Kashina from the Centre for Lifelong Learning, University of York pointed out that Western panting had not really been known in Russia before the time of Peter the Great and when an academy was founded in 1757 it took on the French pattern of history painting being the highest genre. However Russia needed more grounded art and a form for itself. Landscape emerged and filled this role. She took us through the main artists, highlighting some of their works and pointing out what they brought to the genre. She talked us through the symbolism of the work and how it was upholding Russian ideas of rural life and folk culture as well as religious and spiritual ideals. I knew none of these artists and like her clear structured approach. I will certainly be looking out for them in the future. The picture I liked best that she showed was “Spring – Big Water” by Isaac Levitan fro...

Thoughtful online lecture from the National Gallery looking at the power of ruins in art. Christina Bradstreet took us though pictures from the gallery’s collection that represented the three moods she thought ruins can portray, happy, carefree and calm; brooding melancholy and frightening. Fortunately, most of the pictures we looked at fell into the first category which led to a light afternoon. I was interested in some Dutch Gold Age pictures she showed us which looked like simple landscapes but included references to the Dutch wars of the 17th century so had messages about peace and resistance.   These included a Cuyp without any cows! I was introduced to lots of works I didn’t know including this nightmarish picture by Francois de Nomé “Fantastic Ruins with St Augustine and The Child” from 1623 with statues falling off buildings and a mix of real and imagined ruins with two small figures showing the sheer scale of this ancient world.

Delightful exhibition at the Royal Geographical Society of work by members of the Wilderness Art Collective, 15 contemporary artists working on or with landscape. There was a great variety of work in this small show cleverly arranged and hung to make it feel more spacious and to give each artist their own space. The works did make me think about landscape and the environment in quite a visceral way. Shown here is an installation by Louise Ann Wilson originally for Dorothy Wordsworth’s bedroom at Royal Mount which felt like an intellectual Tracey Emin “Bed”.   It shows how Dorothy used memory to transport herself into the landscape from her bed. I liked Brian Thompson’s small stratified sculptures of rivers and mountains   and Peter Geraerts stunning Arctic and Antarctic photographs with a hyperreal feel to them in their clarity. I had a fascination conversation at the end with Catalina Christensen who had a display of metal and earth pigments she had collected...

Nice exhibition   at London Bridge Station of the winner and runners up in the Landscape Photographer of the Year 2018. I was delighted to find this show at London Bridge when catching a train as I’d missed it when it was at Waterloo. It is now touring the country so do check out the link and see if it’s coming to anywhere near you. I always like to see photography in public spaces and there were some lovely works in this show. I liked the fact it included townscapes as well as countryside and looked at details as well as big scenes. Highlights included Alex Wolfe-Warman’s aerial views of rows of terraced houses, Peter North’s stunning picture of raindrops on a washing line each reflecting a tree and Shaun Quilter’s long view of the Peak District. Closes on 10 March 2019

Small exhibition at the Guildhall Art Gallery looking at Victorian landscape painting focused on a full scale oil sketch for Constable’s Salisbury Cathedral.   This period saw the introduction of a greater range of pigments and the popularisation of painting out of doors. The show included some nice pictures such as John Brett’s “Echoes of a Far Off Storm” with lovely tiny seagulls on the sand. Also Benjamin Leaders picture of the churchyard at Betws y Coed which was bought by Gladstone. The Constable had a freer finish than final work and the spire blends into the sky.   Closing date not given  

Beautiful exhibition at the Royal Academy of landscape work by Tacita Dean. This was the third in a series of Tacita Dean shows this year with Still Life at the National Gallery and Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery. I’d loved the still life one but not been so sure about portraits. I thought this was the best of the three. She took landscape in the broad sense of work on the outdoors and covered both the sublime and the picturesque. I loved a display of four plus leaf clovers that Dean had collected over the years and is still collecting. Laid out against a white background these looked so fragile. I loved the dense ‘hang’ to start with that petered out to one or two in each section of the case. I wasn’t so sure of the video, “Antigone” as it was too long and seemed difficult to dip into. I couldn’t give it long enough to understand the themes. My favourite pieces were the chalk drawings on black boards as, again, I loved the fragility of them. I’m sure they’ve b...

Interesting exhibition at the National Gallery looking at the life and work of Thomas Cole, the American landscape painter.   Although born in Britain in 1801 Cole emigrated to America in 1818. He began his career engraving printing blocks in the cotton mills of Bolton. He did revisit Britain and Italy and was inspired by the Claude, Turners and Constable in the National Gallery. He visited Turner in his studio plus rented a studio that had been used by Claude in Rome. Once in America he painted wilderness landscapes devoid of settlement and incorporated religious and literary themes. In his Hudson River Portfolio of prints he introduced the American public to the idea of the picturesque landscape. In his later career he wrote an essay on American scenery, a manifesto for American landscape painting and established the Hudson River School of landscape painting. His large painting Oxbow shown here was his visual version of that essay. The picture combines wild and cultiv...

Delightful exhibition at the British Museum of landscape watercolours by British artists in the 100 years after the death of Turner. This was the period in which Ruskin advised artists to “go to nature” and these artists took that to heart. There was a huge market for watercolours and big money in it. I loved the show for the glimpses it gave into the life of many artists I’d not heard of before. The commentaries on the pictures were detailed by interesting and very readable. The exhibition was arranged in themes which gave you a good opportunity to compares styles and approaches over the century. My highlights tended to come from the 20th century including a Nevinson of the redevelopment of Regent Street (OK for landscape read townscape too), a Keith Vaughan of conscientious objectors clearing ivy off a wall, a David Jones of Eric Gill’s house in Ditchling and a gorgeous Charles Rennie Macintosh of a harbour front with the buildings reflected in the water. Most ...

Interesting exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery focusing on how people have drawn trees, an essential element of landscapes as a guide to reading a composition. The show included real and imagined views and was a nice way of showing pictures from the collection. I loved a Fra Bartolommeo of a bare tree and the commentary pointed out that a bare or winter tree can imply rebirth and also allude to the Crucifixion. There was, of course, a nice Constable, originally just of a tree but a line of wash was added later to place it in a space. There was a lovely William Turner (Turner of Oxford) of a birch at Christ Church College drawn on blue paper and with a lime green wash on the leaves. Most exciting was a drawing by Claude Lorrain. I don’t think I’ve seen a drawing by Claude before. Closes on 25 September 2016

Stunning exhibition at the Flowers Gallery of new photographic works by Boyd & Evans. These were wonderful large pictures made up of up to 100 individual photographs put together into large views with a heightened sense of reality. They were of scenes from the Western USA and ranged from panoramic landscapes to tender views of dilapidated buildings. The panoramic pictures reminded me of the huge American Sublime landscape paintings from the 19th century and in reading the press release again I notice that the artists started off painters. The pictures had a real sense of painters observational eye. I loved “Shafer Trail Utah” in which the orange rock in the middle seemed to jump out at you. Also “Tonopah NV” where lines on the road led your eye to a rocket in the desert, a wonderful blending of the natural and manmade. Closed on 12 March 2016