Cathy's Art Diary

Delightful exhibition at Ferens Art Gallery in Hull looking at the different ways artists have looked at how the sea has shaped our culture and imagination. I loved the mix of older, modern and contemporary work in this show and the fact it included ten new commissions developed with leading marine scientists. It looked at how we have viewed the sea and the environmental impact of our relationship with it. It was nice to see some Martin Parr photographs of the sea side included. His work seems to be appearing everywhere at the moment. Also to see some 19th century scrimshaw, carving on whale teeth. Tactica Dean’s “Roaring Forties” was there which I last saw hung alongside Turners at the Tate. Sadly we didn’t get to see the second half of the show over the road at the Hull Maritime Museum as we ran out of time. The picture I am using was a beautiful new work by Alexander Duncan which looked like a pile of rocks but was discarded polyurethane and polystyrene moulded by ...

Outdoor exhibition outside London City Hall of photographs by Nigel Milllard of the life and work of the RNLI. I spotted this was on from the twitter feed of the RNLI at the Tower (@TowerRNLI) and was pleased to pass it while walking between galleries. I always like to see this sort of outdoor exhibition and watch how people interact with it. There was a nice mix of portraits, seascapes and action shots showing the work of this organisation and I particularly liked a picture of a boat being built and one of rescuing a crew from the Fastnet Race. The pictures easily held their own against the fabulous backdrop of Tower Bridge and the Tower of London.