South yet again - and the roads were horrendous on the way down and twice as bad on the way up. I know it was half term, but I've travelled the same route during half terms before. So many journeys have been so poor in recent months that I'm starting to wonder if I should double the estimated time before I set out - at least that way I might be pleasantly surprised every now and then.
However, what can you do but live with it? The array of autumnal colour when I got there was glorious - I felt as if I'd caught it at exactly the right moment - and I thoroughly enjoyed a couple of exhibitions too. That'll do nicely.
However, what can you do but live with it? The array of autumnal colour when I got there was glorious - I felt as if I'd caught it at exactly the right moment - and I thoroughly enjoyed a couple of exhibitions too. That'll do nicely.
The Kurt Jackson exhibition Place was - is - on at the Victoria Art Gallery. I like his work. I think. I think? I know, that sounds grudging, and I'm afraid I'm going to be very woolly about what I mean, because I haven't altogether pinned it down myself. My feelings vary from work to work, fair enough, but it's to do with mood too, of course. On one day I will find his work altogether too green-and-pleasant, with stuck-on bits (shells, pebbles) about which I have grave doubts. On another I will be delighted by the sparkle of water; the jungle-like tangle of undergrowth and the heavy green light next to a river; the way he can capture flat silver water on a wide beach. Today I might like the random lines and the scribbled words. Tomorrow I might think they're a scruffy mess. All of that doesn't really matter, I know, and on this occasion I was very taken with the whole idea of the exhibition.
Which was that he asked a number of people he knew to suggest a place to him, somewhere that meant something to them in some way, and write a page or so about it in any way they chose. Then he would go there and make work about the place. Place. It's another angle on what fascinates me - the links between the landscape (urban and rural) and ourselves, what we do to it and what it does to us. I was bound to be drawn in.
The painting of Badbury Rings grabbed me instantly - a hill fort, very Wiltshire plains (even though it isn't) - and I especially loved the list of butterflies, birds, plants he found there and added into the image. Because I do that collecting thing too. See? I'm so not consistent, but whatever, I'm allowed. I liked the rubbing of a sign added into a welsh location too. The puffin skull might well have been my favourite 'thing' there, but just because it's so beautiful in itself - it was actually part of a little St Andrews collection that was far too golf orientated to appeal to me (though as the location in this piece was a golf course, I think, fair enough). There were housing estates and stretches of road traffic and Glastonbury in the festival season, there was very large and very small, there was a sculptural piece of a signpost with a bird on top. I'll be visiting again on my next trip, and no doubt a completely different set of work will appeal then. Or not.
Which was that he asked a number of people he knew to suggest a place to him, somewhere that meant something to them in some way, and write a page or so about it in any way they chose. Then he would go there and make work about the place. Place. It's another angle on what fascinates me - the links between the landscape (urban and rural) and ourselves, what we do to it and what it does to us. I was bound to be drawn in.
The painting of Badbury Rings grabbed me instantly - a hill fort, very Wiltshire plains (even though it isn't) - and I especially loved the list of butterflies, birds, plants he found there and added into the image. Because I do that collecting thing too. See? I'm so not consistent, but whatever, I'm allowed. I liked the rubbing of a sign added into a welsh location too. The puffin skull might well have been my favourite 'thing' there, but just because it's so beautiful in itself - it was actually part of a little St Andrews collection that was far too golf orientated to appeal to me (though as the location in this piece was a golf course, I think, fair enough). There were housing estates and stretches of road traffic and Glastonbury in the festival season, there was very large and very small, there was a sculptural piece of a signpost with a bird on top. I'll be visiting again on my next trip, and no doubt a completely different set of work will appeal then. Or not.
L to R: Wytham Bird Song and Spring Greens, Broomway - the most dangerous footpath in Britain, close-up of same
Badbury yellowhammer sings to me
L to R: List from Badbury yellowhammer sings to me; corner of Across to England from Penarth Head, copper and ochre seas
I've no idea what was on at the Quercus Gallery (which has become a regular stopping off point) because it was unexpectedly closed when it should have been open - who knows? traffic? a flooded kitchen? hopefully nothing worse - but Bath Contemporary Art's exhibition was Pure Pigment, which, as a name to conjure up promise, was always going to get me through the door. Surely intense, matt colour; think Cornelisson's brightly hued jars of magic. It turned out to be a collection of artists using pastels, which wouldn't have been half as effective as a lure, but I'd have missed out because it was everything the title suggested.
Out of the half dozen or so artists taking part - and not surprisingly they all had their own appeal - I particularly liked Moira Huntly's landscapes (they made me want to go straight out with a sketchbook, and not much does that to me), Sandra Bee's more bucolic images (I particularly liked her oak tree) and above all Jeanette Hayes' colourful and quite abstracted work, which gave me plenty to think about.
Having checked the gallery website, I can see I caught this exhibition in the final week - very glad I did.
Out of the half dozen or so artists taking part - and not surprisingly they all had their own appeal - I particularly liked Moira Huntly's landscapes (they made me want to go straight out with a sketchbook, and not much does that to me), Sandra Bee's more bucolic images (I particularly liked her oak tree) and above all Jeanette Hayes' colourful and quite abstracted work, which gave me plenty to think about.
Having checked the gallery website, I can see I caught this exhibition in the final week - very glad I did.
L to R: Clwyd Landscape (Moira Huntly), Old Oak at West Dean (Sarah Bee) and Pink Cliff (Jeanette Hayes) - I'm sure that last one had a longer name at the exhibition, but I've used images from the gallery website. With permission :)
It was a busy few days, and at times chock-full of inspiration (though I should have made a list for later!). Now I have at least a good solid fortnight of 20:20 sorting ahead, plus making sure I have work for the Leeds and Sheffield print fairs (which take place the next two saturdays). After that, space in which to go out and make the most of what's left of autumn. I'm looking forward to that.
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