Gallery Trip 2

One of the most eagerly awaited shows this year has been the Lucian Freud - Portraits exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. This was my other main objective this week. I can say little other than it blew me away. To see the wonderful, passionate, dense and intense images from the brushes of this hugely talented painter was a huge pleasure. Other than occasional showings of small numbers of images I've not seen so many Freuds in one place since the show at the Hayward Gallery in 1998.

In his introduction to the catalogue for the Hayward exhibition, Robert Hughes compares the chosen artistic path of Freud with other contemporaries whose work was more reflective of the mass media of the day. A comparison that, for some, was a reason to demean the works of Freud. Hughes, however, takes a different view, "Painting is, one might say, exactly what mass visual media are not: a way of specific engagement, not of general seduction". "Everywhere, and at all times, there is world to be re-formed by the darting subtlety and persistent slowness of the painter's eye".

The selection below are drawn from the exhibition and are broadly in chronological order. It was a deliberate decision of mine to leave out many of the more explicit pictures, for no other reason than I know that some followers find that sort of work challenging. That doesn't reflect my own view.

Freud's subject matter often involved his wives, children, friends and often invited interpretation of an autobiographical narrative. This is never more true than in Hotel Bedroom.

Girl in Beret - Lucian Freud

Girl with a White Dog - Lucian Freud

Girl in Bed - Lucian Freud

Hotel Bedroom - Lucian Freud

For artists interested in technical matters, there is a decided shift in style takes place when it is clear that Freud has moved from using sable brushes with their soft, fine application of pigment and capacity to render the finest detail and begin applying his paint with the much more robust bristle brushes. With that change texture becomes much more significant in his practice and is used particularly in his presentation of human flesh.

The portrait is the essential core of Freud's work and his portraits are like no one else's. He eschews many of the more traditional portraitist's techniques. This is no more apparent than with the way he depicts eyes. As my friend Graham remarked when viewing the exhibition there is little eye contact for the viewer, in the majority of cases the gaze of the sitter is elsewhere. Freud's interest seems to be in the relationship between flesh and paint, "As far as I am concerned the paint is the person. I want it to work for me just as flesh does".

Self Portrait - Lucian Freud

Self Portrait - Lucian Freud

Reflection with Two Children (Self Portrait) - Lucian Freud

Two Irishmen - Lucian Freud

David Hockney - Lucian Freud

The Brigadier - Lucian Freud

Benefits Supervisor Sleeping - Lucian Freud

Unexpected Hiatus

At the end of my last post, that seems like weeks ago, probably because it was weeks ago, I talked of picking up the brushes on the following day. It didn't happen. The last few weeks have been devoted to sorting out some necessary house maintenance issues and consequently I'm well behind with a number of painting projects, the main one being the production of a watercolour based on a photograph taken by my friend, Peter. Don't worry Pete it is now well in hand and will be the subject of my next post.

This week I had intended going across to Ireland to participate in Art in the Open, a plein air festival taking place in the Wexford area. A number of the very fine artists who post in the plein air forum of Wet Canvas will be participating and I really regret having to miss it, but it would be best that the house remains upright. Nevertheless I did find myself with a couple of days free of domestic duties and managed to head out and refresh my enthusiasm by looking at the work of others in a little trip to the capital. A phone call to a friend secured a bed for a couple of nights and so I headed south.

I was keen to see three different exhibitions and managed to catch them all. On arrival in London I headed for the Royal Academy where two of my selected were running. The first one was entitled Sargent and the Sea.

As readers will be aware, John Singer Sargent was a celebrated producer of exquisite society portraits and vibrant landscapes as well as beautiful loose watercolours. It's always a pleasure to get the chance to study his work. Having said that this exhibition is one that for the casual viewer may be disappointing, largely because it does not include a large number of paintings, the bulk of the exhibits are preparatory material, drawings and oil sketches with a few watercolours thrown in. However, that is why it is an important source of learning about Sargent's process and inspirational for the inexperienced painter.

En route pour la peche - John Singer Sargent

After the stimulation of the Sargent exhibition I headed downstairs in the Academy to tale in the annual feast for the eyes that is the Summer Exhibition. As is always the case, the Summer Exhibition, with over a thousand exhibits, contains things that excite and others that leave you wondering wherein lies the quality? This was no more evident as I stood in front of a canvas that consisted of a slogan and accompanying comment entitled "But I think I love you". During the few minutes that I stood there every person who passed by questioned the attraction or merit of the piece. The artist, Tracey Emin, the asking price, £125,000.

All I can say about the Summer Exhibition is that it is always great value as an event to see the widest variety of artistic endeavour, sculpture, print, drawing, architecture as well as a vast range of painting styles. A great day.

The following day I set of for the National Portrait Gallery to view the Annual BP Portrait Awards. This is another exhibition that is worth catching every year. Whilst it is much smaller than the Summer Exhibition, with just over fifty exhibits, it too always contains a few gems and it is interesting to compare your judgement with that of the judges. This year my pal, Graham, and I had no problem disagreeing with the judges. The first prize was awarded to the first of the pictures below.

Last Portrait of Mother - Daphne Todd

Both Graham and myself had a nagging suspicion that the winner was selected because of the brave choice of subject matter rather than the strength of the painting. There seems to be a fashion developing in the depiction of either disability or ageing and there were a number of exhibits on those lines. In many ways this trend is to be applauded because it creates positive images of less privileged members of society in an age where we are bombarded with identikit images of so called beauty. However, I take the view that the image must work as a painting first and foremost and this can come in many forms.

Consequently, I've posted a number of other entries for you to think about. All of these would have been higher up my shortlist than the actual winner.

Almus Quartet - Miguel Angel Moya

Sentinel - Lyndsey Jameson

My personal favourite is the above, a beautiful study of the joy of being a boy at play.

Gillian - Miriam Escofet

Paul - Nathan Ford

Long trip - little paint

There's a lot happened since my last post. Plenty of travel, lots of fun, interesting sights, great museums, lovely family occasions but little painting. Lets start by mentioning the annual trip to the opening of the Lake Artists Society Annual Exhibition. This takes place in late July each year and runs through to the start of September. It is held in the Village Hall, Grasmere and whilst it may not sound as the grandest of venues, the material on display is never less than interesting to visit and most of it is of a very high quality. There are a mixture of works in all sorts of different media. The Society maintains its standards by controlling the membership, who have to fulfill a residency criterion as well as being subject to election. If you are in the Lake District and fail to go and see the exhibition you will deny yourself a real treat.

Lake Artists Catalogue 2009

Home from the Lakes in time to pack a bag for two weeks away, London, Vienna and Slovakia.

We began with a few days in London, visiting family and crashing the galleries. First visit was to the National Portait Gallery to view the Annual BP Portrait Award Exhibition, always an interesting view. The selection of pictures below are drawn from the exhibition. The exhibition contains a wide variety of styles but each piece exhibited has a real impact, whether it be because of the stunning technique or the painterly impression. The whole of the exhibition is available to view on the NPG website. Changeling 2 was the first prize winner.

Changeling 2 - Peter Monkman, Oil on canvas 48" x 35"

Robert - Mark Clay, Oil on board 16" x 11"

Tom - Peter Holt, Oil on canvas 18" x 14"

Hats and Scarves - Tim Okamura, Oil on canvas 80" x 88"

John Anthony Portsmouth Football Club Westwood - Karl Rudziak, Oil on canvas 47" x 79"

My song - Jung-Im Song, Oil on canvas 24" x 18"

And so to Vienna and the amazing architechture, galleries, palaces and cafes of this wonderful city so dominated by the rule of the Hapsburgs. On this trip we were stopping off for a few days en route to Slovakia, so it was a case of cramming in as much we could. Three foot weary days later we had done a whistle stop tour of some of the attractions of this fascinating place. It would take too long to itemise all the highlights but I will leave you with two, Schloss Schonbrunn, summer palace of the Hapsburgs and one of the great masterpieces from the Kunsthistorisches collection. Leaving Vienna was done with a firm commitment to a prompt return.

Schloss Schonbrunn

Art of Painting - Vermeer

Last of all was our move across the border into Slovakia. This was in fact the main prompt for the trip in the first place. We had a family wedding to attend. Jane had become engaged to a Slovakian young man and for a variety of reasons they had decided to hold their wedding in his home village, Lesna. What a treat, hospitality, food and drink of the highest standard. People who were an absolute pleasure to be amongst and great fun and rejoicing as we acquainted ourselves with the customs and rituals around a Slovak wedding. I can thoroughly recommend the experience. All in all a great trip. We covered a lot of miles, saw a lot of sights and met a lot of wonderful people. My only regret was the fact that I only had one small opportunity, for about half an hour, when it was feasible for me to unearth the paint box. The small watercolour sketch below was the result. The plan, now that I'm home, is to start on those block exercises advocated by Susan Sarback and have my first experience of painting with nothing more than a knife.

Church Oravska Lesna - 12" x 10" Watercolour sketch on Not paper