Friday, 10 February 2017

Joan Eardley - an exhibition


The subjects of Joan Eardley's drawing and painting were the urban poor of Glasgow, and the land/seascape around the fishing village of Catterline near Aberdeen. Her career lasted barely 15 years when she  died in 1963, aged just 42.

"These two contrasting strands are the focus of this exhibition, which looks in detail at her working process... draws on a remarkable archive of sketches and photographs which remains largely unknown and unpublished.
The exhibition also features many loans from public and private collections, allowing the viewer to trace specific developments between the photographs, the drawings and the finished paintings."

see the exhibition here:
Joan Eardley | A Sense of Place
Children & Chalked Wall, 1963, Oil on Canvas, 80.5 x 86cm

A selection of Eardley's pastel / charcoal drawings of Glasgow children....
Portrait of Andrew Samson

The striped muffler 

 The Pale Blue Jersey, c.1960, W:23cm H:26cm
The Striped Cardigan 1962, pastel on glass paper
Madeleine - pastel on paper 6 x 7 inches
The khaki shirt, Pastel on paper, 28.5 x 19.5cm 
Boy - pastel
“Girl with a Baby,” c.1962, pastel on sandpaper, 10 5/8 x 8 3/4 in
Joan Eardley drawing a child. Photo by Audrey Walker
“A Glasgow Tenement,” c.1959-62, pastel, 7 7/8 x 9 7/8 in
“Autumn at Catterline,” pastel on joined paper, 4 3/8 x 12 5/8 in
sketchbook

Tuesday, 7 February 2017

urban drawings

more found drawings...

loops on the canal towpath 



+ blocks, stripes and sgraffito


Sunday, 5 February 2017

well hung!

A long overdue, first of several thoughts and reflections as prompted by my regular annual visit to the Manchester School of Art / Manchester Metropolitan University degree show. OK , so the last one was Summer 2016, and now it's February 2017. That's how things go sometimes. I have a slough of photos awaiting attention.
Not rushing things often leads to a joining of the dots in my head.

I really enjoyed the work of Kate Aspin - as much for the way it was hung as for its content. 
Kate Aspin - MMU Degree Show 2016
I've always been intrigued by a range of ideas for exhibiting artwork - in, and out of gallery spaces. See my exhibition / display / installation Pinterest board for more examples.

I used to hang work using a particular eye-line height, a hanging line, and often used a formulaic (invisible) grid of verticals and horizontals.

Seeing Kate's work reminded me how that all changed when I saw Wolfgang Tillman's exhibition layouts for the first time. 
There are multiple hanging lines and no consistent eye level. He still uses grid patterns to match up the edges of things, to create a flow between his prints, but importantly he makes use of the diagonal shift between things. Something I used to scoffingly call the flying duck method of hanging.

Lesson learned - using the diagonal... disrupting a rigid set of ideas makes for a more dynamic looking show.


View From Above ©Wolfang Tillmans
©Wolfang Tillmans


See him discussing the exhibition here...


Thursday, 2 February 2017

Why drawing is an important part of the sculptural process

Richard Wilson is a British sculptor who presents the urban environment to us in new ways. He disorientates us by reinterpreting form and space. 
Turning the Place Over comprised a vast ovoid section of a façade that rotates three dimensionally on a spindle
20:50. "The gallery is filled to waist height with recycled engine oil, from which the piece takes its name. A walkway leads from a single entrance, leading the viewer into the space until they are surrounded by oil on all sides."

From an interview with Rajesh Punj - May 2014

RP: How integral is drawing when planning a work?
RW: Drawings are vital for me, because number one I am working with teams, and I have got to be able to express my idea sensibly, and in a coherent way, so that there is no misunderstanding. Sometimes I am invited to make drawings and models to assist in the securing of funding, so you would be asked to make a maquette in order to convince someone who is not that well versed in the art grammar, that they can say oh I get it, I like it, let’s put money forward into that, so it will be a local authority perhaps.
So these things are done to the best of my ability, in order to convey the best possible way the concept as it is at that moment in time. The other thing the drawings are done for is, in the same way people go to the gym to work-out, I use drawing as a mental limbering up. I have got to get very familiar with my work, because once I am familiar with it, it is handed over.
Over Easy / 1998 / © Richard Wilson / Tate London
The oil installation, 20:50, first made in 1987 at Matt’s Gallery, now permanently installed in the Saatchi Collection, was described by the art critic Andrew Graham Dixon as ‘one of the masterpieces of the modern age’ in the BBC television series The History of British Art - (see 44.36)

An exhibition of site specific works and supporting drawings -

Richard Wilson: Stealing Space can be seen at Annely Juda Fine Art (London) 26 January–25 March 2017


"... The exhibition features four new works, two of which are in direct response to the gallery's internal and external architecture....Wilson’s work offers a new perspective on everyday spaces, forcing us to re-evaluate our surroundings and to look again."
“Space between the Door & the Curtain”, 2016


Wednesday, 1 February 2017

Hockney: digital landscape drawings



Presently showing at Annely Juda Fine Art (London, UK) - 26 January – 25 March 2017 these landscape based iPad drawings by David Hockney will coincide with his retrospective exhibition at Tate Britain from February 9th – May 29th 2017.
Using the ‘Brushes’ app on his iPad, Hockney completes his drawings ‘en plein air’. The app allows him to go back to various ‘layers’ of his drawing process.
The grandeur of Yosemite, and the more intimate landscape of his native Yorkshire are printed from the ipad on to paper - some of the 4 printed sheets each work is comprised of can measure up to 235 x 177 cm overall. 

Yosemite I, October 16th 2011



Other works from the landscape series have been shown previously...

 "Untitled No. 13" from "The Yosemite Suite" 2010 iPad drawing printed on paper

The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 (twenty eleven)- 12 April iPad drawing printed on paper 144.1 x 108 cm

David Hockney draws on his iPad...


also showing at Annely Juda Fine Art - Richard Wilson: Stealing Space