Category Archives: Art

Rachel Clark

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So refreshing to see these hand drawn sketches. Rachel Clark has graphite and pastels in her blood, she draws and documents her daily life, as her blog can confirm. I like the way she talks about the environment where she has made the sketches, so it more than just a display of her beautiful compositions.

The man digging his allotment in the images below is my brother Simon, who has been friends with Rachel since school days. Hopefully I’ll have some yellow courgettes from his Brighton patch to pick up when I’m back home this weekend. I can swap you some pumpkins Si, we’ve got hundreds!

Henry Moore at Hatfield House

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We went to Hatfield House purely for the Henry Moore exhibition a few weeks back. I’m never quite sure of sculpture etiquette especially in this outside setting, if I’d made them I’d want them to be touched and I hope Henry wouldn’t have minded us having a feel.

Hatfield House is an ace day out, only a short train ride from London and the entrance is opposite the platform. Lots of pluses, for a start the café is fantastic, great cakes and setting. Wilf and Arlo loved the adventure playground and farm – we splashed out on a pony ride which was ‘a dream come true’ for them. And of course the House & Gardens (the main attraction for most people!) are historically interesting (childhood home of Elizabeth I) and very beautiful too.

Art is Child’s play

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Only a few days left to view this wonderful piece of TV on i-player. Alan Yentob considers the influence of play with some of Britain’s leading artists. I don’t watch much telly, but this is a real gem.

As adults we can loose the carefree approach we had as children and become self conscious about the work we create and what we do in general. Picasso summed it up when he said ‘It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child’ and he is right. How do we stay in touch with that blissful, intuitive place where we doodled and played?

Gavin and Tracey share their thoughts on the subject.

Beautiful Bison

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I am a sucker for ceramics, when I caught sight of these in Australian Vogue they set my heart aflutter. A tad dramatic, but I used to make pots and I get withdrawal symptoms, it is like messy meditation for me. These creations are by Bison Homewares in Canberra, they’re opening an online store sometime in 2010, in the meantime it is a long haul to Australia if you want to pick up a few bowls… probably a good thing for my wallet.

bison

Hella Jongerius

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I saw these a while ago, I cant remember where, I hoped that they were crockery that you could buy. Sadly  they’re just porcelain colour tests for a ceramics range by Dutch Artist Hella Jongerius. They’re missing a trick, Hella please produce them! I’d love a set of crockery with scribbles and colour wheels, especially the big bowls with colour splodges.

Sir John Soane

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It is the weekend and if I wasn’t dabbing calamine lotion on Wilf’s chicken pox I’d like to be here – Sir John Soane’s Museum. Soane was a forward thinking architect in the 18th Century, his home in London (now the museum) was where he experimented with lighting techniques, architectural details and the place that housed his huge collection of antiquities. It is a magical (and wacky) place, especially in winter when visitors can view the building by candlelight. You get funneled through dark narrow corridors, sandwiched in little cubbyholes and then exposed to glazed lightwells, he’d never get planning permission in the 21st century but that is the joy of the place.