Tag: painting

A blog on the beautiful new novel by Adrian Duncan ‘The Gorgeous Inertia of the Earth’ (2025)

February 7, 2025

‘…, and yet there is something in the form that does not make sense to me’.[1] The beautiful new novel by Adrian Duncan The Gorgeous Inertia of the Earth (2025) imagines a project in which the ‘history from within’ is sought of ‘selected sculptures’.[2]  That history in a novel extends to the people who work  … More A blog on the beautiful new novel by Adrian Duncan ‘The Gorgeous Inertia of the Earth’ (2025)

The queer artist, Charles Ricketts, wrote: ‘There is something Latin in the fibre of Titian, in his sense of reality and sense of control. … he belongs to a patrician people to whom experience is met by the force equal to control it’. Could such a judgement relate to the experience of queer life in a Britain certain of its Imperial pretensions?

January 18, 2025

The queer artist, Charles Ricketts, wrote: ‘There is something Latin in the fibre of Titian, in his sense of reality and sense of control. … he belongs to a patrician people to whom experience is met by the force equal to control it’. [1] Could such a judgement relate to the experience of queer life … More The queer artist, Charles Ricketts, wrote: ‘There is something Latin in the fibre of Titian, in his sense of reality and sense of control. … he belongs to a patrician people to whom experience is met by the force equal to control it’. Could such a judgement relate to the experience of queer life in a Britain certain of its Imperial pretensions?

‘Street Kids’ Joan Eardley (c. 1950): Townhead in Glasgow

January 11, 2025

I first saw this painting painted about 1950 at an Eardley retrospective at the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art in a Joan Eardley retrospective called ‘A Sense of Place’ in 2017. Though often reduced to statements of the ‘strong identification with the poor and deprived’ type, these paintings do not seem to me to call … More ‘Street Kids’ Joan Eardley (c. 1950): Townhead in Glasgow

To have ‘flung a pot of paint in the public’s face’ is the dynamic of beauty in painting and proceeds when done properly as if it were done by the painting itself: the case of James McNeill Whistler’s ‘Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket’, 1875.

December 19, 2024

‘Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket’, 1875, which earned Ruskin’s scorn. Oil on panel, by Whistler, James Abbott McNeill (1834-1903); 60.2×46.7 cm; Detroit Institute of Arts, USA; © Detroit Institute of Arts ; Gift of Dexter M. Ferry Jr.; American, out of copyright. Credit: Bridgeman Images One of the strangest aspects of my … More To have ‘flung a pot of paint in the public’s face’ is the dynamic of beauty in painting and proceeds when done properly as if it were done by the painting itself: the case of James McNeill Whistler’s ‘Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket’, 1875.

Bridging Gaps in Personal Learning No. 3: The Bacon portraits at the National Portrait Gallery as acts of love & beauty.

November 9, 2024

Bridging Gaps in Personal Learning No. 3: Bacon claimed that the role of art was not to create a ‘likeness’ of what meets the eye in looking at his sitter but to discover ‘a deeper sense of the reality of the image; by finding a way to ‘unlock the areas of feeling’ that lead to … More Bridging Gaps in Personal Learning No. 3: The Bacon portraits at the National Portrait Gallery as acts of love & beauty.

Bridging Gaps in Personal Learning No. 2 : This blog is based on thinking about the debt of influence of Francis Bacon to his painting hero, Vincent Van Gogh, as a portraitist.

November 5, 2024

Bridging Gaps in Personal Learning No. 2: This blog is yet again an attempt to understand my own process of  learning. It is based on thinking about the debt of influence of Francis Bacon to his painting hero, Vincent Van Gogh, as a portraitist. I start with the configuration of that debt by Rosie Broadley … More Bridging Gaps in Personal Learning No. 2 : This blog is based on thinking about the debt of influence of Francis Bacon to his painting hero, Vincent Van Gogh, as a portraitist.

In lieu of a blog in a time of confusion: The Next blogs – the plan.

October 31, 2024

The Next blogs – the plan: I intend to keep up the blogs, lest the pin of my mental world is withdrawn in the present crisis in my husband’s health. For Geoff has become increasingly breathless over a week or so – the GP surgery thinking that at 83 all that was required was consultation … More In lieu of a blog in a time of confusion: The Next blogs – the plan.

‘On reflection the use of impasto is as good a place as any to start with Van Gogh’. Random thoughts about the current National Gallery exhibition.

October 30, 2024

In the second part of my blog on my birthday visit to London, I predicted what I might write about when I wrote a second blog on it  [the first is at this link] based on seeing the work ‘in the flesh’.  Saying it was ‘almost certainly the strongest art exhibition I have ever seen’ … More ‘On reflection the use of impasto is as good a place as any to start with Van Gogh’. Random thoughts about the current National Gallery exhibition.

This blog prepares me for the first exhibition of Bacon devoted solely to the concept of portraiture with the help of Rosie Broadley (ed.) [2024] ‘Francis Bacon: Human Presence’.

October 21, 2024

At the heart of Rosie Broadley’s beautiful National Portrait Gallery catalogue is a brief essay by James Hall about artist’s studios as self –expression called ‘Corners of Filth & Fantasy’. Hall tells us that Bacon saw his studio as a ‘dump’, and this appears no exaggeration, quoting Bacon as saying: ‘I feel at home here … More This blog prepares me for the first exhibition of Bacon devoted solely to the concept of portraiture with the help of Rosie Broadley (ed.) [2024] ‘Francis Bacon: Human Presence’.

The current Exhibition at The National Gallery promises to make you see Van Gogh differently. I see it on Thursday 25th October I read: Cornelia Homburg (ed.) (2024) ‘Van Gogh: Poets & Lovers’.

October 16, 2024

Cornelia Homburg cites  a letter of 1888 in which Van Gogh saw a coal-barge on the quays of the Rhone river that was ‘a grand subject’ and was ‘pure Hokusai’, but it was a subject that he needed to think about painting very differently because, he says: “I’m beginning to see more and more to … More The current Exhibition at The National Gallery promises to make you see Van Gogh differently. I see it on Thursday 25th October I read: Cornelia Homburg (ed.) (2024) ‘Van Gogh: Poets & Lovers’.