Category Archives: exhibition

Weedkiller Over Clematis

Although research into chemical herbicides began in the early 20th century, the first major breakthrough was the result of research conducted in both the UK and the US during the Second World War into the potential use of agents as biological weapons. The first modern herbicide, 2,4-D, was first discovered and synthesized by W. G. Templeman at Imperial Chemical Industries. In 1940, he showed that “Growth substances applied appropriately would kill certain broad-leaved weeds in cereals without harming the crops.” By 1941, his team succeeded in synthesizing the chemical. In the same year, Pokorny in the US achieved this as well.

Weedkiller Over Clematis (Oil paint on canvas)

These two paintings above (Weedkiller Over Clematis) were exhibited in the exhibition at Landmark Theatre, Ilfracombe, North Devon, UK (3rd September 2007 – 7th October 2007) both images were sold and are in private collections.

Blurb from exhibition: The fashion for gardening, for an asthmatic, is a cruel joke. We have been ‘doing’ the garden at our home and I made the mistake of planting several climbing plants – I now know I have another contact allergy! Yet again concrete is the only true solution to my problems. The larger paintings in this exhibition are based on the colours these climbing plants go when you spray them with weedkiller.

Memories: Renoir, dead birds and rubber gloves, stolen kisses, life, stillness, pouches of Chinese fresh drinking water, broken dreams, lost lovers, onions, sections of discarded fishing nets strewn across the tourist beach, lovers in the darkness groping for the dark, hands first finding spaces, then they find there mark, my father, my ghost, my hopes and dreams, stinking of rotting carcasses, scars, cat scratch, twig scratch, dog nip, fights, electric hand tools, knife slips, broken bottles and broken hearts. [Read More]

Onions, 1881 – 2014 #tarot = #painting

Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition – Grayson Perry – #Art #RA

I went to the preview of the RA summer exhibition at the weekend – it was full of the usual high and low points. Possibly the glass of Pimms was the most exciting thing…

What the critics like: You’ll find great pieces if you keep your eyes peeled, says Rachel Campbell-Johnston in The Times. This is a vast messy reflection of what is going on in artists’ studios all over Britain. In an art world dominated by meticulously curated exhibitions that instruct you what to think, “we should learn simply to love it for that”.

Read more: http://www.theweek.co.uk/art/53489/royal-academys-summer-exhibition-lucky-dip#ixzz2VpwUxdzx

Really enjoyed the Grayson Perry textile wall hangings, not my thing really but garishly fun.

In 2012 Grayson Perry made documentary series ‘All in the Best Possible Taste with Grayson Perry’, about class “taste” variables, for Channel 4. Each episode showed him living among the “classes” in different towns, he explored both male and female culture in each “league” and focused on what they buy, creating a juxtaposition of ‘good taste’ and ‘bad taste’. The documentary was in three parts: “Working Class Taste,” and “Middle Class Taste,” and “Upper Class Taste.” The conclusion of the documentaries was one of ‘so what’ – bad taste could be good taste and good taste could be bad taste, it is all subjective and above criticism.

He photographed the people he came into contact with and illustrated his experiences. These sketches were then developed using Photoshop to create finished image files that were then processed to create final tapestries, which were woven on a computer controlled loom in Flanders. The contents he says, were partly inspired by William Hogarth’s series of small paintings “A Rake’s Progress” depicting 18th century society at the time (1732-33).

Of the tapestries, Perry says,

The Vanity of Small Differences consists of six tapestries that tell the story of Tim Rakewell. Some of the characters, incidents and objects I have included I encountered whilst filming All in the Best Possible Taste. The tapestries tell a story of class mobility. I think nothing has such a strong influence on our aesthetic taste as the social class we grow up in.

Why not get some art delivered in the post for only £1.00 ?

We will mail you a signed postcard of an image that was exhibited in an exhibition of Peter Bright’s at West Buckland School.

To receive your postcard click the button below – the £1.00 is to cover postage etc.

Quotes: “Take up a radical position with Peter Bright, who is borderline anarchic in his thinking and equally bold in his art.” Andrea Charters … Continue reading ?

Exhibition of Prints, Drawings and Paintings by
Peter Bright
150 Building, West Buckland School

Monday 6th June – Friday 1st July 2011

Old images and ideas revisited and recycled – re-executed in print and paint. A body of work based around “Beauty and the Beast” a classic tale of love, rejection and prejudice, where the beauty is the beast and the beast is the beauty. An allegory, a symbolic representation or a metaphor for my feelings towards ART.

I have always loved the idea of Mail Art – the forerunner of the Internet!

Here is a newspaper clipping about the exhibition at West Buckland school. To see larger image click here

Royal Academy of Arts

‘Manet: Portraying Life’ has been organised by the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in collaboration with the Toledo Museum of Art and is the first ever retrospective devoted to the portraiture of Edouard Manet. The exhibition consists of more than 50 of his works, a vast number of which were ‘never exhibited in his lifetime’ (and maybe should never have been exhibited).

Born into an upper class household with strong political connections, Manet rejected the future originally envisioned for him, and became engrossed in the world of painting. He married Suzanne Leenhoff in 1863. The last 20 years of Manet’s life saw him form bonds with other great artists of the time, and develop his own style that would be heralded as innovative and serve as a major influence for future painters.

Manet’s ‘Olympia’ is one of my all time favorite paintings but…

If you were not already familiar with Manet’s painting I think you would get the wrong impression from this exhibition – the quality of the majority of the paintings is ‘second rate’ at best and most definitely not typical of his work. This exhibition has done him a massive injustice, threatening his status as an important innovator. He is one of the greatest artists ever but this exhibition portrays him as a mediocre one – a massive shame.

I think you have to view this exhibition as ‘work in progress’ or ‘paintings to be resolved’.

The painting of Berthe Morisot is one of the ‘stars’ of the show and does the man credit. Morisot herself is credited with convincing Manet to attempt plein air painting, she also became his sister-in-law when she married his brother, Eugene…

Unlike the core Impressionist group, Manet maintained that modern artists should seek to exhibit at the Paris Salon rather than abandon it in favor of independent exhibitions. Nevertheless, when Manet was excluded from the International Exhibition of 1867, he set up his own exhibition. His mother worried that he would waste all his inheritance on this project, which was enormously expensive. While the exhibition earned poor reviews from the major critics, it also provided his first contacts with several future Impressionist painters, including Degas.

I wish I’d painted this (maybe?)

Manet’s Olympia (which is in the Musée d’Orsay) is an important painting. In 1974 at Stourbridge College of Art I did a series of paintings based on ‘Page 3 models’ and I was intrigued how Manet’s Olympia … Continue reading ?

Bristol exhibition – photos of cafe.

: The first spaceman

Old images and ideas revisited and recycled – re-executed in print and paint. A body of work based on old imagery from my archive – confirming my inability to move on and go forward.

Exhibition in #Bristol – Bar Chocolat

I had several of my latest prints on show at Bar Chocolat, a cafe in Bristol. Why not meet up with friends and relax for a while with something from their classic café menu if you are in the … Continue reading ?