Mantua is an overlooked Renaissance gem; a mini-Florence, rich with art. Where Florence had the Medicis, Mantua had the Gonzagas. Unlike Florence it isn’t bursting at the seams with tourists and so immensely pleasurable to stroll around the medieval streets, such as Piazza Erbe…

I came across this wonderful painted house façade, ascribed to Andrea Mantegna’s workshop. The decoration begun in 1495, has only partially survived and was restored between 1992 and 2001.

Basilica di Sant’Andrea –  Lodovico ll Gonzaga hired the Florentine architect Alberti to design this beautiful example of early Renaissance architecture which contains the tomb of Mantegna. Once again, not many tourists inside and I managed to take a couple of photos.

I’ve just spent a wonderful week in NE Italy, visiting Verona, Venice, Mantua and several small towns on the shores of Lake Garda.

In Venice there was the usual long queue to enter the Basilica di San Marco, so instead I walked around the back streets and came across this small Baroque church – Chiesa Santa Maria del Giglio. Inside were paintings by, Tintoretto, Veronese, Zanchi and Rubens (the only one in Venice apparently). There were only three or four other people in the church – such a contrast to the crowds in the Basilica and so nice to enjoy the atmosphere in peace.

Unfortunately it wasn’t possible to take photos inside but here is one of the exterior….

My series of abstracts continues with ‘Nebula’ and ‘Elements’ …..

Here is the first painting from my latest project – a series of lyrical abstracts inspired by nature.

Tate Modern June 2014

I’ve just been to the wonderfully uplifting Matisse Cut-Outs exhibition at Tate Modern.

These works are so intensely colourful, exuberant and bursting with life that walking through the galleries is quite overwhelming. As you move through the 14 galleries the scale of the cut-outs gets bigger and bigger – just wonderful and you leave feeling happy and high! Worth every penny of the entrance fee.

I tried to convey a sense of the scale in these photos – excuse the rather wobbly iphone pics…..

66 Latchmere Road, Kingston upon Thames

June 2014

The first weekend of the Open Studios went well – lovely weather and good visitor numbers. I’m sharing with three other excellent artists – Peg Morris, Ingrid Saag and Emily Limna. Our work is very different, but blends together well in this lovely setting.

Richard Hamilton Retrospective Exhibition
Tate Modern April 2014

This retrospective at Tate Modern charts the evolution of Richard Hamilton’s artistic output very thoroughly, which makes for a highly absorbing exhibition – I felt quite exhausted by the end!

I hadn’t been aware of the diversity of Hamilton’s work until seeing this exhibition – it explores his relationship to design, painting, photography and television, as well as his engagement and collaborations with other artists. I discovered that Hamilton’s art is anti-romantic. Rather than evolving a single style to express his personality, he seems to have regarded each work as a separate intellectual problem – exploring each analytically.

I particularly liked his ‘My Marilyn’ 1965 – a collage from contact prints that Marilyn herself had marked with crosses those she pictures didn’t like and which Hamilton has painted over – indicating poignantly her vulnerability and tendency for self destruction. Stronger I thought than Warhol’s Marilyn portraits, but not as eye-catching.