Blog

I have just hung a new exhibition with Marcus Nisbet at The Institute for Manufacturing.   The Institute is the public face of Cambridge University Department of Engineering's Manufacturing and Management Division. It was opened in 2009 and is a wonderful building on the University West site.

Eight of my paintings are for sale and the preview date is Thursday 10 May 2012 from 6 - 8 pm. However, if you would like to visit the exhibition, which is very near the reception area, please visit The Institute any work day, or during the upcoming Cambridge University Science Festival.

Last few days to visit the sublime Vermeer's Women: Secret and Silence exhibition at The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

I loved the collection. Each painting, despite the crowds surrounding them, made you stop and really observe the story the painter was describing.  If you can get to see it before January 15th 2012 I thoroughly recommend it.

Extract taken from The Fitzwilliam Museum website.

Vermeer's Women: Secrets and Silence

Wed 5 October 2011 to Sun 15 January 2012

Mellon Gallery (13)
Free Admission

Please note: Due to popular demand, there have been long queues for entry to Vermeer's Women: Secrets & Silence, from the morning to late lunchtime. If at all possible, we recommend that you attend after 3pm, in order to make the most of your visit. If you come earlier, may we ask you to please limit your visit to 30 - 45 minutes, in respect of other visitors. Thank you.

Late opening hours between 3 - 15 January

Explore the intimate beauty of Vermeer's exquisite scenes of Dutch 17th-century women in their homes in the only showing of this stunning exhibition. At its heart is Vermeer’s extraordinary painting The Lacemaker (c.1669-70) - one of the Musée du Louvre’s most famous works - rarely seen outside Paris and now on loan to the UK for the first time.

The painting is complemented by three key works by Vermeer representing the pinnacle of his mature career, A lady at the virginals with a gentleman 'The Music Lesson' (c.1662-5) on loan from The Royal Collection; A Young Woman Seated at a Virginal (c.1670) from the National Gallery, London; and Young Woman Seated at a Virginal (private collection, New York).

Joining these are 28 masterpieces of genre painting from the Dutch 'Golden Age' evoking the private realms inhabited almost exclusively by women who we glimpse engaged in domestic tasks, at their toilette or immersed in pleasurable pastimes such as music making, reading or writing letters.

Featuring works from museums and private collections in the UK, Europe and the USA, many of which have never been on public display in Britain, this Cambridge showing will be the only chance to see these masterpieces brought together in one exhibition.

Other artists featured in this exhibition include:
Cornelis de Bisschop, Gerard ter Borch, Esaias Boursse, Quiringh van Brekelenkam, Gerrit Dou, Pieter de Hooch, Samuel van Hoogstraten, Nicolaes Maes, Cornelis de Man, Eglon van der Neer, Jacob van Ochtervelt, Godfried Schalcken, Jan Steen and Jacobus Vrel.

Despite the -16°C snowy weather last week I managed to fit in a trip to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.  The buildings of the Museum are worth a trip let alone the treasures that await you when inside.

The original building opened in 1912, however a new extension was built in 1991 by the architect Moshe Safdie, creator of the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa and the Musée de la civilisation in Quebec.  It is a wonderful, atmospheric space creating a perfect setting for the art curated within it.

On this particular trip I came across works by Bruegal, Maes, Daumier, Tissot, Sisley, Rodin and Dix, to name but a few.

A couple of favourite pieces were by Richter, Alma-Tadema, Picasso, and Dali.

I have a new range of greeting and postcards available.  You can purchase the greeting cards from Jaynes Frames, 8b Station Road, Histon, CB24 9LQ. However the full range,  and postcards can be purchased from my studio.

Greeting cards are £1.85 each or 3 for £5.00

Postcards are £1.00 each.

Tomorrow, 2 December I am taking part in a very special event at The Wildlife Trust.  Ovenden Contemporary Art have organised a one night only exhibition with 20 Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire artists. 30% of all sales will go to The Wildlife Trust.

This special event will take place at The Manor House, the headquarters for The Wildlife Trusts for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire & Northamptonshire, in Cambourne, a new village just a few miles west of Cambridge. There will be original paintings, prints, sketches, photography and sculpture directly from the participating 20 artists.

You can turn up at anytime between 5.30 and 9pm, entering through the main pedestrian entrance on Broad Street.  I

For more information please go to the website.

These are my first attempts at dry point etching.

Oops first one, too much ink:-)

This weekend the Windsor Contemporary Art Fair is taking place.  Six of my paintings will be on display with The Siott Gallery.

Here is Winter Fields in a local Berkshire newspaper.

A few of photos during the installation of my work for The Art & Craft Design Fair, Newmarket.  Last day tomorrow - 6 November 2011.

I am now 5 weeks into my Certificate in Printmaking course at The Curwen Print Study Centre.  Here is my first ever attempt at collagraph printing.

My Collagraph Plate built from old wallpaper, lace, cardboard and fabric.

Prints from my Collagraph Plate

Art Kudos International is an on-line juried competition.  Twenty three countries were represented in the 2011 competition. I was thrilled to find out 'Break Through' was a finalist.  The 80 x 80 cm painting has now been sold.