couture at the v and a

went to see the new exhibition at the v and a – coincidentally i was with a friend who has spent the last month looking for an evening dress for a special event, and so this seemed perfectly apt.  there were some beautiful old gowns, especially from dior, but to be honest, it was quite disappointing.  it didnt seem long ago that i had seen the grace kelly exhibition, which also showed lots of the dresses that grace had worn, and so it felt like that i had seen most of the dresses before.  what was striking was the staircase to the upstairs circular viewing gallery, which showed all the modern day designs of couture dresses.  i couldnt remember this space before, but its a beautiful open space.  i definitely preferred the vintage dresses to the contemporary ones – much more classic and wearable.

its always lovely to take tea afterwards in the garden courtyard of the v and a – how lovely to look out onto the victorian architecture!

photographers gallery

you must visit the newly refurbished photographers gallery – its now on 5 floors, the top 2 floors are the main galleries and the basement is a book shop, there is also a cafe on the ground floor, which makes a nice meeting place when in oxford circus.  the exhibition by Burtynsky is amazing, the scale, the colours, the vastness – it sums up modern living – how crowded and megalomania life has got, but what is beautiful is that the subject matter oil seems like a strange and unusual subject choice to spend many years recording, but in fact the bigger picture of what has been achieved by the beautiful and in depth photographs is how dependent on oil we are as a living world, and what has happened to our environment due to the production of oil.   the scenery looks almost staged, its hard to believe that these are real existing images, but the way that Burtynsky has captured them makes beautiful abstract paintings, with the utmost detail and clarity.  its pretty spellbounding and worth the visit.  plus its free entry!

cafe de flore

went to see the film cafe de flore with my girlfriend Maria – Maria is my cultured friend, the one who tells me what to do, what to see exhibition wise and always gets me to see new buildings as they rise  - we did our architecture degree together, but maria went on to work for the best architects, Farrell and Rogers, whilst I seem to have gone from one job  to another.

i dont usually see subtitled films – too much effort, sometimes too arty for their own good, and this one was quite challenging to understand the link between the 2 stories in different time eras.  even maria, who loves arty french movies found it vague – she didnt like it all, whereas i thought that the portrayal of a loving mother to a downs syndrome child quite moving and compelling.  i had never seen a film with Vanessa Paradis, and even her deliberate dowdiness in this film couldnt hide her real beauty;  the children were pretty amazing too.  it definitely made me think, which is what i think films aim to do.

l.cornelissen

it must be one of my favourite shops in london, l. cornelissen stocks art materials, but not just like your regular art shop,  its a specialist in all types of mediums, from inks, to watercolours, to gouache etc….  there are bottles, jars, tins, tubes of everything that you would ever need.  the problem is that i didnt even know what you used most of the things for!  its definitely a place for inspiring your creativity – i have decided to buy some calligraphy pens with the beautiful shades of sepia ink (in gorgeous bottles of course) and try them out in the beautiful sketch books that they stock.  what a brilliant present to buy somebody interested in art, a starter kit in drawing or painting  with a lovely notebook – perfect for any young teenager!

life drawing classes

I feel sad not doing my life drawing classes this term – i wish i had more time to do everything.  fortunately, one of our beautiful models, Chiara has organised a monthly event of life drawing classes in a gallery in west london.   the next one is this saturday 19th may.  chiara is an actress as well as a model, her pre raphaelite red hair echoes that of pre raphaelite models  – think Millais and Rossetti.   Chiara chooses a well known painting and acts out the part of the character, enabling you to be creative or inventive – whatever you choose to do, whether it be a sculpture, a drawing or a painting.  There is no teacher, just the freedom to use the space and performance to discover your own artistic mood.

I am however loving my printing course with Adrian – last week we did drypoint prints – I scratched on acrylic sheet and then inked and put through the press – the effect can be amazing and each one different depending on how you rub away the ink from the acrylic plate.  its very different to the watercolour sketches that i did before.

hayward gallery

its lovely when your children start to recommend art exhibitions or places to go – i think that i have spent so many years telling them to get off their computers and go out – and so when alice called me up raving about this artist at the Hayward, i thought that maybe i should go.  she did say, it was more Robert’s thing, (she knows my love of romanticism) but strangely i did find it thought provoking, questioning and very interesting.  it definitely challenged my perception of modern art – but it revealed what a passionate, compassionate and engaging man jeremy deller must be, from watching his dreamlike film of bats, understanding his nostalgia of  1980′s manchester,  to his rendition of the miners’ strike, you really did feel that his art came from within.   the exhibition ends next weekend and is worth a visit, though give yourself plenty of time as there are a lot of films to watch.

after all this rain, we were lucky enough to catch a sunny and bright afternoon on the south bank – we passed the wonderful skylon restaurant at the royal festival hall, the skateboarders, the booksellers, popped into the british film theatre.   did you know that you can go into the mediatheque and watch any film on their archive for free?  there are quite comfy booths, so what a great thing to do on a rainy day!

or why not go and see an early show at the bfi and then take an evening stroll along the river, get a bite to eat or have a drink in one of the many cafes – its a lovely thing to do.  watching the sun go down on westminster bridge has to be one of the most romantic views in london.

print course

my friend Adrian Taylor (neil for portraits) is running a printing course at my local Working Mens College - it starts from the very simple basics of mono printing and will move into wood cuts, lino prints etc…  its all very exciting and  i cant wait to do something physical and be creative – what i love is that you dont know what you are going to get, each print is individual and different – its exciting peeling back the paper to reveal the result – just like the old days of making prints in the darkroom.  its so refreshing to be away from the computer and even with the basic starting materials of paper, ink and roller, you can create amazing and simple designs.  these were my first ever prints – i now want to work with colour, but starting with simple black and white makes you think more about form and line.

Incidentally Adrian has a portrait of Joseph Fiennes in the current portraits show at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, which starts today.

wuthering heights and melancholia

well we picked a couple of dark and depressing films to watch recently – it was just myself and Kim wondering what to do on our nights in cornwall.  wuthering heights was bleak, harsh and highlighted the racism and cruel times that we lived in the mid 19C;  melancholia showed how depression can take over your life;  its a sad but eye opening portrayal of how depression must feel;  the storyline itself  though is a bleak dismal end to human life and throws a horrifying encounter to deal with.  definitely not recommended if you are feeling a bit down.  on our last night we ended up watching something’s gotta give to perk ourselves up – in fact, i forgot how funny this film is and both of us were hilariously in stitches.  both jack nicholson and diane keaton were well cast and the script pitched perfectly for middle aged somethings.

st john’s tavern

what a lovely meeting place to eat and drink – st john’s tavern in archway not only serves scrumptious food, tasty desserts but is also a lovely airy room to sit in.  reminiscent of a chapel room, the walls are adorned with lovely art works – so even if your company gets slightly boring, you have lots of interesting works to turn your gaze towards.

if you are interested in acquiring interesting pieces of art, then try the kardo findlater collection – a beautiful mix of works in a variety of affordable prices.   hang your different style pictures in rows to make an impact to any wall !

cecil beaton at v and a

i am not a royalist, but it was lovely to see the exhibition of photos by cecil beaton at the V & A.  taken over 30 years, they show elizabeth from an early age before she was queen.  its very difficult to take formal portraits, and to take photographs that are going to be viewed the whole world over must be a challenging feat.  exhibition finishes this month.

did you know that there are a variety of interesting courses at the V & A, from practical design courses, like vintage poster design, to lectures and study courses  covering almost every period of art- lasting either  one day or a term – the choice is vast and inspirational.

dress by ilovegorgeous