Milton Avery @ RA

 Blue Trees, 1945

Oxcart on the Gaspé, 1939

Gaspé Village, 1939

Self-portrait with Palette, 1958

I loved the Milton Avery show at the Royal Academy in London. A concise exhibition, beautifully curated - the wall colours really helped bring life Avery's paintings to life. The fact that he was completely self taught and found painting relatively late in life is so inspiring... And I always love a good cow painting, of which there were many!

Landscape with Clouds

I love the way every inch of the paper is used in this oil painting - a huge landscape squeezed on to an a5 sketchbook page

Paisaje con nubes

Victor Julio González, 2016

Luxury and Excess

Details from a visit to the National Gallery last week - was great to be back.

Top to bottom:

Detail from Equestrian portrait of Charles I, 1637-8, Anthony van Dyke

Detail from Lord Stuart and his brother, Lord Bernard Stuart, c.1638, Anthony van Dyke

Detail from Still Life with Drinking-Horn, c.1653, Willem Kalf

Detail from Still Life with Lemons in a Wicker Basket, 1643-9, Juan de Zurbarán

Broad Beans

Broad Bean season... Reminds me of a painting of peas by William Nicholson which my Dad introduced me to many years ago.

The Lustre Bowl with Green Peas, 1911

Wineglasses

John Singer Sargent, 1875

Little is Enough for Those with Love

Little is Enough for Those with Love, 2019

Sad Man with Flowers, 2019

A new artist and a new gallery - to me at least - I loved the Cassi Namoda exhibition at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery last week. Intimate and colourful paintings about love, family and cultural traditions in Maputo, the artist's birthplace.

Well worth a visit: see here for details. On display until 7th March 2020.

Animals

Adam and Eve, 1504

Engraving

Albrecht Dürer

Love the menagerie in this garden of Eden which is on loan to the Royal Academy for The Renaissance Nude exhibition (closing 2nd June).

Fireworks

Fireworks

Ben Nicholson, 1929

Happy Bank Holiday weekend!

Tom Hammick

Campfire Study, 2019

Passes Between Us, 2016

Vergissmeinnicht, 2019

Stumbled across Tom Hammick's work for the first time last week, just before his exhibition at Flowers Gallery closed on 18th May. 

Bonnard

Dining Room in the Country, 1931

Stairs in the Artist's Garden, 1942-4

Nude in the Interior, c.1935

Nude in the Bath, 1936

Paintings taken from the Pierre Bonnard exhibition at the Tate Modern, which closes on 6th May. Beautiful landscapes as well as interiors - I love all the wallpapers, tiles and fabrics. 

Edward Burne-Jones' Strong Footwear Game

Details from The Holy Grail Tapestries, 1890-4

Perseus and The Sea Nymphs, 1877

Very on-trend strappy leather sandals, chain mail ankle boots and feathered footwear - say what you like about Edward Burne-Jones but he had excellent taste in shoes. 

Mme Moitessier

Portrait of Mme Moitessier, Ingres

1844-1856

Took him 12 years to get all that opulence right - he did the frame too

Boots

Accidental still life on location a couple of weeks ago. Our model had Harrisons' limited edition Doc Martens painted with the work of a renaissance artist.

Yellow

While I didn't see any art while in Madrid recently - finding the perfect pair (or two) of espadrilles took precedent - I was reminded of a trip a couple of years ago to the Thysseen-Bornemisza where I loved this very un-Matisse still life

Yellow Flowers, Henri Matisse, 1902

Oil on Canvas

Mona

Many eyes on me as I work from home this afternoon - the best pair looking out from my Mona Lisa socks, a gift from a friend last year.

Cherry Blossom

Cherry Blossom in a Glass, 1932

Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin

Taken from Revolution: Russian Art 1917-1932, a brilliant (if horribly overcrowded) exhibition at the Royal Academy. So much to see, and in my case, learn. Petrov-Vodkin's ancestors were bandits, and according to local legend his surname derives from homemade vodka produced by his grandmother... what's not to love?

Ends 17th April

Birkenstocks and Boots

Aged Birkenstocks at home

My version of Van Gogh's boots

Boots with Laces, 1886

Bought from a flea market in Paris and not worn (didn't fit) but instead painted many times

Bow shoes

Imagine my happiness this morning when at the National Gallery, I realised my latest shoe purchase would not look out of place on the foot of an early 19th Century landscape painter:

Louis-Auguste Schwiter, 1826-30

Eugene Delacroix

Moss/McCartney/Weber as Ophelia

For W magazine, 1997

A great tan, flower head dress and embellished gown - details from a guided tour round Dulwich Picture Gallery from my dear friend Tom