John

Whenever I am not sure about the progress of a picture I have developed the habit of standing it on an easel where I can catch sight of it through the door of the studio, as I pass by.  Also, as the computer is in that room, I need to go in every now and … Read more

George Orwell and Winston Churchill.  No: I would never have thought of them as belonging in the same category either, but quite by chance tonight I was introduced by my wife to a TV programme presented by Simon Sharma, in which he ran a sustained comparison of the two of them.  (Often I have found … Read more

After the experience of Patricia Calver’s exhibition, and my appreciation of her evident enjoyment in creating a surface of paint, I have decided to take a leaf out of her book. Looking through my reference material, destined for a study of decaying fortifications in the mountains of north-eastern Italy, I was struck by the visual … Read more

                         Did the poet mean                   “Painting is such sweet sorrow”?                          Autumn’s here.  I know.   Perhaps it doesn’t meet entirely the classic Japanese … Read more

This afternoon I am taking some of my paintings to Wetherby, for exhibition.  They will be on display in a small gallery attached to The Margins bookshop.  The location is ideal in several respects, not the least of which is the fact that it is right in the centre of the shopping area of the … Read more

I’ve just got back from the preview of the exhibition of paintings by Patriacia Calver, at Roland’s restaurant in Keighley.  On reflection, I think that the experience was everything one could ask from an exhibition.  It made me think: it gave me pleasure: it stimulated me to engage with my own work. The title of … Read more

I wrote earlier about what I regard as a mistaken idea of artistic inspiration, and I’ve been reminded of that strand of this blog over the past few days. During the referendum on Scottish independence I tried to sustain the habit developed in my earlier career as an academic, of detached analysis.  I only realised … Read more

In more ways than one.  I have been working on ideas for a new item in my pictorial series about Italian experience during the Great War. This one will centre on the figure of the extreme nationalist Italian poet Gabriele D’Annunzio.  A lot of my work in the past has combined calligraphy with pictorial images, … Read more

….I went to a talk by Gayle Chong Kwan tonight.  Gayle has been exhibiting at the South Square Centre in Bradford during the past month, and tonight gave a talk about her work.  I had not been specially impressed by what I had seen.  In fact, she said in the session that the attraction of … Read more

So far I haven’t commented in this blog on the current debate in this country about the possible secession from the UK of Scotland.  I’ve seen my main purpose in the blog as being to share idea about (or relating to) art.  With the referendum actually taking place tomorrow, however, it has become hard to … Read more