London

Visit to The National Gallery

After Impressionism- Inventing Modern Art 1

This huge exhibition focuses on the revolutionary artistic developments in Europe 1886-1914 The focus is on Cezanne as the historical predecessor of modernism. Fig 1

This crucial work for the Nabis group, The Talisman (fig 2) is by French artist Paul Serusier made in 1888, under the guidance of Paul Gaugin and becomes the starting point and icon for them.

The Talisman, Landscape in the Bois d’Amour
Oil on Wood
Paul Serusier (1864-1927)
1888

In letting my eye find links between these works and ideas, for example the flattening of space and the heightened colour I see how the blocks of near abstract composition starting from direct observation or en plein air are formed. fig 3

fig 3
Edouard Vuillard (1868-1940)
Lady of Fashion 1891-2

2. Visit to The Tate Modern

Hilma af Klint & Piet Mondrian: Forms of Life

Beginning their careers as landscape painters, these two never met but both “invented their own languages of abstract art rooted in nature.” 1

The 2023 exhibition Hilma af Klint & Piet Mondrian: Forms of Life explores the complex relationship between these artists, both influenced by mystical and spiritual beliefs. Despite their shared roots in observation and spiritualism, af Klint's work was long marginalized compared to Mondrian’s central role in modernist history. The exhibition aims to bridge this gap by framing their work within a contemporary understanding of ecology and interconnectedness, reflecting on how their explorations of form and life resonate with current concerns about biodiversity and climate change. This perspective enriches our appreciation of their contributions to art and highlights the evolving nature of art history.

Mondrian’s work was of greater interest to me (although I had seen the Wellington exhibition of Hilmer af Klint’s last year and greatly enjoyed the scale, pale tones and matt paint finish of her larger works and by contrast the small abstract watercolours - with colours bleeding into each other and strong simple compositions)

Piet Mondrian 1872-1944
Evening: The Red Tree
1908 -10 oil paint on canvas

I found echoes of my gouache paintings from the Isle of Wight residency, I had painted a tree that reminded me of Mondrian’s exploration of trees. I’m reminded once again of how images come with other images in mind.

Hilma af Klimt 1862-1944
from the series
‘On the viewing of Flowers and Trees’
1922 Watercolour on Paper

Klint, encouraged by Rudolf Steiner changes her painting to ‘wet on wet’. Making plants her meditative focus.

Sussex

3.Visit to Monks House (Virginia Woolfs former home)

Leonard Woolf I Doorway (1950)
by Trekkie Parsons

I like the idea of doing more portal or ‘doorway’ paintings and also remembering de koonings paintings have a similar device as a way to ‘enter’ the painting. This device also has a history within Romantic paintings and Doig’s references to Gaugin, is it a window doorway or a painting on the wall?

Quentin Bell Reading by Vanessa Bell
c.1936-8

Visit to Pallant House Chichester

Gwen John: Art and Life in London and Paris

Re examines the significance of Johns work along side her fellow international modernists.

Paul Cezanne (1839-1906)
Head of a Boy 1881-2
oil on canvas

4. also at Pallant House Chichester

Kaye Donachie: Song for the last

as well as a solo exhibition in the older gallery of Pallant House, Donachie has curated a show alongside Gwen Johns work to be read as works in the collection she feels share a similar interiority, they speak to themselves and each other, and are contained or rather unified as well within the backdrop of her designed wallpaper.