Respite & Recommendations

After five very full days of "full on" art gallery visiting, two press views, two private views and photographing five exhibitions, plus a hospital appointment to get my pre-assessment done for more surgery next month, I woke up this morning feeling really very weird, which then turned into feeling really rather ill for most of this morning. I'm unable to eat much of anything.  Basically I'm nearly brain dead and my body is rebelling I think! 

So...... My partner pointed out I'd obviously overdone things (he is apt to do things like that!) - and we've cancelled today's Sunday Roast.

So...... Despite the fact I'd planned to do my review of the annual exhibition of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours today I'm going to restrict myself to brief recommendations relating to the exhibitions I've seen this week.

If you like dogs...

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: Portraits of Dogs from Gainsborough to Hockney

website: https://www.wallacecollection.org/whats-on/exhibitions-displays/

Two exhibitions are worth seeing - they're a total one off and they've never been done before.

• Portraits of Dogs from Gainsborough to Hockney (paintings and videos) - lots of really good portraits of dogs only (i.e. no humans in sight - apart from this one photo mural on one wall). I learned a lot - about artists and dogs! You can find this exhibition on the Lower Ground Floor
• The Queen and her corgis (photography) located to left of entrance on ground floor. For real fans of corgis and/or the late monarch.

If you like Paintings in Water Colours 

Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours | 211th Exhibition | Mall Galleries

This RI Annual Exhibition is well worth seeing and can be found in all three galleries at the Mall Galleries until next Saturday.

• It includes 449 artworks on the walls
• It had c.4,000 entries - so those selected from the open entry are mostly very good quality

I've already uploaded a folder of prizewinners and I'm trying today to upload the photos I took as I walked slowly around the exhibition - by Gallery

• Prizewinners
• North Gallery
• East Gallery
• West Gallery

I'll embed a link to the latter two when I've uploaded them.

Royal Watercolour Society | Spring Exhibition | Bankside Gallery

If you're coming to London for the RI Water Colours Annual Exhibition, don't forget that the Royal Watercolour Society also has its Spring Exhibition on at the same time at the Bankside Gallery next to Tate Modern - until 22nd April

I've not seen it - but the artwork which you can see online suggests they continue to pick artworks by painters with different 'contemporary' styles in recent times. 

It's emphatically NOT the exhibition it used to be...... They've still to find halfway adequate replacements for people like Leslie Worth and David Prentice!

If you've only got time to do one, then go to the RI Exhibition.

NEW Exhibitions about Plants

• Plants of the Qu'ran - a series of 25 botanical paintings by Sue Wickison
• The Wonderful World of Water Plants - botanical art and illustrations
• All the Flowers Are for Me - two installations by Anila Quayyum Agha

ALL three Exhibitions are on display at The Shirley Sherwood Gallery | Kew Gardens until Sunday 17 September 2023.

They opened yesterday, while I was there and there were lots of people flooding in...

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: Plants of the Qu'ran 

This is a series of 30 large botanical watercolour botanical paintings by Sue Wickison. All of them are scientific botanical illustrations for a ground-breaking book of the same name which will be published next month.

This is the sort of watercolour painting rarely seen in the exhibitions of the RI or RWS. More's the pity. 

This photo, after posting to my Botanical Art and Artists Facebook Page  is currently drawing international admiration from botanical artists from all over the world - and breaking lots of my FB Page records for adulation! It's an exhibition which is going to get a lot of visitors!

I'm also going to be reviewing it next week on my News Blog on Botanical Art and Artists. I'll also be publishing a video interview I did with Sue yesterday morning before the gallery opened.

Sue Wickison with two of her paintings

The Wonderful World of Water Plants - botanical art and illustrations | Gallery 6

This exhibition focuses on plants which are found:

• growing in the water
• on the margins of rivers and ponds
• in damp boggy areas

Artists come from all over the world and include those like Lucy Smith - who produces scientific botanical illustrations for Kew and Brazilian artists who came over to Kew as Margaret Mee Scholars to learn about producing high quality artwork and working with botanists.

Som of you may have seen Lucy on television last year when she was a critical member of the team which identified the largest waterlily in the world.

Lucy talks about what was involved in producing her life-sized painting of the underside of a Victoria amazonica waterlily leaf in Painting the Victoria Amazonica leaf - from sourcing the reference plant material to finding paper big enough for the painting!

Lucy Smith and Dr Shirley Sherwood
the founder of The Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art
This painting has been acquired by Shirley Sherwood
for her extremely large collection of botanical art.

I was assured by the Director of Kew last week, that when Lucy completes her project to create scientific botanical illustrations of all three species of giant waterlilies, there's going to be an exhibition at the Shirley Sherwood Galley. Maybe in 2025....

All the Flowers Are for Me 

This is a contemporary art installation created by Anila Quayyum Agha a Pakistani/American artists. 

You can see the impact of the installation on her website.

Speaking personally I much prefer the botanical art and illustrations in the other two exhibitions.

So finally.....

Reviews of all the exhibitions will appear in due course - and as soon as possible - after I can wake up and feel normal!