Renowned Ukrainian sculptor exhibits at RBA Bicentennial

Ukrainian sculptor Alexander Lidagovsky is a guest exhibitor in the current RBA Bicentennial exhibition at the Mall Galleries. 

Iron Horse by Alexander Lidagovsky
Steel Corton
(Currently on exhibition in the RBA Exhibitions at the Mall Galleries)

He specialises in public art and has a number of much larger sculptures on the streets of Kiev.

Alexander Lidagovsky
with his Iron Horse

He's in this country because his studio in Kiev was destroyed within an hour of the Russian invasion. 

He's now living in Kingston - with his wife and daughter - while his two sons are fighting in the war with Russia. 

He's also working in a new studio and looking for new opportunities to exhibit his sculptures

Below you can see some of his sculptures in Kiev - as they were before he left.

Bio and social media details are listed at the end of this post.

 

There are many sculptures "on a rope". In almost all cases, balance is achieved by the fact that some part of the sculpture is below the rope and is heavier than the upper one. As an example, at least my Cherkasy sculpture "High Note" (violinist). Here is another solution. "The balance", 2013 bronze, steel, height-6m

Alexander Lidagovsky BIO:

• 1961: born in in the city Huliaipole of Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine. 
• 1982-1987:  studied at the Kharkiv State Academy of Design

REFERENCE:

• Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AlexLidagovsky/
• Instagram https://www.instagram.com/alexlidagovsky/?hl=en

Finn Campbell-Notman wins Landscape Artist of the Year 2023

This is about the Final of Series 8 of Landscape Artist of the Year 2023 at Portmerion in North Wales - which was won by Finn Campbell-Notman.

The Finalists with their Final Paintings

Some fans of the programme were quite apprehensive as to who might win. Fortunately, we had a new worry as soon as the programme started! Why no Dame Joan? What have they done with her - and why no explanation?

You can find all my reviews of previous programmes in this series at the end of this post.

The Prize

The prizes are:

• a £10,000 commission for the Royal Museums Greenwich to create an artwork celebrating the Van de Veldes at an exhibition of their work at the Queens House in Greenwich
• the title "Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year 2023"

The Finalists

Left to right: Finn, Helen and Stefano

The Finalists were - in order of their episode:

• Finn Campbell-Notman (Episode 1 / Heat 1?)
• Stefano Ronchi (Episode 3 / Heat 5?)
• Helen Lloyd-Elliot (Episode 6 / Heat 6?)

I go out on a limb in my reviews of the Heats and say who I think will be in the Final - so you also get what I said about each artist in my review of each heat!

Finn Campbell-Notman (Facebook | Instagram | Twitter)  

Finn in the pod

• a professional painter and illustrator. 
• Born in London in 1970, he grew up in rural England as part of an artists' commune. His art education also includes BA (Hons) in Fine Art at U.W.E. Bristol and at Wolverhampton (to 1993), a double First Class B.A. (Hons) in Illustration from Falmouth College of Art, Cornwall, UK. (1998-2001) and an M.A. in Communication Art & Design from the Royal College of Art, London (2002-04). 
• You can see his illustration work here. 
• Since 2020 Finn has been without a studio or permanent home and divides his time between Bristol and Andalucia.

He competed in the very first heat shown - near Blackpool North Pier - see Review: Episode 1 of Landscape Artist of the Year 2023 - Blackpool Beach and Pier

What I said

You could say I predicted his win - because this is what I wrote in my review of the first episode of this series

Interestingly, if you went through all the websites and social media sites prior to viewing the programme, I'd have very definitely been selecting Finn for my shortlist for this heat.

Indeed I think he might stand a good chance of making it to the Final (see below)! 

an afterthought - by me!

• The winner of LAOTY 2022 was the winner of the first heat
• The winner of PAOTY 2O22 was the winner of the first heat

I know I have a formula for writing these posts. Do the production team from Storyvault ALSO have a formula for which episode they decide to air first?

 

Stefano Ronchi (Facebook | Instagram)  

Stefano in the pod and the sunshine and the intense heat

• from Italy, lives in Hackney and can work big. 
• He describes himself as a "punk surrealist painter". He has been influenced by Leonardo, Brueghel, Dali, and Hieronymus Bosch mixed with comic book art. 
• His very large impressive submission was called The Hill (Acrylic on canvas, 120x80 cm 2017)

He appeared in the 3rd heat at Castle Ward in Northern Ireland - See Review: Episode 3 of Landscape Artist of the Year 2023 - Castle Ward

What I said

This is what I had to say about Stefano's heat painting and submission

For my part, I have to say I'd draw a very sharp distinction between:

• something which is very good art - of a surreal / comic book variety
• an excellent landscape

Both of Stefano's painting are the former and not the latter. It was quite simply fantasy. He's a surrealist painter - and a very good one - but he's not a landscape artist.

In response to Kate's comment, being unable to stop looking at it does not make the painting qualify for the competition!

We've subsequently had an email correspondence and he's a very nice chap who is very talented.

 

Helen Lloyd Elliot [Instagram]

Helen - in her pod,
very sensibly wearing a wide brimmed hat to protect her head and eyes from the sunshine

• live and work in Dorset and London. 
• Primarily a landscape and portrait painter - and a nature lover. 
• Has exhibited at leading open art exhibitions in England. 
• Tai described her as a colourist and I agree.
• She's made prints of all the paintings she made during the series
• Her four paintings from the heat, semi-final and final plus her original submission are all for sale on her website

What I said

The winner was Helen Lloyd Elliot - and very deserved it was too. I thought she might get edged because in some ways she's very close to the winner at Blackpool in Episode 4.

The view was that she was a great painter, using great brushmarks while hovering between abstraction and realism.

I think Helen will be in the final. She talked about the win giving her confidence. I don't think she needs it, I think she just knows how to respond to a scene and how to paint it.

and in my last review - of the semi-final

Helen is a very effective colourist and observer of scenes who delivers more than can be seen by more ordinary mortals.

I'm hoping she wins the Final.

 

The Location

The Final has two locations:

• the location for the Final Painting in 4 Hours
• the place(s) about which the Commissions are painted.

Portmeirion - the Final Pod Paintings

Reasons not to see David Hockney: Bigger & Closer

I've been to every David Hockney exhibition in London for many years - and reviewed many of them over the last two decades - but I will NOT be going to the David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away) lightshow xtravaganza at the Lightroom at Kings Cross.  

• First, because I've seen virtually all the original artwork first hand 
• Second because I'm NOT a fan of huge immersive "experiences"; and 
• Third, although I'm OK with a dark room and a video playing during an exhibition: 
• and I always watch those all the way through
• and I loved Hockney's videos of changing seasons in the Yorkshire Wolds. 
• But I'm not a teenager....
• and I don't want to spoil my memories of "the real thing".

However if you want to get a taste of what it looks like and what other people think see below.

This is a video of some of the 50 minute experience which I found on Facebook (Yorkshire Post)

The Reviews of David Hockney: Bigger and Closer

Seems like I'm not alone in NOT wanting a sensory overload in a crowded room.... I've not seen so many 2 star reviews of anybody for quite a while! 
(If you want to see my reviews of his 'real exhibitions - see the end)

The shorthand conclusion seems to me to be that if this were to be the last show of his work in his lifetime - this would be a major disappointment.

Two star reviews

Gigantic projections of the painter’s work fill entire walls in this immersive audiovisual extravaganza – but there is no real art to catch the memory or move the soul The Guardian

• David Hockney: Bigger and Closer review – an overwhelming blast of passionless kitsch | Jonathan Jones | The Guardian
• David Hockney at the Lightroom review: full immersion into the artist’s career produces mixed results | Evening Standard
• David Hockney: ‘Bigger & Closer’ | Time Out

there’s too much that disappoints and irritates. You don’t really get a feel for much of the best of his work. There are none of the marvellous paintings from the very early 1960s, the exquisite drawings of the 1970s. There’s limited art history, too, so there’s no explanation as to why so much of what we’re looking at resembles the work of Picasso. Neither do you get a feel for the materiality of the media he extols; somehow the luscious beauty of paint, its very stuffness, gets entirely lost when blown up this big. Evening Standard

Non-starred reviews

• I don’t need a lightshow to immerse myself in art | Jan Dalley | Financial Times
• ‘Affecting’ or ‘Passionless’? Critics Are Divided on David Hockney’s Newly Opened Immersive Light Show | artnet news
• David Hockney: Bigger & Closer, Lightroom, review: Colossal sensory overload | Florence Hallet | i

David Hockney at Lightroom

Photo by Justin Sutcliffe

More about David Hockney

I've written about David Hockney on a number of occasions on this blog. You can READ my posts BELOW - they're organised backwards by years. Plus see images of a lot of his artwork in proper exhibitions!

2019

• David Hockney: Drawing from Life (2020) at the National Portrait Gallery (May 2019)

2018

• Hockney adds another way of making art to his portfolio (September 2018)

2017: 

• About David Hockney and Watercolour

David Hockney Midsummer: East Yorkshire 2004 (watercolours)

2016: 

• A biography of Hockney on iPlayer first shown by the BBC in 2015 (and repeated in 2016)

2014

• Hockney, Printmaker (Review #2) - The Etchings - about Hockney Printmaker at Dulwich Picture Gallery
• The Arrival of Spring - David Hockney's latest exhibition - 85% of the digital drawings in The Arrival of Spring had been sold before this exhibition opened at Annely Juda Fine Art.
• Hockney is bigger than Van Gogh!- about my final and fourth visit to A Bigger Picture on the final night

2012

• David Hockney on sitting for Lucian Freud
• Review: David Hockney RA - A Bigger Picture

Woldgate Woods, 21, 23 & 29 November 2006, 2006 by David Hockney
Oil on 6 canvases, 182 x 366 cm
Courtesy of the Artist | Copyright David Hockney | Photo credit: Richard Schmidt

• 22nd January 2012 - Who's made a mark this week? "This post this week has rather a slant towards Hockney, digital art on an iPad and pastels - which pretty much reflects my week."
• 15th January 2012 - Who's made a mark this week? This has a lot of references to the publicity overdrive for the A Bigger Picture exhibition at the RA and includes references to interesting articles

2009 

• David Hockney - recent exhibitions - about various recent exhibitions in various countries
• Review: David Hockney - A Bigger Picture - about Bruno Wollheim's film David Hockney - A Bigger Picture
• David Hockney "15 sketchbooks" DVD - a further update

2007

• Turner Watercolours with Hockney and Shirley - about Hockney's curation of BP Summer Exhibition: Hockney on Turner Watercolours (11 June 2007 – 3 February 2008).
• Drawing, tea and DVDs at the National Portrait Gallery - another long slow look at the at the David Hockney Portraits exhibition before it closed

2006

• David Hockney: Fifteen Sketchbooks 2002-2003 - Update on DVD availability

• David Hockney and Shirley - sharing art and sketchbooks - about the David Hockney Portraits exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery and his Fifteen Sketchbooks completed in 2002-3003
• Two London exhibitions for David Hockney about 
• "David Hockney Portraits - Life Love Art" at the NPG and 
• "A Year in Yorkshire" in at the Annely Juda Gallery

and finally for other fans this is the David Hockney website - http://www.hockneypictures.com/home.htm

RBA Bicentennial: Sales before opening!

The Royal Society of British Artists Bicentennial Exhibition (200th Anniversary) is being held at the Mall Galleries next week - opening on Thursday 2nd March.

The Royal Society of British Artists was founded by a group of painters in 1823 and in 1887 the Society was granted the ‘Royal’ prefix. The RBA has remained one of the world’s premier art societies and has attracted world-renowned artists as members for nearly 200 years.

The Society has attracted many noteworthy painters and sculptors, such as Philip de László, LS Lowry and Henry Moore.

It's become customary for the Societies who belong to the Federation of British Artists to display the selected artwork online - for sale - via the Mall Galleries website, BEFORE the exhibition opens in the Gallery. That way they start out with some red dots before the first customer walks through the door.

I've been looking at the artwork selected for the exhibition online - and noticing a few sales - 14 in total - which fall into different price bands as follows

• Under £500 x 4
• £501 - £1,000 x 4
• £1,001 - £2,500 x 3
• £2,501 - £5,000 x 2
• £5,001 x 1

This is pretty typical of previous data I've collected on sales at the Mall Galleries - and I'd again recommend people to be mindful that this is typically a gallery frequented by middle class middle England rather than by megabucks individuals!

So here's who's sold prior to the opening of the RBA Bicentennial.....

Beside the Seaside by Hun Adamoglu 

• Beside the Seaside (£400) by Hun Adamoglu (Graphite, 21 x 30 cm / 31 x 39 cm framed)

• Rihanna (£400) by Eva Brammer (Oil, 51 x 61 cm)

• The Garrick Theatre, Planes Leafing (£5,850) by Peter Brown PNEAC RP ROI PS RBA (40 x 60 cm / 64 x 84 cm framed)

• Octavia (£1,800) by Sarah Harrold (Collage, cardboard, gold leaf and inks, 80 x 80 cm / 80 x 80 cm framed)

• Almost Dark (£920) by Ann Heat Sen RBA (Oil, 25 x 24 cm / 39 x 38 cm framed)

• Weeds are Beautiful Too (£450) by Vicky Oldfield RBA ( Mixed media, 20 x 20 cm (26 x 26 cm framed)

• Royal Exchange from Queen Victoria St (£3,200) by David Sawyer RBA (Oil,  81 x 30 cm / 93 x 42 cm framed)

• Wilton Cormorant (£690) by Karina Tarin (Oil, 31 x 25 cm / 39 x 33 cm framed)

• Wilton Egret (£690) by Karina Tarin (Oil, 31 x 25 cm / 39 x 33 cm framed)

• Paris Roof Garden (£1,800) by Nicholas Verrall RBA ROI (Oil, 32 x 38 cm / 43 x 48 cm framed)

• Needles, Boats and Buoys (£1,800) by Terry Watts RBA (Acrylic, 45 x 64 cm / 69 x 87 cm framed)

• Swimbles (£3,000) by Nicola White (Acrylic, 80 x 80 cm / 86 x 86 cm framed)

• Still Life with Two Pears (£750) by Annie Williams RBA RE RWS (Watercolour, 38 x 48 cm / 58 x 63 cm framed)

• As The River Meanders Time Stands Still (£350) by Jane Wilson (Acrylic, ink, collage and dry media, 30 x 30 cm / 44 x 44 cm framed)

About the SGFA: 102nd Annual Exhibition at Mall Galleries in March

The 102nd Annual Open Exhibition of the Society of Graphic Fine Art is at the Mall Galleries from midday on Monday 13th March until 5pm on Saturday 18th March.

Flyer for the 102nd Exhibition

The SGFA Exhibition focuses on original artwork (paintings, drawings, original prints) which emphasises excellence in drawing and draughtsmanship, demonstrated by hand in various media used for drawing and graphical art.

Established in 1919, the Society of Graphic Fine Art exists to promote and exhibit original works of high quality in colour or black and white, with the emphasis on excellence in drawing and draughtsmanship, demonstrated by hand. This includes all media including pencil, pen, brush, painting, charcoal, conté and any of the forms of original printmaking.

Demonstrations during the Exhibition

Four female members will be giving talks and demonstrations during the exhibition. Note that the middle two are back to back on the same day.

• Tuesday 14 March, 2 to 4pm | Jackie Devereux PPSFGA - Loosen up with Ink and Watercolour - Wild Ones - Floral Impressions
• Wednesday 15 March, 12:30 to 2pm | Louisa Crispin SBA FPS SGFA - Look Closer - Drawing Insects with Louisa Crispin
• Wednesday 15 March, 2 to 4pm | Felicity Flutter RI SGFA - Drawn to the Sea
• Friday 17 March, 12:30 to 2pm | Kaye Hodges SGFA Heads Up - Drawing a Portrait

About the SGFA

These are the links to the official SGFA sites for the:

• Website
• Facebook Page 
• Instagram
• SGFA exhibition page on the Mall Galleries website
• ONLINE website of the artwork selected for the exhibition.

Notes:

• Annual Open: The SGFA used to exhibit regularly at the Menier Gallery but have recently switched to the Mall Galleries. 
• It also has an Annual Members Only exhibition which have been held at various regional locations.

• A regular Bulletin is issued and you can read online copies on the website
• Regular Drawings Days are held on a not quite monthly basis - but these are typically focused on London and the South East. A Facebook post about one of the most recent is shown below.