London art day

No Morley today, so a chance to catch up on a few exhibitions that have been on the "must see" list for a while.  First up, "Threaded Stories" at the Stephen Friedman Gallery.

Painstakingly overpainted woven cloth - the camera focussed on the paint and not the cloth, hence the blurring.  Each of those dots is an individual dot of paint and the piece is about 100cm x 130cm.

This exhibition did nothing for me I'm afraid and having listened to Grayson Perry's lectures about not having to like it all, I'm happy to declare that here.

Next a swing in to the galleries on Cork Street.  Lovely paving outside Browse and Darby

and a wonderful mixed display inside of 19th and 20th century art.  If money was no object, I could have spent a lot in there, particularly on the painting of Euphemia Lamb by Augustus John

.

Then on to The Redfern Gallery to see the superb series " The Thames Revisited" by Kurt Jackson.  I love the fact that his work done in the open air can includes bits of dust and feather that happen to land while he is painting.  Several of his paintings are like musings from his sketchbook, with descriptions of the sounds and smells added as annotations on the work.  He also doesn't ignore the more gritty, urbanised bits of the Thames, and there is a striking study of the M25 crossing the river.  Really worth seeing and on until 23rd January.  (There is a very good write-up about his published sketchbooks here.)

Next, to the Bernard Jacobson Gallery to see an exhibition by William Tillyer, " The Watering Place"  that seems to have been extended.  These are really fascinating pieces of art, but I'm not sure whether they  are paintings or mixed media pieces, as the paint is applied to a mesh  in various layers, the mesh is then mounted to the canvas, and on occasions, more paint is applied from the front.  Very interesting textures that cannot be conveyed in a photo, although there are some good images here that can be zoomed into.  The colours were wonderful on a grey day.

From colour to a lot of monotone, at the Herbert Zangs exhibition at the Mayor Gallery.  The cloth works here were a lot more interesting to me than those at the Friedman Gallery.

Up to the Royal Academy and some thought provoking bronze and marble sculpture by Kevin Francis Gray.  I loved these sculptures, and enjoyed seeing  that he works in bronze and in marble.  The heads are on an enormous scale, while the figures are life-sized.

Natural sculpture on the tables of the Royal Academy cafe.

Lots of amazing decorations around in London, with snow globes a bit of a theme.  The amount of snow in the ones at the bottom depends on the power being expended on the bicycles around them.

Three more squeezed in, Andrew Stock at the Mall Galleries and then at Somerset House, Stanley Spencer and Julian Stair, but they are for another post.  Whew!