A rather arty expedition

Yesterday I had a rather splendid afternoon at work. 


I say at work... Hannah took me to see the David Hockney exhibition "A Bigger Picture" (named in reference to one of his most famous pieces, "A Bigger Splash". But I'm sure you realised that) at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.


I am a bit of a pop art fan, although I do sway more towards Lichtenstein than Warhol. So when I heard that David Hockney was doing an exhibition specifically for the RA I was thrilled and determined to go. Part of the draw was his latest works - made with his iPad. For such a well established (old..) artist, I admire his courage at exploring a completely new medium for his work. I admit, I was rather sceptical at how good they would look....and was it a bit of a cop-out? Hockney openly says that he enjoys the speed at which he can create art - and to have an entire room at the RA (indeed the largest) might seem rather lazy to some. But the pieces were FANTASTIC. The whole exhibition focuses on Hockney's fascination with changing seasons within nature, and the huge room which houses the iPad paintings (and the largest painting of the collection) shows the journey through the year. Each painting is dated, and hung in numerical order. The paintings themselves have a very "painterly" quality, but as one looks closer one recognises the slight pixelated lines and familiar marks that we can all recognise from mucking around on Paint or similar computer programs. 


The whole effect is fascinating. Some are highly detailed, as one would expect from a Hockney - others just have a few lines and marks to represent the subject.


I could ramble on forever.....


I would highly recommend this exhibition - his subject matter is beautiful, his processes fascinating (not only does the exhibition show his finished pieces, there are also dozens of charcoal sketches and working drawings to accompany the finished articles) and overall the exhibition has a very tranquil feel to it. 


Word of advice - book your ticket in advance (even if you are an RA friend..) The queues were VAST.

Another Publication....

Here I am. No one knows apart from me. But it is.

My photo, my advert in the international edition of The Art Newspaper.

Oh, and my video is finally up and running on the gallery website

Hannah Peschar Sculpture Garden Video Tour 2011

Quite exciting really.

Private View and A Lot of Tasty Cake.....

So Sunday was the day that Hannah and I have been working towards all year - the Private View. Yes, we do things a little differently at the Garden - what with Private Views traditionally happening before the opening, as opposed to a month after...... but we like the Garden to look it's best - and that's pretty much now.


Artists, clients (both Hannah's and Anthony's), important people and so on descended on the Garden to view the spectacular new collection and to eat the delicious cakes Hannah had bought.


Photos.....well, you can see my priorities...

Here we have the lovely Lorraine and Monika...

And here is some of Neil Wilkin's work (wish I had my real camera, as the shaft of light looked incredible!)

That's it. 

Manic Morning (or three..)

Exciting time of year at the garden - all the new sculpture is being placed ready for the summer season. As Hannah didn't go to Australia last winter, she found 9 new artists to exhibit, as well as the old favourites. I've been rushing about like a headless chicken for the past few days: trying to organise sculptors, supervise work placement, fill out contracts etc etc etc. And of course, on Friday morning EVERYONE decided to turn up very promplty at 10 o'clock, which caused absolute bedlam and me almost missing out on Lorraine's amazing Victoria Sponge (oh it's a hard life).

Thankfully I have managed to document a few pieces placed (one of which took all day!).

Here we have Paul Vanstone shifting one of his spectacular Rajasthan marble torsos... absolutely stunning green veined stone. Paul, like many of our artists, has his own mobile gantry that he uses to shift his work (although, as seen in the Autumn, sometimes they just opt for sheer brute force!)

 And this is Keith Rand, with the biggest sculpture I have even watched placed in the garden - a 14 feet wooden 'ridge' structure. First they had to plant a limestone base to hold up the sculpture (I helped), then manhandle this beast through the woods and down to the area. Hannah and I were chilling out on Anthony's decking at the time.

I am hiding in the office today as I am feeling a little sorry for myself (leaving party from the Parrot last night....).

A hive of activity....

So the start of November means that the Sculpture Garden becomes a hive of activity. This is when we have three manic days where we ask most of the artists to come in and collect their work - either because it hasn't sold, it needs a bit of TLC over the winter, or they have another show.


This year, 90% decided to all come on one day, which meant that our gardener, our handyman, a local artist who helps us out, Hannah's housekeeper and myself were rushing about like loons trying to wrap stuff and organise a swarm of artists who had descended on our sleepy gallery.


The most...well I guess stressful would be the appropriate word...part was the fact that we were waiting for a lorry from France to collect a tonne (or two) of massive bronze trees. Thankfully we could dismantle these massive brutes (being 4 metres tall....) but they were still bloody heavy! But Lorraine (housekeeper) and I got the rest bubble wrapped (having wrapped the first lot precariously balanced on the top of a wobbly ladder). As it happened, this bloody lorry didn't turn up till half 4, so we proceeded to load in the pitch black with 2 Frenchmen who barely spoke a word of English. God knows what I signed when a sheet of paper was thrust in front of me.

 Tony Heywood's assistant 

The rest of my day consisted of wading about in the most vile smelling pond to help retreive some floating pieces, overseeing the manhandling off a beautiful marble torso, panicking watching 3/4 of a tonne's worth of oak being craned onto a lorry, and generally rushing about in my usual frantic manner.

The artist - Paul Vanstone standing on the left, with our helpers.

Most of the time, Paul uses a portable crane-frame, but this time he decided to be lazy! But surprisingly it worked very well.

Moving Walter Bailey's charred oak piece

But alas, excitement over till Spring (when we get a whole host of new pieces). Now I get to spend the winter twiddling my thumbs....

Oh, and for those of you who are wondering, my room is now a beautiful light greeny-blue...but I will be without furniture for a whole week! Bloody Ikea screwed up the delivery, so I am living off what ever I can find rooting about in the spare room/dining room.