‘Houseboats’ and ‘The Pink One’ – two river paintings I’m showing at the Chelsea Art Society’s members’ exhibition this week. Paintings, prints, pastels and sculpture, all on a theme of Ebb and Flow in Chelsea. Tuesday 8th to Sunday 13th October at 340 Kings Road, London SW3 5UR. Click the link below to see the online catalogue.
‘There is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in a shed,’ as Ratty didn’t quite say in The Wind in the Willows. I had great fun writing about the joy of sheds for the August issue of Country Living, on sale now. Impossible to resist the idea of a room of one’s own – especially if it’s in the garden…
The exhibition is over for another year, and my painting is no longer mine; it’s now going home with its new owner. I shall miss it – it’s a picture I believed in and am fond of.
I’ve also loved treating the RA as a second home for the summer, and discovering new works each time I visited. Favourites have
included the two Arthur Neal paintings (‘Studio and Garden’ and
‘Corner of the Studio’); ‘Egg Box’ by Adrienne Blake; two beautifully
subtle variations on a theme of white, ‘Trance Map’ by Trevor Sutton and ‘From Vauxhall Bridge’ by Andy Finlay; and the extraordinary, prize-winning Man on Fire sculpture by Tim Shaw RA. And of course Tom Phillips RA’s Humument – a whole room of his re-imagined,
intricately illustrated book pages, each one a poem in its own right. I couldn’t resist buying my own copy of the bound edition.
26th July 2015
I’m delighted to have a painting in this year’s Summer Exhibition. ‘Chinese Lanterns’ is hung in the same gallery as the huge Grayson Perry tapestry – along with really beautiful works by (among others) Arthur Neal, Simon Wright, Georgina Allen, Frank Bowling RA and Terry Setch RA.
The exhibition runs until 16th August – masses to see if you haven’t been yet.
Caroline Atkins 