As well as providing some links to other sites about landscape and still life paintings, this page will occasionally be renewed with information about any artists, galleries or paintings I come across. One thing I have always loved to do is wander around galleries, particularly those in London, so I will include some reviews and musings as and when, or as the Cornish say, "I'll do it 'dreckly."
Art Info 5th March 2008: Artinfo.com claims to be the premier site for news about art and culture around the world. Art news, the art market, artists and a worldwide exhibition search are just some of what makes up this vast site.
The Medici 26th February 2008: Paul Strathern’s The Medici, Godfathers of the Renaissance gives an overview of the Art, Politics and turmoil of a unique and vital period of history. From Michelangelo to Machiavelli, this book portrays many aspects of the Renaissance and also of course the family of patrons behind the resurgence of creativity and innovation, the Medici. With its focus on Florence, home of the banking family for generations, we are given an insight into the rise and fall of the Medici dynasty, from their beginnings as bankers to their entry into the papacy and European royalty. Yet this saga, carried out over a period of two hundred years, is only the backdrop to a period of burgeoning genius and flourishing creativity for which the Medici’s money and patronage was so responsible. Just as important as the family’s story are the tales of rivalry between the architects Ghiberti and Brunelleschi, the wars between the various republics and states of the time, the origins of humanist philosophy and the astronomy of Galileo. These stories are just some of the many covered in this book which make up what we know as the Renaissance. Reading this book one cannot help but be astonished at how much Art and Philosophy, which is still so renowned and important today, is with us due to the benefaction of the Medici.
The Art Newspaper 24th February 2008: For those interested in the art world and art market there can be no better website to bookmark than the art newspaper. The paper covers breaking news relating to the art world and its leading figures, interviews, exhibition reviews and plenty of feature articles. You will also find a comprehensive exhibitions listing page for major cities throughout the world.
Russian Paintings 11th February 2008: From Russia: French and Russian Master Paintings 1870–1925 is the long awaited exhibition showing at the Royal Academy in London. The paintings on show come from the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Art, the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, the State Hermitage Museum and the State Russian Museum in St Petersburg. The exhibition runs until the 18th April and includes paintings by Cezanne, Matisse, Renoir, Van Gogh and Gaugin. Works by Russian artists such as Malevich and Kandinsky are also included. The work on show covers a range of movements including Russian Landscape, Social Realism, Cubism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism and Non-Objective Painting.
Cornish Pottery 19th November 2007: My Uncle, Viv Robertson, now has a site showing his ceramics. Gweall Teag Ceramics is based in Frogpool, Cornwall, between Redruth and Falmouth. Viv creates a variety of exotic looking and unique ceramic works. He is also taking part in Cornwall Open Studios next May.
Van Gogh 15th November 2007: Last night there was a lecture at Waterstone's in Canterbury by writer and Art historian Belinda Thompson who has recently had her new book called Van Gogh: The Masterpieces published. She spoke of the process she went through researching and writing the book and also gave an insight into Van Gogh's life. Ms Thompson spoke of Van Gogh's early years in Holland and of works produced at that time, particularly The Potato Eaters. She is an expert on Gaugin and spoke of Gaugin's relationship with Van Gogh in the Yellow House at Arles where they worked together and also the asylum at St Remy where Van Gogh lived and worked. Not everyone knows that Van Gogh was a prep school teacher in Ramsgate!
Renaissance Siena 11th November 2007: I visited the Renaissance Siena exhibition at the National Gallery yesterday. There were seven rooms of work by a range of painters new to me as well as pieces by Raphael and Donatello. Essentially, rather than completely absorb the new innovations in Art which were happening in nearby Florence, during the fifteenth century, Sienese artists created works of art in the style of masters from the fourteenth century before the Black Death. This was the time that Siena was having its Golden Age so these methods of working were revived and maintained as a means of preserving and declaring Siena's independece and identity. So, in the show are works made using gold leaf and traditional medieval techniques which are combined with other emerging approaches to drawing, colour and tone which were innovative for the time.
The Artists 10th November 2007: Just signed up to a website, the-artists.org. It is a directory of artists known and unknown. My name is finally amongst the greats of Art History.
Millais 23rd October 2007: Tate Britain is holding a retrospective of the founder of the Pre-Raphaelite movement John Everett Millais. There are seven rooms showing portraits of politicians and society figures of his time, Scottish landscapes and his famous paintings of Shakespearian heroines.
Siena 1st October 2007: From the 24th October the National Gallery in London will be showing the exhibition Renaissance Siena: Art for a City. This exhibition will show 15th and 16th century Sienese paintings as well as sculptures, drawings and ceramics.
Saatchi Gallery 23rd September 2007: The Saatchi Gallery website has free webspace for any artist who wishes to upload their work. My page has existed for a while so I thought it was time I added a link here to the saatchi gallery pat lewis page. I have also updated some of the images so my more recent paintings are showing.
Venetian Art 7th September 2007: I never thought I would get the chance to visit Venice, but I just have, and whilst there I overdosed on Old Master paintings by Tintoretto, Titian, Veronese and Tiepolo amongst many others. Being Italy, most of the works were in various churches dotted around the city, so the best thing to do was buy a Chorus pass which entitles the holder to visit sixteen churches for the price of eight euros. The Scrovengi Chapel in Padova houses Giotto's famous frescoes which took my breath away for the meagre ten minutes I was allowed inside. You can see an online gallery of the frescoes by clicking on the link. The Castelvecchio in Verona houses a fantastic collection of renaissance paintings including works by the northern Italian painters Bellini and Mantegna. The Academia in Venice proved to be almost too much too take in after seeing all that but the wonderful cycle of narrative paintings by Carpaccio was truly mesmerising. A brief guide to Venetian painting can be found at the US National Gallery of Art website.
Leon Kossof 30th May 2007: Currently showing at the National gallery is an exhibition of transcription drawings by British artist Leon Kossof. You can view an interview with Kossof and John Snow on the Channel 4 website: Kossof interview
Renoir Landscapes Here is an exhibition I saw recently: Renoir Landscapes at the National Gallery. I previously had not paid a lot of attention to Renoir, judging his work only by the well-known later figure paintings which did not appeal to me a great deal. Having seen these lesser-known works in the flesh though I have been fully converted. There are works painted in Algeria, Italy, Guernsey and various parts of the south of France, some of which were painted alongside Paul Cezanne. These paintings are seen as representing a period in Renoir's life when he was experimenting with his painting and exploring new ways of working during the first two decades of his career.
Japanese Theatre Not at all related to landscape or still life painting, but I thought they deserve a mention, are the Mugensha theatre company. I have just seen them perform for the second time and was dazzled yet again. If avant-garde/fringe/Japanese/way out/comedic theatre sounds appealing visit mugensha to find out more.
Musee de l'Orangerie I recently visited Paris and took the opportunity to visit the Musee de l'Orangerie in the Tuileries gardens. The Orangerie was closed for six years due to refurbishment but was re-opened in May 2006. Inside on the ground floor are two oval shaped rooms, each containing four of Monet's famous Nympheas or Waterlily paintings. In the galleries below are figurative paintings by Picasso produced during his 'pink' period, along with still life, landscape and portrait paintings by Renoir, Cezanne, Matisse, Derain, Soutine, Utrillo and others. I was enchanted by Utrillo's paintings of Paris street scenes and also by Derains's simple landscapes painted in southern France. All of these works belong to the the Walter-Guillaume collection of Impressionist paintings.
French Paintings Wandering up Cork Street the other day I finally had a look in a gallery that had always been closed on other occasions: Stoppenbach and Delestre. These dealers specialize in nineteenth and twentieth century French landscape and still life paintings. My favourite! Inside were paintings by Boudin, Daubigny and a host of others that I admit I had never heard of. If this kind of thing is your cup of tea then you must visit artfrancais.com and have a good look around. You could even pretend to yourself that you are going to buy something.
English Animator Jonanthan Falck is an English animator. Here is his website: amolad.com. We met when I was painting on top of a cliff in Cornwall one day and he later bought the painting I was working on. Some days are better than others. That was a good one!
Cezanne Exhibition At the time of writing (October 2006) it is exactly one hundred years since Cezanne, the master of landscape and still life painting, died. The National Gallery is exhibiting forty of his works from British collections and entrance is free. Cezanne in Britain is on until 7th January 2007.
US National Gallery of Art If there is a particular artist or movement you wish to learn about, a great place to start would be the online tours page of the US National Gallery of Art website. Not only is the site full of images but it contains masses of background information about artists and movements. You can also download many of the guides in pdf format.
Galleries If you want to know what's on gallery-wise anywhere in the UK, start here: galleries.co.uk. Keep an eye out for the 'Galleries' free listings magazine as well.
The Fine Art File Another Cork Street gallery which sells landscape and still life paintings is Waterhouse and Dodd. Go to the gallery site at european-paintings.com where you can also get 'The Fine Art File' download.
State of Art Look out for 'State of Art', the free art newspaper and a down to earth read. You can also get the whole thing online at state-of-art.org.