Hiro. Shinjuku Station

V&A South Kensington.
Closes Sunday 5th January.
 
There are lots of reviews online for this exhibition. I hadn’t read more than one or two before I went and was unprepared for the sheer scale of it.  Over 300, sometimes large, prints from 140 photographers.

Time to see why this installation is already drawing record numbers of visitors.
We drove through the gates of Houghton Hall and joined a long line of cars very slowly making their way to the car park -proof this is a popular exhibition.
Luckily for us we had a picnic with us and there was plenty of time to munch our sandwiches as we edged along.
We started to spot naked iron men among the trees and in the fields all staring into the distance. Some on pillars, some on the ground and some immersed into the ground.
Having eventually parked the car we set off to “see the exhibition” which raised an interesting dilemma. We were surrounded by it.
We had already “seen” several figures and while there is a map available of the location of all the figures the point is not to see them as individuals.
So what had we come to see or experience?

Esther Boehm opened Studio @ 55 on the High Street, Heacham in October 2017. In these 6+ years we have watched it grow into a vibrant community art hub.

Sadly, Esther has been told that she will need to Vacate the Premises. We don’t want to see her go!

I spent 10 days in Cornwall this Spring, with half of this time working intensively alongside other artists on a ‘retreat’ at the St Ives School of Painting. The studios are right next to Porthmeor Beach, so a lovely place to go to work!

I was thrilled to be invited as a ‘wild card’ on Landscape Artist of the Year and recently spent a wonderful day at Hever Castle in Kent, where they were filming one of the programmes for the next series. If you keep an eye out on Sky Arts in January 2024 you might catch a glimpse of me! I later discovered that Louise Stebbing had been there the day before, working on a print in one of the pods.

I think I applied for Sky Landscape Artist of the Year to try and improve on the effort I made in 2016 at the Stowe heat.  To complete a multi colour reduction linocut in just 4 hours.

Arriving at Hever Castle at 7am just as the thunderstorm broke overhead, thunder lightning and torrential rain was not how I was hoping to start the day – but at least I was one of the lucky 8 pod artists who could sit it out on the double decker bus enjoying the provided coffee and breakfast.

Drawing by Peter Brown

A group of members met up on a lovely sunny day on 8th June to do some painting and drawing ‘en plein air’ around King’s Lynn. We met up at the iconic Custom House and then set off to find a good spot – some of us stayed more or less where we were while others wandered along the river and found interesting views there.

For the past eighteen years I have been painting and drawing on Fisher Fleet, a little-known part of Lynn’s vast docks complex. Strangely, many Lynn locals are totally unaware of the Fleet’s existence! 
I was first told of its whereabouts some 40 odd years ago by an artist friend who lived in Leicester!
It’s the creek where all the local fishermen moor their boats and an absolute heaven of endless images for the artist.
Colour, pattern and unusual shapes wherever you look; all ever-changing due to tides and weather. It’s also a graveyard for several old wooden fishing vessels which are left on the inner banks to rot away slowly.

Artspace on the Prom

I can’t exactly remember how I heard about the Cromer Artspace but when I did, I just had to go see it. I love Cromer with its wild, wind swept sea, so there was no holding me back. Although I’ve been to Cromer countless times, I was surprised at discovering this gorgeous Art Deco building fused into the cliff at the end of Cromer’s West Prom.

Chatsworth looking out

A recent visit, with friends, to Chatsworth House in Derbyshire allowed me to reflect on the practice of exhibiting contemporary art amongst the paraphernalia of days gone by.
(We are all familiar with the annual exhibitions at Houghton Hall.)