'The Gaze', oil on canvas, 210 x 150cms, in The West Midlands Open 2014, Gas Hall, Birmingham
It’s been a few weeks now since it opened
and from when I went to the Private View, but I’m pleased with how my large
painting ‘The Gaze’ looks in the ‘West Midlands Open 2014’ exhibition at
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery’s Gas Hall. It looks great against this green
wall, and it’s so nice to see it with some space around it as it hangs on a
wall on it’s own. In fact, it’s the biggest painting in the show, which is a
bit of a surprise in some respects, but in others it’s not. There does seem a
current vogue for more modestly scaled painting, which I also felt when I
exhibited in the ‘Worcester Open’ last year. My painting in that show, although
at only five feet across and so not terribly large, was the biggest painting
there too. It seemed to sit very awkwardly in that particularly show, like how
I often feel at parties, and I didn’t like how it looked. I’m much more pleased
with this representation of my work in the Gas Hall.
Digging that green wall....
I just wished some of the punters visiting
the exhibition felt the same. The comments book, although full of many
complimentary things to say about the show, also has it’s fair share of, often
quite outrageously rude, condemnatory comments too. I don’t know, as it is with
these things, it’s a mixed bag, but I thought a good mixture of things if you
are willing to look a bit harder than the feeling I got from some of the said
commentators. Oh well. Each to their own.
Apparently there is ‘not much good painting’ in the show. Well, I didn’t
notice that. Instead, here are some rather good examples that caught my eye…
Paul Newman, 'The Fly', mixed media on canvas
Angela Maloney, 'Danny Boy', oil and acrylic on canvas
Celia De Serra, 'Isabella', pencil on paper
The show runs until February 2015. I think it's well worth a visit.
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