Places of Pilgrimage arrives at Durham Cathedral with a preview on Tuesday 1st November. Between 6.30 and 8.30 pm you can see my paintings and prints of special places, with a few pictures especially created for this exhibition. 
This exhibition and the accompanying book have many strands which are personally important running through them. In this case it is the setting of the cathedral’s Undercroft Restaurant. It was in this lovely medieval room, almost 40 years ago, that I sold the first paintings of my professional career.
Durham is a very important place for me . I describe it like this in the book of the exhibition:
“I return to Durham whenever I can: to linger on Prebends Bridge and gaze at the cathedral, to walk the curving, cobblestoned Bailey, to stroll through the Close, to stand in the Galilee Chapel or, best of all, to climb to the roof of the tower. Durham Cathedral feels wonderful, deep, real. It has wrapped its shadows round me when I’ve needed comfort; it held me in streams of refracted light when I’ve felt joy; it has waited patiently for me to order my thoughts when I’ve needed space to think. It is a place of sanctuary, standing a little outside of the world. It is a friend.”
Please come and join me for a chat and a drink at the preview if you can.
I’ve made a special page of the work on show. If you CLICK HERE you can see it. There is also a film about the exhibition (showing me painting the cathedral). CLICK HERE to watch.

Places of Pilgrimage, my touring exhibition, moves to Made In Greenwich from Thursday this week (324 Creek Road, London SE10 9SW)

This is a very personal part of the tour. My Dad worked at Greenwich Power Station and a trip to Greenwich by boat was a favourite treat when I was a kid. I think the view of London from the observatory is the best there is.

I'll be at the gallery on Sunday 9th October from 2pm if you'd like to say hello.

This exhibition gives me the chance to show a number of pieces inspired by special places I love in London. Here are a few: Misty Day,  Westminster (screen print), Abbey Road (screen print), Greenwich from Blackwall Reach (watercolour), The Pagoda, Kew Gardens (watercolour), Greenwich Observatory by Moonlight (watercolour), The Great Gatehouse, Hampton Court (watercolour), The Windmill, Wimbledon Common (screen print), King's Cross Station (screen print), Greenwich from Blackwall Reach (screen print). 

The exhibition continues until 18th October. For more details CLICK HERE

Places of Pilgrimage comprises paintings and screen prints of special places (with an accompanying a book - see below). My starting point was to portray locations that draw people for reasons of spirituality, connections with art or literature or for purely personal resonance
Some of these are traditional pilgrimage sites such as Durham and Canterbury, some of the places are connected with my personal heroes -- the landscapes from Paul Nash’s work,  Stockport Viaduct which so fascinated L S Lowry - and there are also places like the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane (where my parents first met during the war)  or Greenwich with its personal, historical and symbolic character. Others are places that seem to have a magnetic hold over the visitor - like the stones of Avebury, the battlefield of Culloden and the tree where Robin Hood used to assemble his Merry Men.
The latest stage of this touring exhibition opens at First View Gallery, National Trust - Stourhead with preview on Friday 9th September at 6 -8pm. Do come if you can.

For more information CLICK HERE and to see the pictures CLICK HERE

To order a copy of Places of Pilgrimage contact Masham Gallery HERE

York has to be in this exhibition. It draws all sorts of pilgrims: 
lovers of architecture - its streets are lined with beautiful medieval buildings
lovers of great cakes - is there anywhere nicer for tea than Betty's?
lovers of all things to do with railways - my favourite thing in the National Railway Museum is the 1930s poster collection.

Walking through the city on a quiet evening or first thing in the morning is just wonderful. 


This painting forms part of Places of Pilgrimage - an exhibition of paintings and prints at Southwell Minster: Preview at 7pm on Friday 11th September and open daily until Sunday 11th October.

For more information CLICK HERE

I've had a long relationship with Kings Cross. This is where we would catch the overnight sleeper to see relatives in Aberdeen. My Dad would take me up the platform to say hello to the steam engine (yes  - I am that old!) before we bedded down to wake up pulling out of Waverley Station.
Its got some great stories: Queen Boadicea buried under platform 5, Harry and Ron on platform 11&3/4 and all built on the site of The Great Dust Heap - the Victorian city dump.
I just love the new roof - its a wonderful uplifting piece of architecture. 


This screen print forms part of Places of Pilgrimage - an exhibition of paintings and prints at Southwell Minster: Preview at 7pm on Friday 11th September and open daily until Sunday 11th October.

For more information CLICK HERE

I think for many people Lindisfarne is a perfect example of a special place, from the strange feeling of driving into the sea as you cross the causeway to the peace of Holy Island Bay with its castle, priory and upturned boats.

I first came here in the company of a lovely man from Seaton Delaval who was shocked to find I'd never been. I hope this painting - one of my favourite views - goes someway to expressing my thanks.

This painting forms part of Places of Pilgrimage - an exhibition of paintings and prints at Southwell Minster: Preview at 7pm on Friday 11th September and open daily until Sunday 11th October.

For more information CLICK HERE

Brighton is where Londoners have been going for countless years for a bit of sun, sea and unrelentingly uncomfortable pebbles. 

The Palace Pier is the well illuminated jewel in Brighton's crown. Lit by 67,000 light bulbs its a Victorian wonderland with a theatre, Winter Gardens, Palm Court restaurant, fun fair, Brighton rock and ice cream. Perfect!

This screen print forms part of Places of Pilgrimage - an exhibition of paintings and prints at Southwell Minster: Preview at 7pm on Friday 11th September and open daily until Sunday 11th October.

For more information CLICK HERE

Whitby is an extraordinary place. It's a full on chips-and-seagull extravaganza with side helpings of Captain Cook, St Hilda and ammonites. What I like most about it is its atmosphere - particularly the East Side with its Market Hall, the 199 steps and the church. I always feel like I'm on holiday here.

This painting forms part of Places of Pilgrimage - an exhibition of paintings and prints at Southwell Minster: Preview at 7pm on Friday 11th September and open daily until Sunday 11th October.

For more information CLICK HERE

When I came to choose my Places of Pilgrimage for my current exhibition and book project there were certain places which were a must.

I first came to this sublime hill figure when I was eleven. I was bowled over by this amazing piece of prehistoric art. It follows the curving line of the hill above a deep valley known as The Manger and overlooks Dragon Hill where no grass grows (because that's where the dragon bled when St George killed it).

This is, for me, the embodiment of the spirit of the horse. It's just beautiful.

This screen print forms part of Places of Pilgrimage - an exhibition of paintings and prints at Southwell Minster: Preview at 7pm on Friday 11th September and open daily until Sunday 11th October.

For more information CLICK HERE

Barbara Hepworth is a towering figure is British twentieth century art. Her work is immediately recognisable, widely accessible around Britain and very popular. However this very popularity  has, perhaps, been partly responsible for the poor reviews the critics have given this show. Sadly there are some in the art world who see success as a sell out but, as this exhibition shows, Hepworth was anything but.

The exhibition falls into a series of different rooms which look at various aspects of her development as an artist. 

In the first, her work is shown among that of her contemporaries and her two husbands (both artists) John Skeaping and Ben Nicholson. Here too are pieces by Henry Moore, her fellow student,  Bernard Epstein, Eric Gill and others.The result is a mouthwatering  selection of the best of 1920s and 1930s sculpture. Her early work here shows a great feeling for the human form and for wood carving. Her figures are strong and yet embed with human frailty. 

In the second room her sense of abstracted form comes bursting through. The cutting away (literally) of unwanted detail, the placing of forms in relation to each other and the emergence of  eloquent ideal images. Drawn from the standing stones of Cornwall’s Penrith Peninsula  the shapes we have come to know as pure Hepworth have their genesis here.

The last room is split into sections: a film of her life in St Ives comes first, last is a collection of bronzes from the last years of her life, but the middle section is the climax. On four plinths are sculptures of huge chunks of African hardwood, brown and shiny and conkers without, carved and white painted within. It is like walking into a modernist Stonehenge - and you feel in the presence of greatness.

I came away with refreshed and moved. Here was an artist who could have been successful in  any one of three careers: figurative sculptor, painter and abstract sculptor. She chose the last and, like all great artists, changed how we see the world. In the process influenced my work in many ways, particularly in finding and refining the essential shape of things. Here are a couple of examples.

I would urge you to see the show. It’s a very different experience to a visit to her St Ives studio. It’s very different to viewing her work outdoors at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. But it’s a chance to see some of her best sculptures, paintings and, most importantly, thought processes.




Details:

Tate Britain

24 June – 25 October 2015

Free for Tate Members  

Adult £18.00 (without donation £16.30)

Concession £16.00 (without donation £14.50)

Under 12s go free (up to four per parent or guardian).

Family tickets available




Links:

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/barbara-hepworth-sculpture-modern-world

http://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-st-ives/barbara-hepworth-museum