Down came the rain

"The Show Must Go On!"

oil on canvas

8 x 8 in. / 20 x 20 cm.

Open air jazz festivals are always going to be somewhat problematic in this country given our wayward weather. I remember trying to sketch a group of jazz aficionados huddling under umbrellas during a July thunderstorm, while I was holding an umbrella and my sketch book in one hand and drawing with the other. Not ideal! That moment is commemorated in this painting with the audience watching on under their umbrellas while the girl in the yellow dress tries to shelter the trumpeter and sax player under her umbrella.

A couple of the original moleskine sketches

Le Jazz

oil on canvas

8 x 8 in./ 20 x 20 cm.

Based on a series of sketches of the Dutch Swing College Band which I did a couple of years ago at a jazz festival. Using sketches of Marcel Hendriks on piano and Adrie Braat on double bass, to which I have added the singer in the red dress to suit my composition. I often work listening to Jazz, particularly a French internet radio station called Jazz Radio , "La Radio de tous les Jazz". Hence the title of the work, "Le Jazz"! Done just using a palette knife to stop me from fiddling with the detail.

Two of the original moleskine sketches

Note : the painting is not up on my web-site yet..

Mantegna to Matisse

Five hundred years of drawing are represented by 60 works in Mantegna to Matisse: Master Drawings from the Courtauld Gallery on exhibition in London from 14 June until 9 September 2012. From quick, observed sketches, through studies to fully resolved drawings intended as works in their own right, here is a wonderful opportunity to see how Artists of the western tradition have used drawing over the centuries to explore their subjects. There is always something intimate about the medium, whereby I look at a drawing from the same kind of distance as the Artist did, and feel that I am almost standing in his shoes. The raw, unfinished state of sketches allows you some insight into the Artist's focus at a  moment in time. So each drawing is always exciting in what it reveals about their process. And this exhibition of Artists from Leonardi Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Durer, Rubens, Rembrandt, Ingres, Canaletto, Turner, Cezanne, Degas, Picasso and many others, did not disappoint. Truly an embarrassment of riches!

Here are a few of my personal favourites:-

Seurat - Female Nude

"Very sculptural and just so sensual"

Pontormo - Seated Youth

"Fresh and contemporary - lovely quality of line"

Rembrandt - Saskia sitting up in bed, holding a child

"A moment captured"

Leonardo da Vinci - Study for Saint Mary Magdalene

"The great man thinking, through his drawing"

Van Gogh - A Tile Factory

"Very singular mark making"

Toulouse Lautrec - Au Lit

"Love the focus on the face. Most touching."

I could go on but I might spoil the many surprises to be found when you visit. The exhibition is beautifully hung, as you would expect at the Courtauld, one I can heartily recommend. A very nice tea-room too!

The Drawings of Guercino

Currently on exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford are drawings from the superb Mahon collection of drawings by the Baroque artist, Guercino (1591 - 1666). A prolific painter, he was also from the outset an outstanding draughtsman and we are very lucky that so many of his drawings have survived and are in British Collections.

I first saw his drawings in 1991 in an exhibition of Guercino's Drawings at the British Museum and was immediately captivated, not just by their superb quality, but by the insight they offered into his working process which, as a practising artist, I can certainly relate to. His method and materials were varied but seemed to reflect the stage of development a work was at. I have chosen some drawings from the Ashmolean's excellent exhibition to illustrate this.

When trying out the options for a compositions he would essay variations in pen and ink, quickly sketching in the less important details but focusing on the attitudes of the heads, and sometimes the limbs. His confidence in simple line is apparent. I particularly enjoyed coming across the second drawing below including a rectangle of paper at the top to reveal another compositional option underneath. The next stage of his process appears to be the addition of a wash to suggest volume and how the subject would be lit, a particular strength of Guercino in his paintings.

His drawings in red chalk seem to reflect another stage in the evolution of a work. Much more resolved and drawn from life I suspect, they have a real vitality which I can only envy. The detail of "Two Women Conversing" below is a beautfiul rendering of light on the the forms. Sometimes he mixes materials and methods as with the "Woman painting a Coat of Arms on a canvas" which has pen, wash, chalk and even some oiled charcoal. Charcoal was a material he used less frequently but he was equally a master of, as is obvious below. The forms in the male figure are so well observed and beautifully captured, providing sufficent detail for me to even begin to sculpt!

I offer below some of my own personal highlights from the Ashmolean collection which I hope illustrate Guercino's use and mastery which, us lesser mortals can but aspire to.

Degas and the Ballet

Now in its final week at The Royal Academy in London, Degas and the Ballet: Picturing Movement, exceeded my expectations this week, handsomely. It is a comprehensive exploration of Degas's interest in capturing and depicting movement through dance. The curators, Ann Dumas, Jill DeVonyar and Richard Kendall, have done a superb job in putting together a well structured and beautifully hung exhibition.

The visitor can follow Degas's process of investigation from his quick charcoal sketches through to fully resolved paintings. But he also adopted the techniques of sculpture, and the latest photographic innovations to help him capture and depict the ballet dancers' poses and movement in the practice studio and on stage. As a sculptor myself I could well appreciate the series of preparatory sketches from life he did for his famous metre tall bronze sculpture, Little Dancer Aged Fourteen. The displays helpfully displayed how each drawing fitted into his scheme in addressing the figure from 360 degrees, with the bronze itself as centre-piece.

The exhibition has so many points of interest but I would also highlight; the panoramic format paintings of the dancers in their Green Room preparing for performance, and the later bolder and larger charcoal drawings matched with the paintings such as the Blue Dancers which embody the poses from the charcoal drawing. The smaller 1/3rd life size sketches, originally done in wax but cast after his death in bronze, of ballet dancers in specific poses have a real charm. But the curators have kept the best almost to last; the wonderful vibrant pastel paintings of his late years such as the Russian Dancers and Dancers in Blue are visually stunning. The irridescent colours and imaginative compositions almost worth going to see for this room alone.

I spent a good four hours at this exhibition resting periodically to absorb the richness of material on offer. From my vantage point on the banquette in the first room opposite Degas's painting, Ballet Scene from Meyerbeer's Opera 'Robert le Diable' I sat sketching the steady stream of visitors as they filed past. There was I, trying to capture movement, I in my little Moleskine sketchbook, much as Degas had been doing over 100 years ago. The artistic challenge in "picturing movement" is still the same.

Art and Mammon

I took this photograph over the City of London on my phone last week from the terrace at Tate Modern where I was enjoying my second visit to see Gerhard Richter: Panorama prior to attending a private view at the Corporation of Lloyds.

For those of you who are used, like me, to see Richter's work mainly in reproduction the scale of some of the abstract work is breathtaking. But for me the most successful of the abstract work is the smaller, almost domestic scale paintings. There is a series of 8 small paintings in Room 10, Abstract Painting 858 1999 series, which I found particularly engaging.

Room 11 also contains some interesting experimental work including monotypes and photographs worked over with paint, which I found especially interesting as they provide an insight into Gerard Richter's process. But it is a big exhibition covering 50 years of the Artist's work and there are many aspects to be discovered. So will I be back for another look? Probably!

After a couple of hours I took a break for coffee on the Tate members' terrace. It was a beautifully mild November afternoon with the setting sun creating some spectacular Canaletto like vistas over the City of London. And even though my phone only has a VGA camera I thought it was worth trying to capture the panoramic views over the Thames towards St. Paul's Cathedral and The Square Mile.

But by the time I left and walked across The Millenium Bridge towards St. Paul's the sun had set to leave a quite magical darkling sky. I was on my way to the Corporation of Lloyd's, where some of my sculpture was on display as part of the Lloyd's Art Group collective's Autumn Exhibition. At the private view I am delighted to report that I was presented with the Miller Prize for "Best Artist in the Show" by Michael Papworth, Head of Facultative Reinsurance at  Miller Insurance, the exclusive sponsors of the event this year. Very much a fund raiser for the Coombe Trust, Lloyd's recognised charity, the exhibition raised  £2,400 this year for this very good cause. Definitely an event where Art sits comfortably with Mammon.

All That Jazz

Signed prints developed from the sketches done during the Marlborough International Jazz Festival last year are now available as digital prints on Hahnemuhle Photorag fine art paper.

They can be supplied as bare prints or in a mount, singly or as a double or triple. Purchasers can even select which musicians they would like to include in combination to create their own ensemble.

There are currently 9 prints in the series to choose from. The full series can be seen on my flickr site .

For further information contact the artist at

enquiries@gordonaitcheson.com