Peter Jon Fowler

Painter

  • Introduction
  • The Gallery
  • Commentary

Sutton Hoo exhibited II

5th December 2019 By Peter Fowler

The indoor exhibition is still contained within the same large modern shed as before, but the former has now been renamed as ‘the High Hall’. Of course it is right to stress the importance of the Hall in Anglo-Saxon life but any illusion that this building might seem like a 7th century timber hall inside is destroyed by the placing of a large circular exhibition gallery in its centre. So a visitor goes around the outside of this structure and then its interior, hardly what one does when visiting a long rectangular building such as an Anglo-Saxon hall. The point is not perhaps all that important, but invoking a ‘High Hall’ seems rather pointless when it is immediately negated.

That said, I thought the exhibition was excellent – innovative, full of interest and with objects of such magnificence that one forgot that almost all are reproductions (the original material is in the British Museum).

The Hall is themed on three principal topics – the people in the royal court, the royal connections overseas and the technical skills needed in war and peace.

The ‘people’ section is about individuals, dominated by women, so very much in the fashion of our own times. The introductory video is of two women, an old retainer and a new slave-girl, chatting as they prepare for the funeral of a king. It vividly brings out the dilemma at individual level of tradition v. the new, and specifically of pagan beliefs and this incoming new religion called Christianity.

The first of numerous photographs of well-made models continues these ideas with panels on the ‘Wise Woman’ and the ‘Slave Girl’, both emphasising the importance of women in Anglo-Saxon society and also introducing the idea of social hierarchy within that society.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Personally, I was particularly glad to see the prominence given to  the second theme, the Anglo-Saxons’ far-reaching connections to worlds far beyond East Angle:

A set of excellent distribution maps illustrates this largely unappreciated dimension of our supposedly ‘primitive’ forebears. As exemplars, the first shows the generality of connections with the Eastern Roman Empire centred on Byzantium, the second how far away one of the specialist materials on the site, bitumen, had to be sourced.

 

 

Acknowledgement is given to the skill of the various crafts-people actually making the many extraordinary objects created in England from materials brought from afar. One such craftsman is illustrated:

 

Among the many objects, one decorated brooch is picked out for analytical treatment:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s quite enough for one post. I’ll add a Sutton Hoo exhibited III post shortly.

Filed Under: news

Sutton Hoo exhibited I

17th November 2019 By Peter Fowler

 

As some previous posts have indicated, I have been visiting Sutton Hoo throughout the summer out of interest to note how the £4 million+ -worth of revamping of the site for visitors has developed. I have not been involved in the scheme in any way other than to observe. All is now complete and open, except for the new observation tower overlooking the site of the burial mounds.

A much-hyped part of the scheme has been to open-up the whole site by encouraging visitors to participate in a ‘new and exciting’ ‘landscape experience.’ Essentially this means going on one or more prescribed walks, some along newly-made paths, and looking at a few new information structures dotted around the landscape. One of them is illustrated below: an information panel and a concrete ‘map.’

 

  

 

The panel reflects a theme throughout the new presentation – exhorting visitors to use their imagination. All well and good but quite a lot is known about the Anglo-Saxon landscape and its seems a pity not to tell people about that as a foundation on which to use their imagination. The concrete slab beside the panel has some marks in it and both bumps and a coloured area on it. The former include but six mounds representing, without explanation, the (minimum) 17 which actually exist or existed. The last, somewhat enlarged by rainwater when I took the photograph, is meant to show the River Deben, whence the ‘royal ship’ was towed uphill (in imagination); for the graphic is meant to be a map of the area, acting as both a guide – it shows modern paths – and a background on which to embroider the viewer’s imagination. I asked several people on different occasions what they made of this visual – some didn’t even realise it was a map – and they found it difficult to use. Not surprising really, since without a scale or a North point it is indeed difficult to use.

Unfortunately, this is the case with all the maps and graphics on site: the cartography is poor throughout. And though the walks themselves are attractive, there seems to be a mismatch between the laudable intention to lead people healthily and educatively by roundabout ways to the burial mounds and what most people actually do; which is of course to follow their desire lines along the most direct route to the mounds. Perhaps they will follow the sinuous route to the barrows when the observation tower is open and best-approached from below.

I know that a site is constantly evolving in terms of its presentation and use; but management should be able to mitigate some of the more obvious flaws. Here, a walker around the whole site will encounter at least five different styles of information media/panels. Some of them are relics from much earlier presentations of Sutton Hoo, indeed from last century. As a result, what the visitor sees today bears a hint of stinginess and shoddiness, not exactly the impression you want from a £4 million refurbishment; and of course overall there is a lack of coherence in the presentation because different interpreters have wanted to make different points at different times in the past. Maybe all the interpretive clutter around the mounds will be cleared away once the observation tower is open; but that begs the question of how and where you inform all the visitors who will still walk directly to the mounds, whether or not they then climb the tower.

Meanwhile we have experienced a wet autumn; and such has been the wear and tear along the desire line to and at Mound 1 that visitors have had to be roped off on to other lines and taken off Mound 1 altogether. There were 700 visitors on the day in late September when I asked about visitor numbers. Doubtless many people have been attracted by sustained publicity about the newness of Sutton Hoo’s presentation throughout the year.

I’m going to stop there but a part II will follow idc. Two further photographs serve as tasters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: news

Plomesgate continued: Becker and Gathorne-Hardy

9th November 2019 By Peter Fowler

This is a continuation of my post last but one on 2nd of October which I ended by saying that I just wanted to say a word about two of the artists at Plomesgate Fair.

First, Harry Becker, about whom I have written before. There was an excellent exhibition of his works, perhaps the most on display anywhere for a long time. In particular, many small lithographs illustrated his skill as a draughtsman, of animals especially. I select but two as examples, both (of course) of sheep and both lithographs:

Sheep on a Field 1901

Sheep in Shadows 1905

For comparison, here is Jason Gathorne-Hardy’s Rough Fell Ram in the wind, sketched on 19 June 2019 in graphite and earth pigment ‘washed in spring water.’ I love that last phrase – so Jasonesque.

 

And, since we’re majoring on sheep, for comparison with both artists here are real sheep photographed by this author at sunset on 20 September 2019:

These particular sheep, Manx Loaghtans and White-faced Woodlands, are part of the National Trust Orford Ness flock of Rare Breed sheep, grazing artistically for conservation management on Snape Warren under my day-to-day supervision. The Manx second from left, with a magnificent set of horns, is a ram called Brigadier. He is now guardian of the royal burial mounds at Sutton Hoo – a fine advertisement for our intensive 6-week course for ambitious sheep, recommended by OFBAA.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Art

Gormley

8th November 2019 By Peter Fowler

If you do nothing else, do go and see the Antony Gormley exhibition at the Royal Academy, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London. It’s stunning, and it closes on 3 December. I’ve been once and hope very much to make a return visit before then.

With but brief commentary, let me just illustrate selectively some of its richness and diversity:

Among several visual ‘tricks’, One Apple is a line of 53 lead cases each containing the remains of an apple as the fruit grows. At the far end, the case contains the the dried remains of the first petal to fall from the blossom; at the near end is the dried, mature fruit. The whole, we are told, ‘reveals Gormley’s preoccupation with ideas of expansion in time and space.’

The artist calls this a ‘drawing in space’. It is made from c8 kms ‘of square section aluminium tube, coiled and allowed to expand until restricted by the floor, walls and ceiling.’ Visitors have to clamber through it to reach the other door, and clearly enjoy doing so.

 

Matrix III 2019 is a ‘vast cloud’ of ‘a mesmerising visual labyrinth,’ made up of ’21 suspended room-size cages  …  surrounding a small concentrated chamber’, in effect a void. The airiness of the whole becomes a solid challenging one to walk beneath it – as one in fact does with complete confidence that it will not crash down. An amazing work, described by Gormley as ‘the ghost of the environment we’ve all chosen to accept as our primary habitat.’ Maybe …

 

Meet the Gormleys, standing upright slightly larger than normal life-size, protruding from the walls in defiance of gravity

and standing upside-down on the ceilings:

   

 

The figures are of course iron casts of Gormley’s body, well-known from outdoor works in many places throughout the world. Locally, Another Place on Crosby Beach, Merseyside, is a classic example. Here, this room is visually quite remarkable; but prosaically, I couldn’t help wondering how the engineering to create this effect had been carried out in what is presumably a Grade 1 Listed Building.

This caveat applies just as much to the next image. Room 13 is called ‘Host‘ 2019. In what is just an ordinary gallery of the RA, the floor has been covered with clay and filled with seawater:

The effect is transformative, not least in its reflections, mental as well as visual. Is this a flood bringing destruction? Or is this where life began, a construct of the primordial soup?

Alongside the visual drama from room to room, ordinary workbooks, sketches and even drawings and paintings are also exhibited. ‘Home‘ 1990, a work in blood on paper, seems somehow to be their appropriate representative.

 

GO

Filed Under: news

Plomesgate Fair 2019

2nd October 2019 By Peter Fowler

‘Plomesgate’ is the name of the Hundred in which lies White House Farm, Great Glemham, the scene of annual delights over recent years, duly commented on in my posts. Last year’s ‘Cornucopia’ has this year become Plomesgate Fair, mainly by changing the emphasis from the visual arts to a celebration of ‘Folk Music, Farming, Heritage Crafts and Creative Arts’ in rural Suffolk. The result is splendid and refreshing: gone are wall-fulls of paintings (some of dubious merit) and lots of sculpture and in comes a range of crafts including an outstanding exhibition called ‘Land – Plant – Fibre’ showing the questing work of Sarah Butters, mainly in wool:

Backyard Shawl 2019. Glemham mule, Orfordness Jacob and Hebridean lambs’ wool, plant dyes

The artist explains that the shawl is based on a view beside the Farm across the ploughed land to a horizon of bracken and grass below a blue/white sky.

In the foreground of this image is a woollen bowl.

 

As the Fair is now over, in a sense there is little point in continuing this post; but I would like to say a word about two of the graphic artists exhibited here to acknowledge the interest of their work. Since it might well be several days before I have time to do that, I’ll publish this note as it stands now and deal with Harry Becker and Jason Gathorne-Hardy separately.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: news

Eight more

22nd September 2019 By Peter Fowler

These eight paintings are illustrated here as they stand, hang or lie in the studio at this moment. All have been worked on in the last two months; the last one was painted this afternoon. It, the third last one, and the iceberg work are meant to be ‘real’ paintings, intended eventually to be taken seriously. Some of the others are mere doodles or studies for later use. Only one is definitely finished; some might be, but equally they might suddenly spurt into life again. Some, such as the last four, are positively unfinished and are awaiting further inspiration and time. Some might well be destroyed (‘Delighted to hear that’, says at least one disgruntled reader).

They exist on and in a range of materials across a range of sizes; but I’m not saying anything about such matters at this stage. Nor do I give titles, so they can be viewed without my intention (if there is one!) influencing the view. I show them simply as images and hope they convey some sort of message to someone.

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Art

Some of my new paintings

18th September 2019 By Peter Fowler

The shock of not being able to produce anything worthwhile before I left early from what was meant to be my painting week with Michael Horn in early June has worked in the sense that I’ve painted a lot over the three months since then. That’s quantity; quality is something else so I’ll put up some works with little comment and let the viewer judge.

 

Actually, this is not new this year, but it is newly sold. In ink on paper, it is a small, minimalist abstract called ‘The Way’ in a conscious take on Michael Horn’s several ‘Weavers’ Way’ paintings.

The sale follows the sale of two others recently. For someone who is not particularly interested in sales and certainly does not push his products, this is alarming – but nice!

 

A study using spray paint on board exploring the contrary ideas of randomness and linearity/rectalinearity. The effect is largely accidental but I do like blues!

 

I cannot claim this next image as my painting but I found it – on a sandy beach on Lindisfarne, an image of a deceased sea-bird sea-sculpted from a piece of wood by the ceaseless sea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A reader is not convinced by my ‘sea-bird’ claim of thise bit of drift-wood and asks if I have any more convincing photographs. Well, try these:

 

 

Maybe the one on the left is a bit more convincing – I think it very goose-oid.

 

I have been working away on this next painting for at least three months during which it has been modified several times, not so much in its composition as in its colours. The basic structure is collage; only the dark green oblong, the black disc and the grey background are painted directly on to the board.

Essentially the design derives from the idea of megalithic standing stones as seen at Avebury and other stone circles, and a trilithon of two uprights and a lintel as seen in the third millennium BC at Stonehenge. The green represents much-used landscape; the black disc represents the sun or moon – and my present gloom about the state of my country and the world. The whole is called ‘Black Winter Solstice’.

Filed Under: Art

Art on stands, floor and sand

17th September 2019 By Peter Fowler

This is Blythburgh church, Suffolk, sited magnificently on a knoll overlooking the tidal River Blyth. I apologise for inadvertently cutting off the top of its tower. For the first time this year, the church hosted the annual ‘We love Becker’ exhibition of work inspired by Harry Becker, the early 20th century local artist of rural life (see previous years about the end of August for earlier Becker blogs). The show transferred from its previous home in the church at Wenhaston, 2 miles west, where Becker lived, a move that seemed to work. Natural light flooded the interior of Holy Trinity, making for a much more lustrous exhibition.

Mind you, strong light can expose as well as flatter and, though admiring the works of some well-known local artists, I found the exhibition overall somewhat less than distinguished.

Also disappointing, I thought, was the annual exhibition at Black Barns, Cley in west Norfolk. Again but even more so, there were some outstanding works, notably the artfully arranged assemblage by Hugh Pilkington of material collected from the sea-shore (minus plastics, so the author explained, though clearly some plastic is present):

 

Clearly, the fishing industry should be ashamed of its wasteful, deleterious ways. But then, art as we all know is in the eye of the beholder and personally I found this next  piece of childish scribble (by a grown-up), the very first work one saw on entering the barn, set the bar pretty low for the exhibition overall:

 

I accept that I may be missing the point.

As doubtless will others of my own submissions next. They make no claim to be art in their natural formation yet I thought these patterns and textures in the sand of Lindisfarne (Holy Island, Northumberland) were splendidly artistic in their tidal innocence:

 

 

 

I just wish I could paint with anything like their degree of delicacy.

 

 

Filed Under: Art

Art all over: Helsinki

1st September 2019 By Peter Fowler

I must write at least one blog today, the last day of August, if only to make a gesture towards the long gap since I last posted. What has happened to August I don’t know but during it I have seen a great deal of art. Indeed so much, in the form of exhibitions, that I have already forgotten some of them; so here I am not trying to be all-inclusive.

Undoubtedly the outstanding exhibition among those I have seen was ‘Silent Beauty’ in the Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland:

Essentially, the exhibition explored and illustrated connections and echoes between Scandinavian and Japanese art in the 20th century. In its own words:

 

One special interest is:

 

 

Here are some of the paintings, beginning with a stunning one which confronts you down the length of the first gallery as you enter:

‘Sea and Empty Opening’ 1962 oil RuneJansson 1918-2074

Scandinavian art could be very conventional in West European terms, in both subject and style:

‘Harvest Landscape’ oil Carl Kylberg 1878-1952

It began to treat mundane subjects, sometimes impressionistically, rather than only romantic or impressive views:

‘The Island’ oil 1910-11 Einar Ilmoni 1880-1946

 

 

 

 

 

It ventured into non-conventional materials:

‘Frosty Morning’ rya wool 1978 Maija Lavonen 1831-

(incidentally not a million miles in effect from my recent experiments with sheep hoofprints on textile material – see earlier blogs in 2019).

 

‘Winter Landscape from Sotkano’ oil 1949 Aimo Kanerva 1909-1991

 

‘Painting’ acrylic 1966 Ahti Lavonen 1928-1970

 

 

‘Large Painting’ oil and tempora 1960 Jaakko Sievanen

 

‘Burning the Brushwood’ 1891 oil Eero Jarnefelt

It seems I have known this painting for a very long time. It was used by Prof Grahame Clark to illustrate slash and burn agriculture, as practiced in the Mesolithic, in his pioneering study of Prehistoric Europe: the economic basis (1952), one of the first archaeological books I read. The actual purpose of the painting, socio-political rather than anthropological, is clearly indicated by its alternative title, ‘Under the yoke’.

A stimulating and memorable exhibition……..

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Art, news

Etching my heritage

7th August 2019 By Peter Fowler

I produced another plate in my two days. The image was in mind before I arrived.

A few days previously, using up unused paint in doodles at the end of the day, I produced this:

Accidental may be but, to my Novocastrian eyes, clearly an unconscious abstract of the view downriver of the six bridges over the River Tyne at Newcastle. So I made some sketches of the idea, including a painting:

 

Then I made a detailed drawing from a photograph I had taken last year from the train, to ensure that I had the six bridges in the correct visual order i.e. which was in front of which viewed from the west.

From that I selected the horizontal, vertical and curving lines which made a good composition and yet showed something of each bridge in the correct visual sequence.

 

 

 

To keep it simple, at this stage I dropped the railway bridge I was, as it were, standing on and the Metro bridge immediately in front of it. I then traced the semi-abstracted four bridges:

and, turning the tracing paper round through 180 degrees, drew the mirror image direct on to the plate so that the final image would come out the right way round; which it did:

Not the world’s greatest print, perhaps, and the weaknesses are not obliterated by a little colour, though it makes it easier on the eye:

If I go back to Sudbourne, clutching my precious zinc plate of the Tyne Bridges, I’d like to have the chance to clean up the image and strengthen some of its lines to give the etching a bit of artistic character. It obviously lost its engineering credibility some stages back!

Factually, the view is from the west, looking downriver at, in correct visual sequence, Armstrong’s Swing Bridge, The High Level Bridge (railway on top, road below), the Tyne Bridge, and the Millennium Bridge (‘the Blinking Eye’). The last, a walkway, effectively prevented vessels of any size passing under the Tyne Bridge.

 

Filed Under: Art, news

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