The RA
I going to be honest here, I wasn't really that sure about the artist being featured at an exhibition at the RA in London. I'd seen a few photos of his work and definitely had slightly negative thoughts about his art. But we we entered the gallery it was clear to me how wrong I had been,
My first impression was that the artist had a great sense of humour. The image below is a fantastic piece of artwork - it really appealed to me.
The next piece really made me laugh and when reading the script next to it entertained me no end, and this was the point when I thought - I like this artist. Initially I thought - that's an interesting piece of art!
There were many other paintings which I loved and here are a selection of them:
Craig-Martins version of Bathers at Asnieres by George Pierre Seurat.
I liked this next one because it was an honest message. It was painted in 2008 so I wrongly assumed at the time of seeing it that it was connected with the Covid era.
Funnily enough wherever I walked in the exhibition this man always seemed to be in front of me. So rather than waiting for him to move along I decided to include him in the picture. I really like the way Craig-Martin has used the wall for his drawings and overlapped them onto the three canvases.
The gallery had painted each room a bright colour to show the work at its best. It was a great way to curate the work I thought.
National Portrait Gallery
Later we went onto the an exhibition of work at the National Portrait Gallery and I actually only took one photo. That is not to say that the work there wasn't any good, it was amazing. But this painting attracted my attention because it was done with egg tempura. This is a technique i learned a few years ago from a colleague. With its thousands of painted dashes it is work that is astonishing.
I find it interesting the way he has decided to paint it, including the fan on the floor, and on reflection it is no different from artists pictures from the 1800's including ornaments on the table in a portrait of those days.
His technique is brilliant though and the overall result is amazing.
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