Tell Me More

The picture in the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle is called Darkness Falls from the Wings of Night. It was painted in 1886 by Robert Jobling (1841 - 1923). Its size is around 4ft by 3ft and it's displayed in a heavy gold frame. That's about all we could have told you without digging around in a library or on the Internet. But as we were visiting the gallery on a day when a talk was being given about the picture, we learnt so much more than we otherwise would.

The speaker, Jean Scott, from the Friends of the Laing Art Gallery, gave us some fascinating background and historical context that helped us to understand more about the picture. The first thing we found out was that the title is from The Day Is Done, a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

The scene is set on the beach at Cullercoats, a small fishing village on the Northumberland coast. The village can be seen in the distance with fishing boats lined up along the sand. The women of the village are carrying the catch from the shoreline to the village for preparation. The picture depicts daily life but with a romantic interpretation, avoiding the harsh reality of life in the mid 19th century.

We also heard about the artist, Jobling. He lived in Cullercoats for some time and was involved in the arts in Newcastle and the north east for much of his life. In fact he was one of the people who was involved in the establishment of an art gallery in the city. This initiative came to fruition as the Laing Art Gallery at the turn of the century.

The series of talks are held each Saturday morning and a different picture in the gallery is described each month. On the day we attended there were over twenty visitors listening to the talk, and we were told that people sometimes come from as far away Amsterdam (using the local overnight ferry) to visit the gallery and hear the talks.

Here is the list of forthcoming talks about paintings at the Laing Art Gallery.

Vicky And Vince,
Love Your Art.

Artistic Dilemma

We've not been to see any art over the past few weeks as we've been remodelling our kitchen. Before starting we removed all the art from the room and stored it safely away from the dust and mess. Unfortunately, we didn't really plan where these items would go in the new layout and now the kitchen's almost finished we have to resolve that problem. None of it can go back where it was as we've moved equipment around and added new cupboards.

We're faced with two decisions: whether to try and display everything we had originally or change some of the pieces, and choosing new places to put the items we decide to keep in the room.

We've already discussed this at length and haven't yet come up with an answer. When we do finally work out what we're going to do we'll let you know what we decided and how we ended up displaying the art.

Vick and Vince,
Love Your Art

Lovely Art - And Tempting Food Too!

The BBC continues to produce some fascinating programmes about art. We have written recently about Fake or Fortune and last Friday night we came across Sicily Unpacked. The show not only covered some of the interesting art in Sicily but also another of our favourite subjects, food!

Vicky has been to Sicily before and has visited some of the locations shown on the programme. One of the sights she didn't see was the Oratorio del Rosario di Santa Cita in Sicily's capital, Palermo. Art historian and presenter, Andrew Graham-Dixon, was keen to show his co-presenter, Giorgio Locatelli, the interior of this building. Once inside they turned to marvel at the stunning, ornate decoration. What seemed like hundreds of incredibly fine religious figures and scenes covered the walls. These are the work of sculptor, Giacomo Serpotta, who used stucco with added marble dust to create an amazing finish to the sculptures.

Later, as the two presenters visited the Vucciria market looking for food to cook for dinner, they popped through a doorway to find a modern painting of the market by Renato Guttuso. The picture was densely packed with shoppers, market traders, stalls and food. Andrew pointed out some of the stories incorporated in the picture such as two traders apparently feuding over something. Guttuso also has other links with food; he illustrated the book Italian Food by Elizabeth David.

We're still planning our 2012 holidays and the temptation offered by the food as well as the interesting art may be too much for us to resist a visit together sometime soon.

The series runs for a further 2 episodes on BBC2 on Friday evenings. You can catch episode 1 on iPlayer over the next few days.

Vicky And Vince,

Love Your Art.

Review Of The Year

As the new year approaches, it's time to both look back over recent months and look forward to more exciting art over the coming year. It's been an interesting year for the art world as well as for us. Here are a few of the things we particularly remember.

The Turner prize was won by Martin Boyce with a sculptural installation. 2011 was a special year for the competition as it was held away from the Tate Gallery at the Baltic in Gateshead. In coming years, the plan is to hold the competition at venues alternating between the Tate and other regional galleries.

The Hepworth Wakefield Gallery opened in the Spring. Although we haven't yet been to see the exhibitions, a visit is on our list for 2012. We enjoyed the Barbara Hepworth Museum at St Ives in Cornwall a couple of years ago and look forward to seeing more of her works along with other similar art.

The Zurbarán saga continues. First these historical paintings were to be sold off, then a deal was agreed to save them. Recently the deal looked like it had fallen through, then it was back on. Perhaps we haven't seen the end of the uncertainty yet but hopefully the plans for converting Auckland Castle into a new art gallery, with visiting exhibitions as well as the Zurbaráns will be finalised in the new year.

Vicky's highlight of the year was when we visited Bowes Museum to see an exhibition by Damien Hirst. His prints, depicting food packaged as medicine, ask whether we are as reliant on drugs as we are on food in these modern times.

Our trip to the village of Lempa in Cyprus was Vince's highlight of 2011. The jumbled collection at the College of Art reflected the bright and informal atmosphere of the island and it was a visual delight to become immersed within the work of the students.

But we both agreed that our joint favourite place this year has to be Cass Sculpture Foundation at Goodwood. Their stunning collection of outdoor sculpture really needs a whole day to view and appreciate the huge amount of artworks. Unfortunately we didn't allow enough time to see everything so we'll be heading back there again, hopefully in 2012.

Vicky And Vince,
Love Your Art.

A Trip To Hove

The sun shone brightly, the sea air was fresh and breezy. The colourful beach huts almost glowed in the sunshine. A row of squawking seagulls sat on the rusty iron railings. A scruffy little dog ran past. "Good Afternoon!", cried a man with a long orange coat, a stripey scarf and a wide brimmed hat. As we walked along the promenade at Brighton it felt just like the scenes in our collection of Sam Toft's Mr Mustard pictures.

One of the first pictures we bought together was a limited edition print called "No Sheep On The Beach" by Sam. (By the way did we mention we collect sheep art?) We came across the picture in Gallerina in Darlington, Sam's official northern agent, and simply couldn't resist it. This began our mini collection of Mr Mustard pictures and ever since then we've wanted to go to one of Sam's open studio events. Finally, last weekend, we managed it.

As we entered Sam's Brown Dog Studio, there was a Christmassy atmosphere with seasonal music in the background, mince pies, mulled wine and popcorn! Sadly, we'd just had lunch so had to pass on the mince pies.

The place was packed with people. In fact, this was the busiest open studio either of us can remember visiting. Everyone seemed to be buying something: framed prints, signed artist's proofs, books, greeting cards and more. There were also some new pictures that we hadn't seen before. We snapped up a 2012 calendar and a couple from previous years. Unfortunately, this was all we could carry home on the train.

While we were there, Sam asked us if we would like to send a message of hope to Jabbar Savalan, a young man imprisoned in Azerbaijan after calling for protests against the Azerbaijan government. From 3rd to 17th December 2011, people from over seventy countries will take part in Amnesty International's annual Letter Writing Marathon, writing letters, signing petitions, sending SMS messages and taking action online to demand that Jabbar's rights are respected. Sam was preparing a letter to the Azerbaijan President and we were pleased to write a brief message of hope to Jabbar on a card. More from Amnesty International.

Sam is a keen to support various charities with her work and proceeds from some of the sales at the studio will also go to Sightsavers.

We enjoyed our visit to Sam's studio and were pleased to have met one of our favourite artists. We'll certainly go back again soon, to catch up with Sam and see how the Mustard story has moved on.

Check out more about Sam and the Mustards at Sam Toft's web site.

Vicky And Vince,

Love Your Art.