Frame Up

Everything you ever wanted to know about framing pictures (almost). Read more on our web site about picture frames.

Vince,
Love Your Art

Support Your Local Artist

Buying art from local artists is an interesting and worthwhile way to build up a collection. Read more on our web site about supporting local artists.

Vicky and Vince,
Love Your Art

The Pink Wall Project

Be prepared for a bit of a shock this week, we've hung some pictures on one of our walls - after painting it bright pink! You can visit our web site to read about our pink wall project.

Vicky And Vince,
Love Your Art.

Bargains Galore!

If you've not considered the benefits of buying second-hand art from charity shops we've written about the whys and wherefores this week. You can visit our web site to read the article on buying art from charity shops.

Vicky And Vince,
Love Your Art.

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.