artist note #2

i've been to some exhibitions: alice neel, peter doig

Hi and welcome to ‘artist note’ #2! I spent three days in London last week, visiting galleries for the first time in ages. I saw Alice Neel at the Barbican, Peter Doig at the Courtauld, as well as Magdalena Abakanowicz and Mária Bartuszová at Tate Modern (the Abakanowicz was a particular, unexpected delight for me). It was an incredible treat, absolutely crammed with inspiration, and has left me even more excited than usual to pick up my paintbrushes. 

When I'm making my own paintings, some of my favourite moments are noticing the points where two brush strokes of different colours and weights meet - the way they speak to each other and bring each other to life, the curves and lines that form, the way they softly meld or sharply contrast.

For this reason, as a resource for my own work, and because there's lots of other places to see images of the paintings in these shows online, I thought I'd share some close ups from the Alice Neel and Peter Doig exhibitions, zooming in on my favourite details. 

These wonderful pieces of art are obviously incredible to enjoy in their entirety, but getting the opportunity to study them up close and capture the details is such a fantastic source of learning and inspiration (and it's interesting seeing the elements that I'm instinctively drawn to, when they're put all together... most obviously the colours!) 

So here are some close-up images, that will hopefully capture some brush marks, textures and colours to enjoy and inspire.

detail from Art Shields, Alice Neel

detail from Painting on an Island, Peter Doig

Clockwise from top left: details from Ethel Ashton, Wellesley Girls, Frank O’Hara, French Girl and David Bourdon and Gregory Battcock, all Alice Neel

detail from The Family (John Gruen, Jane Wilson and Julia), Alice Neel

Clockwise from top left: Details from Alpinist and Painting on an Island, both Peter Doig, Marxist Girl, The Spanish Family and Georgie Arce No.2, all Alice Neel

detail from Black Spanish-American Family, Alice Neel

detail from Alice at Boscoe’s, Peter Doig

Thanks so much for being here! See you again soon 😎