Leamington Art Gallery - 2025

Leamington Art Gallery, 2025.

Not exactly a re-hang, but a section of the gallery has been changed and some new pieces have been added.

Keith Grant, Icy Coast, 1964, (oil on canvas)

Graham Bevan, The Garth Orange, 1963, (oil on canvas)

Alexander Mackenzie, Lakedown, 1962, (oil on board)

Philip Sutton, Magnificent! 2005 (oil on canvas)

Harold Harvey, The Young Menage, 1932, (oil on canvas)

Harold Speed, Lady Diana Bridgeman, (oil on canvas)

John Bridgeman, Dancers, (bronze)

John Bridgeman, Nude Male Figure, (bronze)

John Bridgeman, Study of a Warrior with Women and Children, 1954-55, (charcoal on paper)


 

Ryton Pools

A walk around Ryton Pools, with the intention of visiting the wood now that the ground is dry.

The park occupies an area of about 100 acres and contains four pools, the largest of which covers approximately 10 acres. The park used to be a set of fields until 1965 when it was used as a landfill site. Waste was dumped here for 27 years until 1992 when work started on developing part of the site into a country park. The park officially opened in 1996 with over 2,500 trees and shrubs being planted.

We only managed to walk around a small section of the park and the reason as to why will become obvious later on in the post.

Soon after we started we came upon a scrape, or ephemeral pool, an area of shallow wetland that seasonally dries each year. It's an extremely important habitat for many aquatic invertebrates, as the regular dry spells provide a fish-free haven where these species can thrive. The permanently wet soil allows a range of water's edge plants to flourish throughout the scrape, benefitting even more invertebrate species. Scrapes are also key places of refuge for larger wetland animals travelling over land between permanent water bodies.

We soon arrived at one of the large pools - so calm,  just idyllic

the path circles the pool

and the blossom is out

and as you walk, you get different views of the pool

four Canadian geese resting on the shore

we walked in splendid isolation. Weekends are a different matter, it gets very busy here

We left the park to enter Ryton Wood which is 230 acres of oak woodland.

It's beautiful here, magical

soon we were walking with the second pool on our right

the first bluebells on the ground. Soon, the whole floor of the wood will turn blue and we will be back for that

I remember from other years - first these white flowers, and then, the bluebells

it's a big pool so we walked alongside it for quite a while

Sometimes the path is quite clear and sometimes it's not

We decided to try a different route to the ones we usually take

After about an hour we realised that we were hopelessly lost. We started walking around in circles, realising that we had done this bit before, and this one and so on... We finally came upon another couple who were also lost, same as us. We decided to stick together. At this point I stopped taking photographs.

Finally, after an hour and a half of being lost in the wood, we finally got to the exit. Rather than finishing the walk around Ryton Pools we decided to take the quickest route and go home. We've been walking around these woods for years, and this is the first time we got lost. Oh well!

Nakis Panayotidis

Nakis Panayotidis - Shut Your Eyes and See

at the Goulandris Museum, Athens.

Panayotidis is seen as the last of the Arte Povera artists. Born in Athens in 1947, at the age of sixteen he was employed making stage sets. In 1966 he moved to Turin where he began studying architecture. He soon became involved in politics. Today he lives and works in Bern and on the island of Serifos.

I loved seeing Panayotidis' work and while writing this up I realised that it's the kind of work that has to be seen 'in the flesh' - very hard to reproduce. It just needs to be experienced.

Stray Artist, 2024, (glass on canvas,bronze, charcoal and neon)

The Tender Embrace of Iris, 2020, (adhesive tape, charcoal, pastel, aluminium and epoxy on canvas)

In the Light of Day, 1995, (photograph and aluminium with spotlight lamp)

The Utter Loneliness of an Unfinished Idea, 2023, (photograph mounted on canvas, charcoal, pastel, aluminium, neon)

By combining photography with neon, Panayotidis managed to completely differentiate himself from his Arte Povera counterparts regarding the theme of representation-presentation. In this field he has created something unique.

A photographer can influence the representation of reality simply by choosing the compostion of the image and the focus settings. Panayotidis wants more. He is looking for a method to give breath to the photographic reflection of reality. To this end, he uses neon tubes to illuminate his large-scale black and white photographs of industrial ruins or seascapes, which he transfers on to photosensitive canvases. He places the neon tubes in metal sections above the top edge of the image or behind the image. In some cases the viewer cannot see the light source. From the hidden sources comes the real light that enlivens the scene and gives an unreal and transcendental dimension to the landscapes. This gives the photographs a dreamy strangeness.  Frozen time expands to infinity. 

Fugitive Glande and Immobile Waves, 2022, (adhesive tape, charcoal, pastel, aluminium and epoxy on canvas)

The ultra-bright line of the horizon is illuminated by the neon light source that hides behind the image, so that the space of the image, centred in perspective, is strangely compressed.  The viewer is on the seashore or at the head of the field and at the same time, with the explosion of light, is transported into the farthest depths of the space. It is an experience of synchronicity that abolishes space and time.

What You see is an Idea, 2017, (cardboard, epoxy, adhesive tape and neon)

'Art exists in order to communicate messages, and the way those messages get across depends on the power emitted by the expression of each individual artwork. When I write the four letters GOYA on a black canvas using black tar, I don't simply make a written reference to the great Spanish master, but I 'paint' his portrait; so, the word becomes an active testimony to the presence of the artist Francisco Goya himself'.

Autumn Sonata, 2021, (adhesive tape, charcoal, pastel, aluminium and epoxy on canvas)

Unknown Destinations and Imprecise Arrivals, 2022-23, (mixed media with epoxy and neon)

Mexico City, 1987 

The Orient, 1987, (tar, lead and charcoal on paper)

My Time is not Your Time, 1989-2014, (mixed media)

The Pride of the Gypsies, 1979, (mixed media)

Africa II, 2014, (glass on canvas, pastel, lamp and neon)

Looking closer. 

Panayotidis has smashed the glass on quite a few of his paintings. He says: 
'I break the glass to give the work a painterly look'.

Hide, Knowledge, 2011, (mixed media with steam)

Every few minutes, steam would start coming out of the drawer.

'Now I'll have to reveal the secrets of my work. At one point, when I was working on a series of artworks in which I was making interventions by hand on the surface, in order to cover it with a painterly mist, I came across a workshop working with steam and I said to himself, 'This is it'. And so, I incorporated artificial fog'.

and then the writing would become apparent 'Hide, Knowledge'.

Illuminated Horizon II, 2010, (charcoal and coloured pencil on canvas with backlighting)

Wise, 2013, (suitcase with steam and neon)

Looking closer. Steam and neon again

Every Day is one Dreaming Day, 2014, (neon, shirt, plexiglass, iron wire, glass glued on canvas)

Nemesis, 2013, (glass on canvas, knife, paper)

a view from the side

Silence in Solitude, 2020, (adhesive tape, charcoal, pastel, aluminium and epoxy on canvas)

Tired Light, 2016, (cardboard, adhesive tapek shirt, epoxy and neon)

Spirit, Hide, 2012, (brass with steam, glass and plexiglass)

I had to wait for quite a while before the steam started on this one