Photo Month Photo Fair and Fools and Angels, Cecil Collins

I went to the Photo Month Photo Fair at Spitalfields Market to check out the new format of the show. There weren't as many stands as I thought, though there was a mix of people and organizations there showing work and services.
I think it is a much more competitive market for photography now than it was even 5 years ago, with most people able to take their own photographs now, with many mobiles having built in cameras.Photography has lost it's mystery and darkroom skills are no longer needed. I do think there is room for photography as an art form, but those photographs need to be able to stand out in some way.
There were a surprising number of prints for sale from £5 to £25 at that price I bought a little landscape from Catherine Ames which I liked very much. her website here.

You have to sell quite a few prints at those prices though to make the cost of some of the stands.
On the one hand I like the undefined nature of Photo Month fairs, on the other I wonder about separating different aspects of photography, like reportage/documentary, portrait/figurative, art/abstract, design/craft applications and so on. Each could have a day for exhibitions for instance. May be that would attract more exhibitors and visitors.


There is a really wonderful exhibition of Cecil Collins work "Fools and Angels" in the gallery at St Martins College near Holborn station only on till tomorrow. details here




It's the best show I've seen of his work so far, it includes prints, paintings and drawings and of course many include the image of the fool or angels. I enjoyed really studying some of the work and making some little quick sketches in response to some of them.

Visionaries at Wallspace Gallery

I just caught the last day of the exhibition, Visionaries at the Wallspace Gallery near Liverpool Street Station, which was great because it was a really good exhibition. I am always looking for artists who work with spiritual themes, and here was a real collection of different work.
Three artists that I really like, sadly dead now, Albert Herbert and Norman Adams and Cecil Collins but lovely to see pieces of their work here. Norman Adams had his Dark Madonna, a large watercolour, more sombre than a lot of his work. Brian Whelan had a lovely little picture too.

Peter Howson had an amazingly emotionally powerful work of the crucifixtion. It was really good to have such a selection of work that spoke to the soul, and as an added bonus there was a book of some of Norman Adams work something I'd been searching for for years.

New pastels and Cecil Collins

Last weekend was the second conference, Catharsis Transformation through the arts, dedicated to the work of the painter Cecil Collins, at St Ethelburgha's.
Apart from forgetting just how cold an old church can be in the middle of a very cold winter, it was another enjoyable experience. An old arts council film, The Eye of the Heart, was shown, ( such a shame it's not easy to get copies of such films) where Cecil Collins made some of his erudite remarks about painting, the nature of vision and the contemporary world.



Cecil Collins said we "do not have to understand in order to create, it is necessary to create in order to understand" He believed that "to be creative you need to be vulnerable" With a child's way of seeing and that "Art is an expression of life not an explanation of it"

Inspired by Cecil Collins work and following my Tree of Life painting,I did another couple of oil pastels. One similar to the Tree of Life and one focussing on the ground, the earth under the tree, and the light of the sun.