Tate Britain, Cecil Collins and Millbank

I finally managed to get to the exhibition of paintings by Cecil Collins at Tate Britain, it was actually just a room which is why I had been a bit confused looking out for it. The room had about 9 paintings by Cecil Collins and a few sketches and pieces of writing in a display case and about 16 smaller ones by William Blake and they did compliment each other.
It is always much better to see Cecil Collins paintings in the flesh, as it were, as they are much more luminous than can be captured by print.
The Angel Of The Flowing Light is particularly beautiful and striking. The angel conveys an emotional and spiritual truth that on the one hand we recognise from deep within us, but at the same time seems to be from another reality. It is a moving experience to stand and engage with the painting. The Artist's Wife Sitting In A Tree is also a delightful painting.

I have always loved William Blakes work and the little pieces here have his usual blend of mysticism, vulnerability and strength.

I hadn't been to Tate Britain for a while, so I took the opportunity to look at a couple of rooms while I was there. I went into the unpainted landscape room, which has work by Hamish Fulton, Richard Long and others. I liked the combinations of photography and text in the works.

There was an interesting piece by Ian Breakwell called The Walking Man Diary, which was a series of short recordings he made in all the counties of Britain, The recording of Fife was playing when I was there. I have been thinking about recording in my back garden for a while, which I might set up soon.In the next room RogerHiorns had a piece where he had covered an engine with copper sulphate, which had grown these vivid turquoise and blue crystals giving the engine a very different quality.
There was also a lovely installation by Vong Phaophanit, which was made of very tall bamboo poles suspended from the ceiling. You were faced with a wall of them which as you passed through made a range of sounds like a giant wind chime. In the centre was a space filled with light.

Out side Tate Britain I walked along Millbank and took some photographs of the Henry Moore sculpture and buildings. Alongside the Henry Moore there was a man doing what looked like exercises or a performance piece, it seemed to fit with the mysteriouness of some of the work I had just seen.

Seekers Trust and Cecil Collins

Last week found me at the Seekers Trust again for a few days. I was lucky the weather was a good mix of sunshine and some showers, some mist and one thunder storm. I had time to meditate, reflect, plan, draw and paint and take photographs.



The birds were singing really loudly all day, the tiniest of birds making the most noise. The jackdaws were still in the old church tower where they had usurped the white doves a year or so ago. Sitting outside on my favourite bench that faces the setting sun, listening to the birds, the noise of traffic more like the rush of distant water, i drank in the colours and sounds.




I have been reading a book Cecil Collins meditations, poems, pages from a sketch book. from Golgonooza press.
" Contemplation is the basis of my painting in Nature I search always for the symbol"



"Art is the illusion by which we can understand Realty"

Cecil Collins, new pastel and visitor to the bird feeder.

On Tuesday I was delighted to see a documentary film about Cecil Collins, it was shown as part of the Temenos programme. I have appreciated Cecil Collins work for a long time, his visionary sensibility, use of symbol and colour. I did not know that much about him however. This year is his centenary, so there are a number of events lined up, which is great.

I was interested in some of the ways he worked, sometimes planning his paintings in his head apparently, turning over the picture in his mind over some time. The danger in this way of working, that of having done too much and then no longer being interested in actually producing the painting. Collins wanted that moment of surprise when he looked at his finished work.
Another way he worked was to take some colour and allow himself to work with that colour intuitively, the forms arising as if taking birth.

For Collins his work is concerned with the transformation of consciousness. Life he saw is surrounded by mystery, "we are asked to collaborate with mystery" I bought a lovely book of his work, Cecil Collins, Meditations, Poems, Pages from a Sketchbook, by Brian Keeble and Elizabeth Collins.I've also been working on some new pastels, one here of the Buddha, they are a bit more difficult to scan in even sprayed with fixative the surface is delicate. I need a few more skills in taking good photos of my art work.

Looking out of the kitchen window last week, I saw something on the bird feeder, a funny looking bird I thought, on closer inspection it proved to be a mouse who stayed long enough for me to get a camera