Press Release Streetlife Serenade: 30 Years of Painting City Life Ed Gray at the House of Annetta 25 Princelet Street E16QH July 4 – July 20 Mondays & Tuesdays 11am-5pm Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays 11am-8pm Free tours for schools and local community groups by appointment Archive: www.edgrayart.com Contact: info@edgrayart.com 07914919778 Artist’s statement: Thirty years...
There’s a great pairing of two painters who understand surface tension and the possibilities of paint at the Royal Academy in two separate exhibitions, Francis Bacon Man And Beast and Jock McFadyen’s Tourist without a Guide Book. One artist grapples with internal post war fury and savagery, overwhelmingly oppressive while the other is a tour...
Whenever we spoke on the phone Georgie always told me I had a smile in my voice. The truth was the laughter and the smile was for him. Speaking usually from our respective studios I pictured him surrounded by offcuts of fabric (‘We call it cabbage in the trade Eddie!’), his beloved Bob Marley looking...
This link will take you to my review of Hogarth And Europe: Uncovering City Life for Southwark News: https://www.southwarknews.co.uk/news/vanity-cracked/
William Morris by GF Watts 1870 ‘Utopia’= ‘Nowhere’ ‘I do not want art for a few any more than education for a few, or freedom for a few’ William Morris William Morris was born 24 March 1834 Walthamstow and he is an artist whose name has weaved in and out of my life for many years....
Departure ‘Freedom is the one thing that matters – it is the departure, the new start.’ Those words were written by Max Beckmann, who was born in Leipzig on this day February 12th 1884 in reference to his 1932 triptych Departure which can be seen at the Museum of Modern Art New York. Beckmann’s early...
Girl with pink flower 1940 Soul Love ‘Like Chekhov I am a collector of souls, if I hadn’t been a painter I could have been a psychiatrist’ Alice Neel Alice Neel was born in Pennsylvania on the 28th January 1900. She studied painting at night classes and eventually enrolled at the Philadelphia School of Fine...
‘As long as I live I will have control over my being’ Artemisia Gentileschi Head Count Heads bob, set off starkly against blue gallery walls. White heads, white skin, grey hair, white hair, ears pinned forward by tight elastic, eyes squinting, peering at paint made into young luminescent flesh and too-small gallery labels as...
The first time I met the great Trinidadian Carnival designer Lincoln Rahamut I knew I was in the presence of a true artist. He worked all over the world, making and creating Carnival for everyone, regardless of ethnicity or age. He was my teacher and my friend. Like all the best teachers he gave...
If Hogarth were alive he would be 323 years old today. If the pubs were open I would surely be raising a glass to the greatest painter I know. Hogarth was the first Modernist artist, a man who left us stories that are as insightful about his own time as they are about our own. ...
‘People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them’ James Baldwin ‘The very ink in which history is written is merely fluid prejudice’ Mark Twain ‘The future is unwritten’ Joe Strummer Don’t fear The Watchmen Walking the streets with my sketchbook, searching out ideas and energies, I’m often drawn towards street statues....
‘Harlem Shuffle’ Lenox Av and Malcom X Boulevard 2006 Boulevard of broken dreams This week I wanted to shine a light on a painting I made in 2006 after a drawing trip to the streets of Harlem NYC. Several things made me think of this painting. I was reminded that May 19th is the birthday...