Continuing with my Sunday adventures. You will recall I started with coffee and angels at The Quarter cafe then across town to the Cornerstone then to Lime St. station. So I thought I may as well pop across to the Walker for a second look at the John Moores. I didn’t have the stamina to look at the Stuckists again!
Its very unusual for me to actually dislike an artwork so I surprised myself by finding quite a high proportion of the JM exhib come into the ‘can hardly bare to look at’ category. Perhaps I’m getting more critical, if I ever start sounding like ‘proper’ art critic please shoot me. Of course, there’s lots that I really do like and I voted for ‘Morning’ by Graham Crowley as my favourite. There are ballot boxes everywhere, the Artist who gets the visitors vote gets £1000 prize.
I’ve mentioned my lack of enthusiasm for the 1st prizewinner, if you’ve seen it you’ll know its a big orange/brown coloured thing with a black grid and as I was passing it there was a woman standing in front wearing checked trousers in similar colours and behind her was a man wearing a checked shirt in the same colour scheme. A bit of serendipity that was almost interesting, I would have taken a photo of the scene only security were ready to pounce at the merest hint of a camera-click.
The Bluecoat
I returned home via Bluecoat Chambers in School lane. Don’t tell anyone but there’s a lovely little secret courtyard/garden at the back. Here you can see an unititled sculpture by Andrew Small
You should recognise it as the anamorphic skull from The Ambassadors painting by Holbein. I wanted to take the picture from different angles but there were too many lunchtime sandwich-eaters in the way!
Laird Galbraith at Bluecoat
While at the Bluecoat I went upstairs to Laird Galbraith’s Open Studio (studio 55) and watched him paint for a while, allow plenty of time if you go here, he’s an interesting character who can keep you talking for hours. You are also invited to contribute a photo for him to use as source material for the small scenes he paints onto a larger canvass (autobiographobia). See his website