ROI at the Mall Galleries
Today I visited the Mall Galleries and saw the Royal Institute of Oil Painters Annual Exhibition 2018 It was an unexpectedly mild day and autumn sun put a warm glow on our visit to the gallery. So nice to see so many great paintings in one place 'in the flesh', many of the pictures are familiar from seeing them on social media. The first thing that struck me was the difference in size of many of the paintings - seeing them online reduces all pictures to the a similar scale -
Gainsborough's Family at the NPG
Not a great fan of his finished commissioned paintings but a great respecter of his skills, it was fascinating to find out more about his life. The development of his artistic career alongside his family life. His earlier works seemed quite unexceptional, then suddenly there's a flash of brilliance. One painting would be sightly out of proportion and laboured looking and another has - normally the facial area - living, breathing life and warmth. For me the main beauty of the
