The London Art Fair Yesterday

Yesterday I went down to the London Art Fair in Islington. I've been going every year for quite a long time as it's a great chance to see lots of contemporary art in one place.

Over 100 leading UK galleries take part with stands showing their best artists. You can see the Scottish Galleries, Welsh, Cornish ......... from all over the country - all under one roof.

It's a chance to see work by favourite artists and discover new ones. Amongst those I'd come across and liked before was Paul Emsley - http://www.paulemsley.co.uk/ - who does very large charcoal drawings that are superb, subtle pieces.

Another was Kurt Jackson with some wonderful seascapes on show with the Lemon Street Gallery in Truro and Messums from Cork Street in London. There is a link to his website in the list at the bottom of the screen on the right. Others I like such as Len Tabner, Peter Prendergast, Kyffin Williams, Barbara Rae and Lucian Freud were represented - all are worth googling for stunning work. John Brown http://www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/pages/artistIntro.aspx?artistID=59 with glorious highly coloured paintings - a Scottish painter with the ongoing influence of the Scottish Colourists coming down to the present in his work. David Blackburn
http://www.hartgallery.co.uk/site/as/blackburn/work.htm with beautiful colourful but subtle abstracts in pastel and intriguing grids of paintings.

Then there were new discoveries:

Nael Hanna http://www.manorhousegallery.co.uk/hanna.htm - beautiful roaring seas, wild weather, marks full of energy and passion.

Madeleine Strobel http://www.galerie9.com/artists/cz_strobel_1.htm beautiful moody landscapes.

Sarah Gillespie http://www.artnet.com/artwork/424821681/sarah-gillespie-midwinter-sun.html a lovely image

http://www.nateart.ch do look at this beautiful watercolour -sadly I can't remember the artists name - she gave me a photo with the web address but no name! I think she was from Belgium.

Margaret Cahill http://www.commecaart.com/artists_m_cahill.html more great landscapes

James Naughton http://www.fairfaxgallery.com/james_naughton.htm huge sweeping views, really catching the drama of vast landscapes

Mark Johnson http://www.fairfaxgallery.com/mark_johnston__9th.htm more gorgeous work

Graham Dean http://www.grahamdean.com/mambo/component/option,com_gallery2/Itemid,87/?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=252 amazing figure work - the large painting that was in the exhibition looked as though the body was translucent and filled with fire - very different.

There was conceptual art - some really interesting work, quirky work like that of Beryl Cook, traditional work, botanical illustration, huge abstracts - all life was there!

Some galleries had simply nothing that appealed but that left more time for looking at those that did :) I came home loaded with cards and catalogues.

There are books for sale - we went to look at them at the end and were all just too tired to concentrate! so no purchases there :)

I went down with a couple of friends and met up with Katherine Tyrrell for the day http://makingamark.blogspot.com/ - she'd kindly brought 2 of her gorgeous sketch books with her - even more gorgeous in real life believe me! it was lovely to see the work for real. It was also the first time I'd seen a Moleskine sketchbook and I think I'm going to treat myself to one to se how I like it. I really liked the way it opens so flat. I had been going to take one - but I tend to use larger books and it would have been just too heavy to carry all day.

It was interesting to see the different angles we had on looking and choices of work, sometimes coinciding and sometimes very different. I know Katherine is going to write about the show and she'll focus on very different things.

Over coffee we talked about planning skills - KT excellent - VB zilch!!! classes and subjects, materials, websites and blogs, selling over the internet and as Alice said 'cabbages and kings' :)
I'd chatted to Katherine online for a long time and exchanged emails but hadn't met her until Sunday, we spoke on the phone on Saturday and it was as if I'd known her years! just how she is online :)

I'd stupidly stayed up late the night before revamping my website and felt like a walking zombie by the end of the day :( I slept like a log last night.

I hope readers will follow up the links I've given and check out the other artists on google - they are all people who I really admire, doing interesting creative work and are well worth looking at.