Two London Exhibitions

Graham and I had a good day in London yesterday looking at pictures.

Firstly, to Canada House just off Trafalgar Square, where some of Barbara Rae‘s exhibition The Northwest Passage can still be viewed until 16th February.  The colours she uses to paint the Arctic Circle are just stunning, and I would have liked to have seen the whole show which finished in January. But better to see some than none!

Having become inspired by the voyages of her namesake Dr John Rae, who explored the Canadian Arctic in the 1830s Barbara Rae made four trips beginning in 2015 following the route of the Northwest Passage from Greenland, through Baffin Bay to Cambridge Bay in Nunavut, Canada. There is an accompanying book Barbara Rae: The Northwest Passage, which is available online from the Royal Academy Shop.

Here are a few of my favourites which we saw.

Halkett Boat: Barbara Rae 2016

Ice Field: Barbara Rae 2017

Peel Sound – Sunset: Barbara Rae 2017

Dark Floes – Passing Peel Sound: Barbara Rae 2017

Leaving Canada House we walked the short distance to the Mall Galleries to see the Pastel Society‘s 120th annual exhibition.  We were both amazed at the quality of the work, and the incredibly fine photo-realism that could be achieved with pastels, especially in some of the portraits. The term ‘pastel’ seems to be used fairly loosely to include pencils and graphite, charcoal, oil pastels, soft pastels and conte.

I was particularly taken with some of the landscape work. These were my favourites:

Autumn Beeches: Sheila Goodman

Towards Ingleborough: Norma Stephenson

Foreshore Shade, Pin Mill: Margaret Glass

This exhibition is on until 16th February, from 10am – 5pm, closing at 3pm on the final day. If you are visiting London it is well worth a look.

In my studio: I’ve just finished The Ridgeway VIII, which I will post about tomorrow!

Friday again tomorrow, and we are a quarter of the way through February – things are looking good! 🙂