Friday 2 December 2011

The Art of Coincidence?

I spent a day in London earlier in the week and passing through New Bond Street, I nipped into The Fine Art Society for a leisurely look at the latest exhibition. The paintings that caught my eye were portraits by Gerald Brockhurst. Today I was in Southampton at the City Art Gallery and there he was again, just one painting this time, Portrait of a Girl, and very fine indeed. Until this week, I knew nothing of the work of Gerald Brockhurst, but coincidence has inspired me to mention it here and to find out more about his life and works.

The Fine Art Society exhibition of his work ended on 30th November 2011 alas, but the exhibition at the Southampton City Art Gallery is on until 2nd January 2012. The exhibition is actually a retrospective of the work of Boo Ritson, and the Gerald Brockhurst Portrait of a Girl is included in her choice of paintings from the Southampton City Art Gallery permanent collection. The Boo Ritson exhibition is well worth a visit; she physically paints her subjects in thick emulsion paint and then has the scene photographed while the paint is still wet.

The photo at the top isn't as irrelevant as it first appears; on the way out of the Southampton City Art Gallery, I was taken with the beauty of the banks of shrubs lining the courtyard entrance and snapped a picture; they're Viburnum davidii.



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