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In the studio with Angela Harding

Anthony Eyton RA

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Exhibitions FEBRUARY’S BEST ART SHOWS

AUDUBON’S BIRDS OF AMERICA

PISSARRO: FATHER OF IMPRESSIONISM

18 February to 22 June Camille Pissarro is considered the father of Impressionism, not least as he was the only artist to show work in all eight “Impressionist” exhibitions in Paris from 1874 to 1886. Now almost 150 years later, paintings spanning the French master’s entire career will

go on show alongside pieces by those he inspired, such as Claude Monet, Georges Seurat and Paul Gauguin. Above all, however, Pissarro’s ahead-of-the-curve versatility will be underlined here, from the early, chunky flat marks of Farm at Montfoucault in Snow, to the optical mixing of View from my Window [above]. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. www.ashmolean.org

12 February to 8 May The great American ornithologist and artist John James Audubon broke new ground when he published his ambitious book, Birds of America, back in the 19th century. Not only did he depart from his peers by illustrating birds in their natural setting, but each of the 435 life-size, hand-coloured prints measured nearly one-metre high. More than 40 of these plates are to go on show in this new interpretation of the ornithological illustrator’s work, which despite being published nearly 200 years ago, still proves to be a pertinent reminder of the fragility and beauty of our natural environment. National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh. www.nms.ac.uk

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BEATRIX POTTER: DRAWN TO NATURE

12 February to 8 January 2023 Whether it’s Peter Rabbit sneaking into Mr McGregor’s vegetable patch or Jemima Puddle-Duck’s search to lay her eggs, Beatrix Potter’s illustrated stories have enraptured young audiences since they first appeared in 1901. Now you can be transported back to your childhood with this family-friendly exhibition which explores the artworks, conservation work and personal life of this talented watercolourist. Victoria and Albert Museum, London. www.vam.ac.uk

Dates may change due to ongoing Covid-19 restrictions Check gallery websites before you travel

PLACES IN TIME: THE ART OF KENNETH STEEL

Until 2 May There’s a certain familiarity to Kenneth Steel’s classic mid-century travel posters, yet unfortunately his name remains little known within the art world. Giving the late Sheffield-born artist and illustrator the belated recognition he deserves, however, is this showcase of work, ranging from his early prints and iconic poster designs for British Railways to the watercolour and oil paintings he exhibited later in his career. Weston Park Museum, Sheffield. www.museums-sheffield.org.uk

24 February to 29 August Stories of surrealism tend to get stuck in 1920s Paris, and while it can’t be denied that the movement originated in the French capital, its impact has stretched far beyond the confines of continental Europe, as this extensively researched exhibition proves. From avant-garde Japanese artist Harue Koga [right] in Tokyo to British painter Leonora Carrington in Mexico City, artists across the globe have been united by surrealism’s subversive ideas and revolutionary spirit. Tate Modern, London. www.tate.org.uk

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NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, TOKYO

SURREALISM BEYOND BORDERS

Artists & Illustrators

Fresh Paint Inspiring new artworks, straight off the easel

Daisy Sims-Hilditch Strolling along the streets of London’s Chelsea, past grand redbrick Victorian houses, it’s not hard to be transported back to the 19th century, when the area was an enclave of acclaimed artists. Thankfully this painterly tradition, led by former residents such as John Singer-Sargent, JMW Turner and James Abbott McNeill Whistler, is being kept alive by plein air advocate Daisy Sims-Hilditch, whose in situ paintings of Chelsea and its surrounds (as well as the snow-covered Alps) are to go on show in January at the city’s Portland Gallery. One artist of note who has fed more directly into Daisy’s latest work is the Camden Town Group’s Walter Sickert. A subtle tribute to the postImpressionist awaits in her depiction of the Piano Nobile Gallery’s façade, painted while a recent exhibition of his work was on display inside. “He is one of my absolute favourite painters,” explains Daisy. “I was very pleased when the lady in the red coat came to sit down on the bench as I was captivated by Sickert’s use of red especially in his theatre pictures.” More apparent is Daisy’s delicate descriptions of light and shade, a contrast investigated throughout her plein air work. “Painting in situ is the only way to effectively interpret and translate the energy and freshness with my brush,” she explains. “Light in the real world is a transient, fickle thing which you must be there for, to capture in that fleeting moment.” Having studied at the famed Charles H Cecil Studios in Florence, the London oil painter has more recently been developing her palette choices to better capture the way light plays on different surfaces, whether it’s the dappled light on lemon-hued shop awnings or the autumn sunshine reflecting off silver-grey pavements, as seen in the self-explanatorily titled The Sickert Exhibition at the Piano Nobile Gallery. Another subject particularly well-primed for capturing these subtle variations in tone that the changing light brings about (and one Daisy loves to capture) is the River Thames. “You begin to appreciate how light plays on the river”, she says. “Over a day it can range from a green colour to a purple. To this end, I use a lot of Burnt Sienna, a rich reddish-brown paint, in both the river and on the buildings running along it, which lends a subtle harmonising effect. “Both the River Thames and the alpine landscapes lend themselves generously to a braver use of colour,” adds Daisy, whose masterful manipulation of paint serves as a reminder of what being more courageous can result in. Daisy’s solo exhibition runs 13-28 January at the Portland Gallery, London. www.daisysimshilditch.com 14 Artists

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Fresh Paint

DAISY’S TOP TIP “Try painting outdoors early in the morning – the contrejour light creates a strong tonal composition”

LEFT Daisy SimsHilditch, The Sickert Exhibition at the Piano Nobile Gallery, oil on panel, 25x30cm

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THE BIG INTERVIEW

Anthony Eyton

t 98, Anthony Eyton would be forgiven for taking it easy. The senior Royal Academician began his fine art studies 80 years ago, yet, he says, there is still much to learn and create. He has others to help him today – his housekeeper and her son, plus his daughter Sarah, a talented photographer in her own right – so that he can focus on the things that have kept him occupied all this time: thinking about, talking about, and making art. We’ve barely made it inside the hallway of his large three-storey semi, set back 20 Artists

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from a busy road in South London, before Anthony is eagerly asking if he can show us his studio. It is only as he climbs the elegant winding staircase, adorned with faded posters from previous solo shows, that he briefly shows his age, taking his time to reach the first-floor studio before that gentle exuberance resumes. Rosy of cheek and wiry of hair, if Tigger has a grandfather, it is quite possibly Anthony Eyton. The artist moved here in 1960 and his painting room has a wonderfully lived-in quality: a waft of turpentine hits your nostrils

as you enter; chairs and bare floorboards are encrusted with oil paint; every conceivable surface is piled high with brush pots and well-thumbed monographs. Even the most visionary architect couldn’t envision this space being anything other than a painter’s studio, yet it is still a surprise to learn that an early spring clean has recently taken place. “The tidy up has made a revolution, which also becomes synonymous or equal to revelation,” he says, sagely. To illustrate this, he reaches for a stack of photos arranged in a rack – beach scenes, Indian temples,

PHOTO: SARAH EYTON

As he approaches his hundredth year, the Royal Academician tells STEVE PILL about what it means to be an artist and why there is a newfound urgency to his work

ABOVE Studio Interior, 2015, oil on canvas, 140x120cm

a nude figure – all possible subjects, newly rediscovered amid the clutter. The east-facing aspect wouldn’t be to every artists’ tastes, yet on this bright winter morning, the room is flooded with a soft, warm light that makes every object glow with potential. “I’ve been on that a year,” he says, gesturing towards a large canvas resting on the floor that shows his studio interior. “I made very great changes just this morning,” he adds proudly. Anthony’s late friend, the artist Euan Uglow, once called him “the fastest brush alive”, but that was in reference

to his quick, deliberate mark making rather than the speed at which a painting is completed. “I am the slowest in another sense,” he says. “I always want to get it right.” Back downstairs, the walls of the openplan lounge and dining room are a testimony to the artistic circles in which Anthony once operated. An impressive charcoal drawing by Leon Kossoff hangs beside the patio doors, while the wall behind where Anthony settles himself with a coffee contains paintings by Basil Beattie and Patrick George, as well as a “minor” David Bomberg drawing.

Bomberg was one of the founder members of The London Group, a collection of radical young artists who came together in 1913. Anthony was elected to the group 50 years later. “In those days, The London Group was extremely important,” he explains. “It had the galleries in Suffolk Street and [exhibition at] the Royal Institute of Water Colours in Piccadilly, it had several rooms and was done on a very large scale. It was the latest thing, because the Royal Academy [of Arts] then was rather frowned on by all the London Group.”

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THE B I G INTE RVIE W

I’ve got to seize the moment and let my excitement about the subject galvanise me 22 Artists

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“They were a really independent group, always have been,” he adds. “Fiercely independent and rather marvellous to get them all together.” Post-war London was filled with opportunity for young, white, male painters, and with the camaraderie came creative frictions that spurred each other on. “I mean, it was bound to be a bit competitive, wasn’t it? Artists don’t talk about being against one another, but really they’re up for the game.” says Anthony. “I wanted to branch out and be my own man, as it were.”

Born in Teddington, Middlesex on 17 May 1923, Anthony John Plowden Eyton briefly enrolled in fine art at the University of Reading before conscription came in 1942 at the height of the Second World War. He resumed his studies five years later at Camberwell School of Art under the rather rigorous tutelage of William Coldstream who was a big believer in working from life and adhering to a strict form of “sight-size” measuring that involved plotting points on a canvas around which a composition could be constructed.

BELOW The Range, c.1984, oil on canvas, 146x180cm

THE B I G INTE RVIE W

In Modernists & Mavericks, Martin Gayford’s recent biography of the mid-century London art world, Anthony is quoted as saying he and his fellow Coldstream pupils, which included his good friends Euan Uglow and Patrick George, were a “rather bigoted lot” too wedded to “the certainty of drawing” to fully embrace modernity. “It’s always been a battle to break away from that accuracy,” he says today. “I still want that certainty, and still to this day I measure sometimes, but painting is so much about the excitement of the subject and being carried away by that. It’s a battle between certainty and not knowing, losing that certainty and almost letting a Zen [state] come when you get magical moments and accidents.” Later in the conversation, he returns to this point as he stops himself in the middle of reminiscing. “Can I come onto the present?” he asks rhetorically, before continuing. “I suddenly feel more alive now than I was with the London Group. I’m more alive to change. I’ve got to dig deeply into the extremes much more, rather than pussyfooting about. I’ve got to seize the moment and get to the point of letting my excitement about the subject galvanise me into going further, deeper into myself than I have before.” Painting, he says, is primarily about three fundamentals – “Who am I? What have I got to say? And how am I going to say it?” – yet ask if there was a point in his career when he remembers having a breakthrough in terms of finding the answers to those questions and he just smiles: “I’ve always wanted a breakthrough.” In truth, a breakthrough of sorts came in 1969 when he was invited to provide maternity cover for an old Camberwell friend who ran the art school at St Lawrence College in Ontario, Canada. He jumped at the chance as the campus was based in Kingston, home to the mother of his wife, Mary. “I loved her very much and we took the children out there and that’s how it all began really. This went on for two years. We went to New York, several visits, and I was obviously very influenced by the Abstract Expressionists – Rothko and De Kooning and all those people. That was obviously going to change me a little bit and then the vast skies of Canada and the intensity of blue. How was one going to express that?” With 50 students keeping him busy during the week, his own painting was largely confined to a series of plein air watercolours made on regular Sunday trips to Lake Ontario, watching how friends and family

ABOVE Wall, 1990, oil on canvas, 213x155cm

BELOW Still Life of Apples, 2015, oil on canvas, 30x42cm

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