London recommends apsley house

Are you planning to visit our brick and mortar parent Gallery Luminairearts?

Why not make it a double date and visit what used to be known as Number One, London.

This very special address belonged to no other but Duke of Wellington. He doesn’t live there anymore, but you can visit his old place and look at his stuff. We recommend it because it is beautiful and has some great art on the walls including some fetching portraits.

The Apsley House as it is known these days is about 5 minutes walk from our parent gallery and stands right next to the entrance to Hyde Park at Hyde Park Corner.

They do have an entrance fee (we don’t!, contact us here) but if you happen to have an Art Fund card, you are in luck and can visit free of charge.

After looking at all the splendid art at Duke’s walls, you might consider filling up your walls.

If your tastes are similar and the more traditional genres of landscape and portraiture are your thing, we have some lovely pieces for you to consider.

Podi Lawrence, Grand Canale, Venice It’s impossible not to love Venice. The lack of cars, ancient history feeling, colours, amazing light, sleek gondolas, incredible ice cream and of course, so much art. Venice used to have quite a different reputation in the past where now it is a romantic city escape. Still beautiful though and still drawing in artists who fall for the charm of this floating city.

This sunlit painting brings to mind pink sunrises and the stirring atmosphere when cities wake up at the first people are up and heading to work. Sometimes they are off to make bread and sometimes to make art.

Jane Gale, Provence There can never be a time when landscape won’t hold our hearts. Although sometimes we try really hard to remove ourselves from anything green, fortunately we still have plenty of beautiful spaces to run to when in need. Landscape, even when not considered a very important genre of painting was always popular with artists. Since Renaissance, artists looked for ways to portray distances so they look convincing. At first placed behind portraits and used as backdrops to historical painting, landscape won and now is an irreplaceable part of an artist’s language.

This acrylic on canvas is lush with green and hazy summer atmosphere. Wherever you might be from, this looks like a place for a perfect picnic.

Pib, Standing Sentinel An energetic feeling sunset, with the sketchy marks of a palette knife. It holds an immediate impression as if the artist made it just for you, some minutes ago. Hurst Castle and the lighthouse is a beautiful landmark and picturesque even without a colourful sky. This painting is at once peaceful and full of the energy of the skies and sea.

Carmen Bacaoanu, Brand New Chloe

Dawn Roger, I Always Know Where to Find You

You could argue that portraits aren’t what they used to be. After all, it’s not that long ago that only the rich could have their images created to keep for the posterity. These days, everyone can snap a quick selfie.

Carmen works in finance and art gives her a way to express how she feels about the world, how women often feel about the world. She says about Chloe that she is a portrait of a woman who needs to constantly reinvent herself as the society dictates. Chloe is looking out of the canvas, surveying the world in turn and asking if this is enough for today.

Dawn’s portrait is lost in thought and in a field of flowers. It draws on a short story. It’s dark and thoughtful, the background with the light sky a flowing abstract. We all have places in our mind where people we no longer have around us live. A painting can hold them too.

Lost friends and loves, wondering in fields of flowers.