ARTS & EXHIBITIONS

Artist and designer Katie Mawson returns to Gallery Nine with her collages using antique cloth-bound books. Ceramicist Anna Lambert makes handbuilt earthenware ceramics using various techniques including slab-building, modelling, and painted slips. Jeweller Duibhne Gough’s work is defined by simple forms, and jeweller Helen Noakes works in resin and silver with miniature figures incorporated into the designs.

Farnhill White Path Bowl and Grass Woods Jug by Anna Lambert

Modern ArtBuyer is hosting its Winter Open House pop-up in Limpley Stoke, featuring an extensive selection of contemporary limited edition prints and original paintings in a relaxed home setting. Whether you’re on the hunt for the perfect gift or an inspiring piece for yourself, please pop in and enjoy a coffee or a glass of prosecco with us.

Precious by Maria Rivans

Nalini Malani: My Reality is Different Malani has created new video animations featuring famous paintings from the National Gallery and the Holburne. Encompassing over 40 meters of wall, the 25 striking new animations immerse

the viewer in a panorama of nine large video projections, played in a continuous loop, with the inspiration including pictures by Caravaggio, Bronzino, Jan van der Venne and Johann Zoffany. By overlapping the nine video projections, Malani has gone beyond the Western linear view.

Rodin –Degas: Impressionist Sculpture Representations of the human body by Auguste Rodin and Edgar Degas, and their expression of its energy through both dynamic and static poses.

Featuring themes such as storytelling, animals, humour and violence, here is a selection of Dame Elisabeth Frink’s bronzes and works on paper. holburne.org , 1988. Image © Li Qun Late Return in Early Spring Li Qun,

Revolution, Propoganda, Art: Printmaking in Modern China, The Museum of East Asian Art, until 3 June 2023 This exhibition showcases a series of prints selected from Muban Educational Trust’s collection of over 6,000, and tells the story of China’s 20th-century wars, revolution and rejuvenation. Artistic trends, political movements and technical developments in modern Chinese printmaking are explored, and viewers will be invited to consider some fundamental issues of Chinese culture in the 20th and 21st centuries. meaa.org.uk

New work by Ruth Brownlee, Nick Mackman and Chris Keenan Beaux Arts Bath, 12–13 York Street Bath, until 23 December This new exhibition features the work of three artists. One of Shetland’s best-known artists, Brownlee paints the island’s everchanging dramatic conditions, exploring the relationship with land, sea and sky; Mackman is a sculptor of one-off, Raku fired clay animal models; and Keenan works in hand thrown Limoges porcelain to create beakers, bowls, cups and more.

Sandra Higgins Art is delighted to exhibit works by Bath artist, Mark Elliott Smith. Meticulously painted in flat, crisp colour, Mark’s large paintings embody the movement and animation of music; in turn, they impart an energising, positive sense of possibility to the space that surrounds them. “There is a rhythm and symmetry within the apparent chaotic nature in my work; organised in such a way that a moment of perfect balance and harmony, within the explosive noise, is formed.” Mark Elliott Smith

Rocking with the Weapons of Creation and Destruction, acrylic on canvas, 160 x 160 cm

Visit the online gallery to view Mark’s latest work or contact Sandra to arrange a private view or studio visit.

Painting by Gill Cox

The award-winning monthly Bath Contemporary Artists’ Fair (BCAF) is back on Sunday 11 December. Committed to bringing the best of contemporary art from the city and beyond to the heart of Bath, the fair has created a regular space where artists can network, share ideas, connect with the public, and where the public can connect with art. Visitors can browse the works of local artists and admire fine art, photography, sculpture, textiles, ceramics and much more, all under the vaulted glass roof of Green Park Station. For updates and exhibiting artists visit the website. bcaf.co.uk

This exhibition features over 100 new oil paintings and prints by the ever-popular

Bath-based artist, ‘Pete the Street’. The exhibits follow his footsteps through the streets and green places of Bath and Bristol, as well as places further afield and domestic scenes from his home. Having worked with the gallery on a number of occasions, Brown is perfectly suited to updating the tradition of visually recording life in Bath – a legacy well represented in the gallery’s permanent collection, encompassing Turner to Sickert.

An opportunity to buy affordable art, prints and cards by six local artists: Charlotte Farmer, Sue Porter, Sarah Bull, Dean Jenning, Natalie Bedford and Jet Pictures (Jason Dorley-Brown and Emma Taylor).

Artwork by Sarah Bull (Dipdot Designs)

“I aim to present a contemporary perspective on some familiar places. I often focus on the darker side of Bath architecture with peeling paint and stained stonework.”

David’s work is being exhibited at The Claremont Pub, 5 Claremont Road, Bath; and at The Old Crown, Weston, Bath.

Custom prints are available online in a range of sizes – see the website:

Image: Gothic Winter, A2 framed giclée print by David Ringsell. This building with a brooding background is viewed from the Kennet and Avon canal

As a collector and dealer of Mid-Century Modern (MCM) art, I am surrounded by an evergrowing collection of unique, distinctive and often very charming array of paintings and prints.

The term ‘Modern’ in art refers to a massively wide genre that encompasses a myriad of different styles or movements –think Impressionism, Cubism, Fauvism, Minimalism, Expressionism, Abstract Expressionism, the list could go on and on. If you are familiar with these movements, you’ll be able to identify them in ‘Modern’ paintings quite quickly. But I think it is also worth knowing a different approach to appreciating art, one that is less about understanding historical contexts or agendas, and more about trusting your gut, letting your eyes wander, and allowing yourself to feel.

To give you some context, Modernism is an art movement that rejects the old way of realistically depicting people or objects, and moves towards experimentation with form (the shapes, colours and lines that make up the work), and an emphasis on materials, techniques and processes.

Artists working under a Modernist ethos don’t want to represent things simply as we see them. They want to incorporate their own emotions and bring attention to the things we normally overlook. By not depicting what they see around them in a realistic way, they can embrace their imagination and their unconscious, and unleash their creativity. They don’t have to work within the rules of the natural world, and are free to play with new inventions, and transport themselves (and the viewer) to different worlds.

For example, if you look at a realistic painting of a view out of a window, you’ll notice the view. But a Modernist painting might try to make you notice the actual paint on the canvas, the shape of that window and how it plays with the shapes of things within the view. The artist might also change up the colours completely, so that you get an idea of the artist’s mood and emotions in the process of painting.

So, here are my top three tips for learning how to look, and appreciate, modern art:

There is an art book by John Berger, from 1972, called Ways of Seeing. Berger began with the assertion that a baby learns to see before it learns to talk, read or compute things in the world. A child reacts to its surroundings with electrons and neurons firing off in the brain to form new connections and knowledge centres. This act of visual perception leads to thoughts and verbal reactions, much in the same way that art stimulates first the eye, then the brain.

So, relieve yourself of the idea that you need to ‘understand’ an artwork. Although it can be interesting and useful to know what the artist was thinking, or how different factors (political, social or physical conditions) affected his or her hand, your personal relationship with a work of art, however superficial, is just as (if not more) important to your own understanding or appreciation of the work than any prescribed meaning the artist was striving for.

If Modernist artists were working under the ethos of freedom, then freedom should be your guiding light to looking!

Lead with your eyes and notice the physical qualities of the artwork. Let your eyes scan the artwork from left to right, up and down, background to foreground, and then all around. Pick out shapes and forms, notice if they repeat throughout the picture. Pay attention to the texture of the paint: is it thick or thin; does it have any other material added to it; do you see areas of impasto (where the paint is applied so thickly it stands proud of the surface)? If you’re looking at a sculpture or a relief work, see if you can spot any shadows cast by its form. If it is a painting, pay attention to whether the artist has let the canvas show through. If they have, more often than not that is a conscious attempt to remind you that this is paint on a surface, and not an imitation of reality.

If a painting is framed, it can be quite enjoyable to look at the frame as a work of art in itself. Often a wide-profile frame can draw your focus inwards towards the painting and encourage you to focus in on details. Colours on the frame can play with colours within the picture, highlighting certain shades or tones that would otherwise go unnoticed.

Whenever I speak to people who are new to collecting or buying art, I always encourage them to start with a piece that reminds them of a place they’ve been to, someone they know, or a piece of music they’ve listened to.

Even if an artwork doesn’t resemble anything recognisable, its texture, colour or tactility could make you feel a certain way. Perhaps you want to reach out and touch it, or perhaps it gives you the ‘heebie-jeebies’ (and don’t forget a negative response still means it had an impact!). The same way listening to music can make you feel a certain way, art is much the same, if you let it.

In a nutshell, remember that enjoying art doesn’t have to be about names, dates, and historical context. One of the main reasons why I buy and collect Modern Art is that it reminds me that I don’t always have to make sense of things; sometimes it is important to let go. As Pablo Picasso said, “The world doesn’t make sense, so why should I paint pictures that do?” n

BELOW LEFT: The Trio, a whimsical oil painting depicting three extended human heads outlined in red, seemingly in conversation; BELOW RIGHT: A selection of artworks from The Discerning Palette