Pebble Mosaics in Cavendish Square

 Maggy Howarth who created unique pebble mosaics has died aged 79. Attracted by the appearance of the design in her Guardian obituary, I was amazed when I read that Thamesdown Borough Council commissioned two of her pebble mosaics in 1990 for Cavendish Square. I haven't heard anything about them, so thought I'd look up Cavendish Square Swindon, and there's nothing there either. It is however on the Swindon Index website where it says that one of the pebble mosaics had to be relocated to the lawn outside St. John's church due to restructuring of Cavendish Square.

Both mosaics appear on the Art UK website, two of ten entries. They looked lovely and not believing I had never heard of them, I walked over to have a look. 

This is the mosaic situated at the entrance to Cavendish Square. It has a fishy watery them with a sailing boat which seems quite strange since Swindon is about as far from the sea as you can get in the country. Maybe someone knows why this subject was chosen?

The other mosaic outside the church is much easier to understand. Maggy has depicted three birds with a steam engine inside on, a white horse in another and a cottage in the third.

Above the mosaic and below two close ups, the first with the steam engine inside:

and this one with a white horse inside

They are really beautiful and definitely worth visiting. I wonder if the one in the grass may need the weeds taking out of it. 

The Shape of Things: Still Life in Britain

 The talk about the new exhibition at Pallant House Gallery: The Shape of Things: Still Life in Britain was due to be given by Chief Curator at the Pallant, Melanie Vandenbrouck at the end of May via Zoom, however, Zoom had changed their settings and I didn't realise I needed to give people attending a passcode, or tick the no passcode box, only a handful of people were able to join us via Zoom, so Melanie kindly agreed to give the talk at the end of June. Postponing the talk meant we had two talks in June which was rather nice. 

Melanie explained a bit about PHG about the 500 objects, the Kelly bequest. How Sandy Wilson and MJ Long also extended the collection in the early 2000s. In 2006, the Golder-Thompson gift included 550 prints, drawings and ceramics. Melanie paid tribute to the generosity of donors and reminded us that the permanent collection is housed in the old house and new wing. 

The temporary exhibition programme has 2 seasons per year April/May to October and then November to April.

Melanie then showed masses of slides of the exhibition; there 150 works by 100 artists, 40 of them living, in the exhibition including the one used for the poster, Bright Intervals by Edward Wadsworth seen below loaned by Museum & Art Swindon:

Museum & Art Swindon also loaned William Roberts painting: La nature mort

Melanie showed us many wonderful views of the exhibition rooms, themed as you will see below: Still Life as a genre was born in the 17th Century when migrant Dutch artists such as Simon Verelst and Edward Collier came to England. Mary Moser, one of the two female founders of the Royal Academy in 1768 was notable for her extraordinary skill in flower paintings, historical subjects and portraits. Here are examples of some of the first Still Life paintings by these artists:

and then there are some beautiful paintings below in this group of early twentieth century artists including Nina Hamnett, Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, George Lesley Hunter, JD Ferguson, Walter Sickert and Mark Gertler featured here but others in the exhibition representing the turn of the century

Post First World War is represented by the room titled Order, Reality and Dreams
 represented by Edward Wadsworth, David Jones and Howard Hodgkins.

Next Paths to Abstraction through the dissolution of objects into arrangements of volume, form and colour featuring work of Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Anwar Jalal Shemza, William Scott and Margaret Mellis

The next room, painted black reflects on the second world war and its aftermath

After the war and into the sixties, life changed reflected in the art produced by a new group of artists

 

There are some wonderful works in the Stillness and Reflection room.

I've also included the Phoebe Cummings piece below; her exhibition of unfired clay structures will be on display until 20 October

and it looks like there's a wonderful exhibition of British Studio Ceramics in the Print Room

I'm Hoping to visit Pallant House Gallery this Thursday and really looking forward to seeing this amazing exhibition. So wonderful to have this insight into the exhibition.