Bill Bell, Anthony Whishaw (RA), David Storey and more

Much to see

As always, we’ve been busy; we have a large selection of new work to the gallery, including a private collection of works by the late Cumbrian artist, Bill Bell; eight works from the studio of Anthony Whishaw (RA) and a fabulous focused body of work from David Storey. These, together with much more, can be seen in our latest exhibition, New into September or via our Latest Work page.

Bill Bell

As many of you will know, we’ve long championed the paintings of Bill Bell (1928 – 2006); the Barrow-in-Furness artist who had an instantly recognisable style, split his time between his passion for painting and drawing and his career as an engineer. The collection of works by Bill have come to us from a private collection, with works such as Approaching the city, Blackbirds and windfalls and On the beach, Whitehaven some of our favourites.

Anthony Whishaw (RA)

Last week we paid a visit to the studio of Anthony Whishaw (RA). Every time we go it gets more thrilling; more works are shown and seen, works spanning the decades. Anthony is ninety four years old, a senior Royal Academician and wonderfully still paints every day in the same studio he acquired with his wife and fellow artist in 1957. How many professional artists can say they’ve worked in the same studio for sixty seven years! The BBC filmed him in the very studio in 1958 (televised in 1960) and it’s still able to be seen via THIS LINK , you'll even see one of the paintings we have available, (Portrait of a woman) by his easel in the programme!

Anthony’s work of recent years is as strong as it’s ever been, with concepts the equal to the execution. Take "This Mirror’s Memory"; an imagining of a mirror with the ability to show the viewer all that has looked into it over its life, human and animal.

Robot attempting self portrait by Anthony Whishaw (RA)

.....take also Robot attempting self portrait. An amazing, painting and wooden collage, created over some thirty years and exploring the efforts of a robot, brush in hand, attempting and failing to paint itself on canvas. Without knowing, there can be no more of a painting tapping into the current Zeit Geist  than this; the advent of AI and its possible impact on the arts; an incredible work

David Storey

Almost finally, the very talented David Storey has in the last week delivered five new paintings to the gallery. As always with David, all are top-tier, but for me, one of the strongest paintings he’s ever produced is Time Flies. Contemporary figurative painting that’s rooted in British mid twentieth century art, just our thing.

Finally, we’ll be exhibiting at the British Art Fair at the Saatchi Gallery, London from 26^th to 29^th September. We have a number of complimentary tickets which we can provide a link to, please do just say if you’d like to attend.

All for now, Steve and Christine