Mayday Mayday!
Responses from 24 artists on Instagram from 29 May to 21 June 2023.
Click here to read the press release, click here to view.
Mayday Mayday!
Responses from 24 artists on Instagram from 29 May to 21 June 2023.
Click here to read the press release, click here to view.
Colette Morey de Morand RIP
Sadly, Colette Morey de Morand died on Friday, 9 December 2022 at St Marys Hospital, Paddington.
Colette was one of the original members of RAG when it began in 1986. She exhibited in our first exhibition at Fulham Palace in 1987 and took part in most of our exhibitions since. She was always a willing participant in RAG activities: attending meetings, participating in Artist Talks and making her studio available for group collections of artworks, notably for the Spanish exhibitions. (Image: Colette - central holding glass - at the ‘Stars in your Eyes’ Institute of Physics exhibition, 2012).
A committed abstract painter, who consistently produced vibrant and ambitious work, she was always open to art opportunities, from Open Studios to international residencies. I began to get to know her during the week I spent in Moscow for RAG’s exhibition there in 1988; and then in 1990, working for a month in the Artists Union studios in Cheyuskinskaya, Moscow, with nine other RAG artists and about 60 soviet artists. Various high profile receptions and dinners were laid on for us and, at one of the first, when the dance music started, Colette broke the ice by confidently walking across the floor to ask the director to dance. She was a participant in life, in art, in conversation and in books and culture. As part of the Russian Exchange, RAG hosted 30 soviet artists in London. Colette threw a party for them in her flat in Melbury Road, Kensington (the ex-studio of Holman Hunt) to which she had generously invited a number of well known British artists who she was friends with, including John Hoyland and Patrick Caulfield. She was also a good friend of Paula Rego - they had adjacent studios in Berry Street, Clerkenwell for a number of years. She was, with Paula and G. Calvert, at Victor Willing’s exhibition in 2019 at Hastings Contemporary.
Colette with Graham High, 2015
In 1968 she met Clement Greenberg in New Zealand and later worked in her friend, Anthony Caro’s Triangle Workshop in New York State, where she would steal Larry Poon’s ‘wasted’ paint to make her own work.
She completed residencies in Galicia, Bulgaria, Turkey, India, Berlin, the USA, Ireland, the UK and more.
Colette, with her roots in Paris, Canada, New Zealand, White Russia and the UK operated in an international modernist tradition and maintained a committed practice over decades. In the critical re-evaluation that seems to be taking place at the moment regarding overlooked women and minority artists, Colette deserves a much higher profile and recognition for her contribution to British Abstract Painting over the last 40 years.
But on a more personal note... it was always a delight and a huge pleasure to meet and spend time with Colette, to talk, to look at paintings. We will miss her.
CMdM: “Geometric abstraction has a working space that is not illusionist, but a space created for its own purposes. Made by a kind of intuitive synthesis, my paintings float in infinite space, shifting layers that are neither figure nor ground, or are both figure and ground, ...perceptions are altered and ambushed... And the focus can wander between infinite space and the minute.”
“Certainly, everything I experience is in the work... Painting is a translation into visual language of invisible states of mind engendered by our emotional and intellectual responses to our existence... Translation into painting is beautifully complex, since it is the materiality that carries the ideas forward.” From An Interview with Artist C. Morey de Morand by Julie Karabenick, Geoform, 2005 (booklet and website) www.geoform.net.
“As with all Morey de Morand’s work, the point is not what is known but what is felt, what is left to be imagined.“ Charles Darwent, art critic of the Independent on Sunday, from the introduction to her show at Poussin Gallery, 2010
"Encountering Colette initially during the planning and delivery of the RAG Russian exchanges, was one of the most crucial influences in my life as a woman artist. Her indomitable and relentless focus on painting, the curiosity, honesty and joy with which she met everything else in life, was the example I needed and will always treasure." G. Calvert
To see her paintings view her page on this site, and on www.cmoreydemorand.co.uk and www.thelondongroup.co.uk
Brian Deighton, December 2022
Winter Calendar on Instagram
Twenty eight RAG artists present ‘Drawings’ during the festive month of December. The works, revealed through numbers randomly allocated by Clare Belfield, show a range of drawings that are thought provoking and aesthetically satisfying.
Each artist was asked to give a sentence in response to the question: “What does drawing mean to you?” See their answers on Instagram @riversideartistsgroup this December.
All work sold will donate 50% to West London Welcome
West London Welcome is a local charity that runs a community centre for and with refugees, migrants, people seeking asylum, and other locals. It works together with local people to provide a safe, positive experience of community, to reduce isolation, build inclusion and confidence, and challenge injustice.
From: Thursday 1 - Friday 31 December
Daily postings: @riversideartistsgroup throughout December
RAG members: Mike Abrahams, Susan Bazin, Clare Belfield, Peter Blegvad, Natalia Bobrova, Joanna Brendon, G Calvert, Stephen Carter, Peter Charalambides, Emma Davis, Josie Deighton, Lucille Dweck, Shona Elrick, Chloe Fremantle, Maire Gartland, Aude Grasset, Sarah Granville, Janey Hagger, Anton Harding, Martin Ireland, Seil Lien, Marianne Moore, Jane Oldfield, Felicity Swan, Celia Toler, Greta Wakil, Miles Watson and Stephen Williams
Click here to read the press release.
Many Rivers to Cross
As part of the Totally Thames Festival 2022, we are delighted to announce a new exhibition - Many Rivers to Cross. Member artists will be showing new work themed on the River Thames, or as a metaphorical interpretation of the nature and influence of rivers. The exhibition will take place in the gallery spaces at Riverside Studios, opening Friday 2 September and running daily until Sunday 2 October. Each artist is collaborating with another maker, poet, object or app to create work ranging from visual media to performance, poetry and sound.
Exhibiting artists: Mike Abrahams, Susan Bazin, Lynne Beel, Clare Belfield, Peter Blegvad, Natalia Bobrova, G Calvert, Stephen Carter, Grazyna Cydzik, Brian Deighton, Josie Deighton, Lucille Dweck, Shona Elrick, Chloe Fremantle, Máire Gartland, Saadeh George, Sarah Granville, Aude Grasset, Janey Hagger, Anton Harding, Martin Ireland, Seil Lien, C Morey de Morand, Jane Oldfield, Dee Semple, Sena Shah, Felicity Swan, Celia Toler, Miles Watson, Stephen Williams
Collaborating partners include: Heather Allan, Clive Barger, Frans van den Boogaard, Saul Boyer, Cathy Dineen, Joe Cang, Francesca Giuliano, John Greaves, Pauline Harding, Simon Hiscock, Jackson Holmes, Langston Hughes, Geoff Lee, Shepherd Manyika, Madeleine Marsh, Belinda McKenna-Bicknell, Vanessa Nova Nassar, Araba Ocran, Rita Parniczky, Giacomo Pini, Pam Toler
From: Friday 2 September - Sunday 2 October daily
Riverside Studios, Hammersmith, London W6 9BN
Riverside Studios
Daily postings: @riversideartistsgroup throughout September
Free workshop programme: supported by Arts Council England, will run throughout September, for further details, click here
Light Seeking Light
RAG members: Chloe Fremantle and Peter Blegvad
Light Seeking Light is an exhibition of works by the artist couple in the beautiful new RWS Galleries, just next to the National Gallery. The show is curated by Jenny Blyth Fine Art, and will show a selection of Chloe's luminous abstract acrylics and gouaches from recent years and Peter's 'flightless kites' – 3D mixed media constructions begun during the pandemic, plus prints and drawings.
Image: Wing Kite by Peter Blegvad, Acrylic, collage and mixed media on wood, 24 X 24 cm
From: 1 - 12 November 2022
RWS Galleries, 3-5 Whitcomb St, London WC2H 7HA
Email: Jenny Blyth
Jenny Blyth Fine Art
Bankside Gallery and Awards
RAG member: Sarah Granville
One of three limited edition prints, exhibited at Bankside Gallery show Summer at Bankside, home to the Royal Society of Painter Printmakers and the Royal Watercolour Society.
Image: Bath 2, Aquatint etching, 19 x 26 cm
From: 5 August - 11 September 2022
Bankside Gallery, Thames Riverside, 48 Hopton Street, London SE1 9JH
Bankside Gallery
Sarah's work, Neighbours (Gouache 21 x 31 cm) featured in the Federation of British Artists show Winners: Award Winning Artists 2020-2022, at the Mall Galleries in July and August 2022. She has also received the St Cuthberts Mill Award for works on Paper presented by the Chelsea Art Society 73rd Annual Open Exhibition on 16-20 June 2022.
Licoricia of Winchester
RAG member: Lucille Dweck
The painting will be exhibited at the Jewish Museum to publicise the work of the Licoricia of Winchester Appeal. It has also been published in a book about Licoricia of Winchester by Rebecca Abrams, click here for more.
Image: Licoricia of Winchester, Oil on linen, 40 x 30 cm
On other news, Lucille's painting Liz and Emma, Hampstead Ponds (Oil on linen, 211 x130 cm) for the private collection of Mark and Liz AstaireIt, has arrived in LA to be installed in its final resting place where it will be on permanent exhibition.
Burton Gallery / Mercer Gallery
RAG member: Brian Deighton
Brian is showing a number of works as part of Coastal Currents at the Burton Gallery in September and the Mercer Gallery, September to January.
Image: The Passing, Acrylic and bleach on dyed canvas, 70 x 100 cm, Mercer Gallery
Saturdays and Sundays through September 2022, 11 am - 5pm
Burton Gallery, 5 Marine Court, St Leonards on sea, TN38 0DS
Burton Gallery
From: 17 September 2022 - 8 January 2023
Tuesday - Sunday 10am-4pm
Mercer Gallery, 31 Swan Road,Harrogate HG1 2SA
Mercer Gallery
Environmental Action / Combat Stress
RAG member: Jane Oldfield
An installation in HEAT’s home action event about cutting our carbon footprint, then exhibited at Hungerford Library.
Image: The Thin Blue Line; our atmosphere
24 September 2022
Home Action Event, Hungerford Town Hall, High St, Hungerford RG17 0NF
Hungerford Environmental Action Team
Jane also has work in the Combat Stress Secret Postcard Auction for this year's charity auction. She sold three postcards in the 2021 auction.
Open Studio
RAG member: Máire Gartland
Máire is participating in Open Studios based at the London Museum of Water and Steam which is part of Brentford Creative Mile.
Image: Blue Angel, Leaded, painted and appliquéd glass
11am-5pm
Best of Times, Worst of Times
RAG member: Mike Abrahams
Commissioned by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, Mike Abrahams and artist Francesca Giuliano collected some 300 responses to how lockdown and coming out of lockdown affected people's reading habits, distilling them into two aphorisms – I always read and I wish I'd read. The paintings were installed in May 2022 in the foyer of the library together with a regularly updated digital installation of Readers' Reviews on screens in all the libraries across the borough.
Image: Best of Times, Worst of Times, 2022, House paint on mdf, two composite panels each 270 x 135 cm
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2022
RAG members: Lynne Beel, Emma Davies, Chloe Fremantle and Peter Blegvad
Four RAG members work featured in this years show on the theme of Climate.
Image: Summer Beams Eternal by Lynne Been, Giclee print, 44 x 32 cm
Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD
‘Know Your Rights’
RAG member: Grazyna Cydzik
The painting has its origins in the wax models of Marilyn Monroe and Angelina Jolie at Tussaud London. It is exhibited in the reception area of the Hallam Conference Centre as part of a show of four artists' works.
Image: Know Your Rights, 2022, Household paint, oil stick, acrylic paint, collage, on acrylic sheet, 153 x 122 cm
Postcards from the River’s Edge
Exhibiting artists: Susan Bazin, Natalia Bobrova, Joanna Brendon, G. Calvert, Grazyna Cydzik, Emma Davis, Brian Deighton, Josie Deighton, Lucille Dweck, Clare Belfield, Shona Elrick, Chloe Fremantle, Máire Gartland, Sarah Granville, Saadeh George, Janey Hagger, Martin Ireland, Jane Oldfield, Denise Semple, Felicity Swan, Celia Toler, Marie-Clare White, Stephen Williams and Julie Peel.
Postcards from the River’s Edge, was the second of RAG's shows themed around 'River', with members showing two new works, one ‘postcard’ and another larger piece. In addition to the exhibition at the Robert Phillips Gallery at the Riverhouse Barn Arts Centre, Walton-on-Thames, free workshops and story telling events are scheduled during the show with guest artist, Julie Peel, a ceramicist, showing along with RAG members.
From: Wednesday 27 April - Sunday 8 May
Robert Phillips Gallery, Riverhouse Barn Arts Centre, Walton-on-Thames
Riverhouse Barn Arts Centre
Felicity Swan
RAG member: Felicity Swan
Felicity's work is featured in three shows/events:
Mind at Kingshill House is a group exhibition exploring how important it is to ‘be here, present/be here now’ and find space for creativity, whilst exploring escapism through art and craft. Two of Felicity's drawings on show are from her collaboration with oral storyteller Belinda McKenna-Bicknell. They work to combine intuitive drawing and spontaneous storytelling, responding to each other in the moment.
Image: Gala-wala & the Jum Jum Tree, 2021, mixed media on paper, 85 x 60 cm
From: 26 February - 16 April 2022
Kingshill House, Kingshill Lane, Dursley, Gloucs GL11 4BZ
Kingshill House
Teddington Art Trail launched by charity Arts Richmond is an opportunity for artists in the borough to show in more than 20 shop and business windows in Teddington. Felicity's work is at solicitors Kagan Moss.
From: 1-30 April 2022
Kagan Moss, 22 The Causeway, Teddington TW11 0HF
For further information, email Linda White at Arts Richmond: lindawhiteis@hotmail.com
Kagan Moss
Felicity will be showing again with painter Wendy Winfield and ceramicist Carmela Kantorowicz over two weekends during Kingston Artists Open Studios (KAOS), Kingston-upon-Thames.
11-12 and 18-19 June 2022, 10am-5pm
15B Crescent Road, Kingston-upon-Thames KT2 7RD
For further information, email Felicity: felicity@felicityswan.com
Chloe Fremantle
RAG member: Chloe Fremantle
Chloe Fremantle has recently been 'promoted' to becoming a full RWS member. She is showing four of her recent series of gouaches Rivers of Life at the Royal Water Colour Society’s Spring Show Reflections at Bankside Gallery. The show is in part a homage to the Queen and her 70 year reign, as she is the RWS’s patron.
Image: River of life 52, 2022, Gouache, blue & mauve, 34 x 34 cm
Royal Watercolour Society Open 22
RAG members: Shona Elrick, Chloe Fremantle and Sarah Granville
The RWS Open Exhibition 2022 at Bankside Gallery is just a few yards upstream from Tate Modern. Formerly known as the Contemporary Watercolour Competition, the RWS Open is the largest open-submission water-media exhibition in the world, attracting thousands of submissions nationally and internationally each year. Rag members, Shona, Sarah and Chloe are delighted to have works included in this prestigious show.
Chloe Fremantle has recently been 'promoted' to becoming a full RWS member – she was previously an Associate member (ARWS).
Image: Shona Elrick, Storm Coming, Banff Bay, Acrylic, painted newsprint collage and mixed media on 300gsm paper, 28 x 32 cm framed
Weary Harold
RAG member: Renata Fernandez Zarauza
Renata is showing two paintings in a group show called Weary Harold at ASC Gallery. Weary Harold, the Byronic hero from the epic poem, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, has been both venerated and ridiculed through the ages for his ambitious longing for adventure, connection and purpose. He travels the world in a quest for meaning beyond life's shallow pleasures yet is often left unfulfilled. This is where the exhibition takes place - looking to the spaces between.
Image: NL Series Alien No1, Oil on repurposed canvas, 52 x 74 x 4 cm
Licoricia of Winchester
RAG member: Lucille Dweck
Licoricia of Winchester by Lucille was shown at the unveiling reception of the statue of Licoricia by Ian Rank-Broadley FRSS in the great hall at Winchester.
Image: Licoricia curtseys in front of Henry III in the Great Hall, Winchester, Oil on linen 16 x 12"
10 February 2022
Winchester Great Hall
For more information click here
‘Imagine, Observe, Remember’ online talk
RAG member: Peter Blegvad
Peter gave an illustrated talk recorded last November for Ben Katchor’s Comics Symposium. "Imagine, Observe, Remember is a manual and a meditation. A tactile (through judicious use of different paper stocks), rather beautiful and mentally engaging confluence of nimbleness and heft." Chris Cutler, ReR.
Image: 'Imagine, Observe, Remember' by Peter Blegvad, designed by Colin Sackett, published in 2021 by Uniformbooks
Notting Hill Artists Christmas Show 2021
RAG member: Lynne Beel
This artwork by Lynne Beel reflects on the similarities and differences between Obelisks and Totems appearing as public monuments (from her Egyptimisms series) and is featured in the Notting Hill Artists Christmas Show 2021.
Image: Obelisks and Totemisms, Mixed media, 21.05 x 73.05 cm