Posts by venue: Art

Take a look behind the scenes as a new exhibition goes up

Art   Collections & Objects   Exhibitions   Laing Art Gallery
Posted by administrator on December 18, 2012     Permalink     Comments (4)

Ana, the museum service’s picture conservator, is making the last cleaning touches to a painting for the new exhibition of pictures from the Laing’s collection. She’s using moistened cotton wool wound around a special cleaning stick – a painstaking job. The… Read more

Framing Icons: Hanging Old Masters

Art   Collections & Objects   Hatton Gallery
Posted by administrator on December 13, 2012     Permalink     Comments (3)

 “He’s slipped on the right”, I tell a patient Ray and Steve. Nimbly, blue-gloved hands raise the picture edge a fraction higher, straightening a two metre, grisaille Christ. It’s a Friday afternoon at the Hatton, and we are hanging ‘Framing Icons’,… Read more

‘Pre-Raphaelite truth to nature’ – a watercolour by John Frederick Lewis

Art   Collections & Objects   Exhibitions   Laing Art Gallery
Posted by administrator on November 16, 2012     Permalink     Leave a comment

Surrounded by tell-tale feathers, this little cat raises a paw, ready to strike again. Its prey is actually a peacock-feather fan, which a young woman is dangling teasingly above its head. Both the cat and its owner feature in an… Read more

Better than JMW Turner? Thomas Girtin’s ‘Morpeth Bridge’ watercolour

Art   Collections & Objects   Exhibitions   Laing Art Gallery   Local History
Posted by administrator on October 24, 2012     Permalink     Comments (3)

Was Girtin a better watercolourist than JMW Turner? Turner himself seemed to say so – after his friend’s early death, Turner remarked, If Tom Girtin had lived, I should have starved. He was exaggerating wildly, of course, but Turner’s words… Read more

‘The Lamentation’: A Winning Formula

Art   Collections & Objects   Exhibitions   Hatton Gallery
Posted by administrator on October 22, 2012     Permalink     Comments (1)

Sometimes if you find a winning formula, there seems little point in changing it. This could be said for certain painting compositions, some of which have been used by artists for hundreds of years. Michelangelo’s Pieta, for example, was so popular… Read more