Very much looking forward to discussing

Samuel Palmer and The Ancients

on Saturday 5th September, 1-4pm in Enfield

for further details & tickets, please visit: https://eslifelonglearning.uk/services/

Samuel Palmer (1805-1881) “Coming Home from Evening Church” [1830; Tate]

Inspired by William Blake’s poetic and mystical images, Samuel Blake, leading a group of friends called themselves The Ancients, moved to the village of Shoreham in Kent. Intoxicated by the landscape, they created artworks of an idyllic pastoral infused with the rhythms of nature and sacred belief.

Exploring these “enchanted landscapes” today, we’ll review the broader social context and ask why the most intense of the Shoreham pictures remained hidden in Palmer’s “Curiosity” portfolio until the 20th century when, rediscovered, they enthused a new generation of artists.

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With plenty to see & lots to talk about, I look forward to seeing you there!

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Notes:

The best book out there on Samuel Palmer’s life is Rachel Campbell-Johnston’s “Mysterious Wisdom: The Life and Work of Samuel Palmer” [2016; Bloomsbury publishing].

Two very good catalogues of Palmer’s etchings and paintings are by Colin Harrison [2021; Ashmolean Museum] and William Vaughan [2015; Yale] and the British Museum (Print Room) has numerous drawings and etching by Palmer: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/search?agent=Samuel%20Palmer (nb. scroll down!)

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I hope you will be able to join us on

Saturday 29th August, 11.15am (for about an hour & a half)

at The Beecroft Art Gallery, Southend-on-Sea.

to explore the art, life & times of Pauline Boty (1938-1966),

one of the most brilliant artists of British Pop Art – a movement we’ll discuss in more detail at our September meeting.

“The Only Blonde in the World” [1963; Tate]

There’ll be plenty to see & discuss as always!

Tickets are £10 (cash) on the door and include coffee & a biscuit at The Jazz Centre afterwards.

Looking forward to seeing you!

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Notes:

An excellent website to explore is Pauline Boty – Pop Art Pioneer https://paulineboty.org/

On BBC i-player, “Pop Goes The Easel” (from 1962): https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00drs8y/monitor-pop-goes-the-easel also “I Am the Sixties” https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0028nyw/pauline-boty-i-am-the-sixties

Books, below, and of course Boty is celebrated in Ali Smith’s novel “Autumn” (highly recommended!) [2016; Penguin Books]

Greetings!

I hope you will be able to join us

on Friday 21st August, 11.30am (for about an hour)

at The Beaumont, Barchester Care, 15 Cannon Hill, Old Southgate, N14 7DJ

to continue our exploration of Francis Bacon’s art by way of his 1967 diptych “Study for Head of Isabel Rawsthorne and George Dyer” (c/o Christie’s, see: https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5916864)

Last month we discussed the friendship and artistic dialogue Bacon had with Isabel Rawsthorne (1912-1992), and it is worth noting Carol Jacobi’s biography:

Francis Bacon: Portrait of Isabel Rawsthorne Standing in a Street in Soho [1967; Staatliche Museen zu Berlin]; “Out of the Cage: The Art of Isabel Rawsthorne” by Carol Jacobi [2021; Thames & Hudson publishers].

This month, we’ll look at the second face of the diptych George Dyer (1934-1971), Bacon’s lover and muse through the late 1960s – and how he was “translated” into paint by the artist.

Photo’s from Gregoire Billault’s essay: “Dyer Crouching To Star in Sotheby’s Contemporary Evening Auction”, see Sotheby‘s.

There’ll be lots to look at and discuss as always – I hope you’ll be able to come along!

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The discussions are for everyone, whether residents or local community. Please note a £3 on-the-door request to cover the cost of coffee and biscuits. With all thanks to Barchester Health Care.

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Notes:

To explore the life & art of Francis Bacon further, a very good place to start is: https://www.francis-bacon.com/ .

There’s an old Arena interview with hin on i-player – but only for a month: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002k96s/arena-francis-bacon

And there’s a very good essay by Sebastian Smee about Bacon’s time in 1970s Paris c/o the Gagosian Quarterly: https://gagosian.com/quarterly/2026/04/10/essay-francis-bacon-reinventing-realism/

Among the many books about Francis Bacon, I’d recommend:

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I hope you will be able to join us on

Saturday 25th July, 11.15am (for about an hour & a half)

at The Beecroft Art Gallery, Southend-on-Sea.

as we continue our research into the ‘long decade’ of 1950s Britain, from the end of World War II to Pop Art.

This week we’ll look paintings by Francis Bacon that feature his friends – such as fellow artist Isabel Rawsthorne, and lovers – in particular George Dyer, and allow the auto/biographical content to lead us into his world, and especially the infamous Colony Room Club presided over by the great Muriel Belcher (see: https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/the-art-of-carousing-at-the-colony-room).

Francis Bacon: (right hand panel of) “Three Studies of Muriel Belcher” [1966; private; https://www.francis-bacon.com/artworks/paintings/three-studies-muriel-belcher]

There’ll be plenty to see & discuss as always!

Tickets are £10 (cash) on the door and include coffee & a biscuit at The Jazz Centre afterwards.

Looking forward to seeing you!

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Greetings!

I hope you will be able to join us

on Friday 17th July, 11.30am (for about an hour)

at The Beaumont, Barchester Care, 15 Cannon Hill, Old Southgate, N14 7DJ

to explore the work of one of the most renowned 20th-century British artists Francis Bacon (1909-1992) by way of his friendship with fellow artist Isabel Rawsthorne (1912-1992).

Francis Bacon: Portrait of Isabel Rawsthorne Standing in a Street in Soho [1967; Berlin]

There’ll be lots to look at and discuss – I hope you’ll be able to come along!

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The discussions are for everyone, whether residents or local community. Please note a £3 on-the-door request to cover the cost of coffee and biscuits. With all thanks to Barchester Health Care.

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I hope you will be able to join us on

Saturday 11th July, 11.15am (for about an hour & a half)

at The Beecroft Art Gallery, Southend-on-Sea.

as we continue our research into the ‘long decade’ of 1950s Britain, from the end of World War II to Pop Art.

This month we’ll look at the early paintings of Francis Bacon whose work seems to delve into the existential crisis and evoke the very zeitgeist of the post-war world.

Photograph (above) Francis Bacon by John Deakin [early 1950s]

Francis Bacon (1909-1992) Figure in a Landscape [1945; Tate; artuk.org]

There’ll be plenty to see & discuss as always! And we’ll look at Francis Bacon (Part 2) on Saturday 25th July.

Tickets are £10 (cash) on the door and include coffee & a biscuit at The Jazz Centre afterwards.

Looking forward to seeing you!

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Greetings!

A trio of fabulous books!

Three new and perfectly inter-related books were published this month:

Simon Morley’s “La Belle France” (Yale University Press) is an arty road journey around contemporary France investigating why British artists from Walter Sickert to David Hockney have found the country – from Paris to Normandy to the Riviera – have found the landscape and culture so inspiring, and so liberating.

One of the artists mentioned is Roger Fry, the subject of Fiona McKenzie Johnston’s new biography (Triglyph Books) telling the life story of the man who gave up his scientific studies for Renaissance Art, his own painting and – famously – bringing Post-Impressionism to Britain.

That exhibition is, in turn, the focus of David Boyd Haycock’s “Art-Quake, 1910” (Old Street Publishing): “The exhibition ‘Manet and the Post-Impressionists’… would be the closest thing, metaphorically, to a bomb in the National Gallery.”

Each are written with great insight and panache, very much enthusing this reader for one!

And if you’re interested, I’ll be discussing Roger Fry with Fiona McKenzie Johnston as part of Dalloway Day at Hatchards, Piccadilly on Saturday 13th June (tickets available via hatchards.co.uk).

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I hope you will be able to join us on

Saturday 27th June, 11.15am (for about an hour & a half)

at The Beecroft Art Gallery, Southend-on-Sea.

as we continue our research into the ‘long decade’ of 1950s Britain, from the end of World War II to Pop Art.

This month we’ll look at the early paintings of Francis Bacon whose work seems to delve into the existential crisis and evoke the very zeitgeist of the post-war world.

Photograph (above) Francis Bacon by John Deakin [early 1950s]

Francis Bacon (1909-1992) Figure in a Landscape [1945; Tate; artuk.org]

There’ll be plenty to see & discuss as always!

Tickets are £10 (cash) on the door and include coffee & a biscuit at The Jazz Centre afterwards.

Looking forward to seeing you!

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Greetings!

I hope you will be able to join us

on Friday 19th June, 11.30am (for about an hour)

at The Beaumont, Barchester Care, 15 Cannon Hill, Old Southgate, N14 7DJ

to further explore the art of Desmond Morris and Ithell Colquhoun whose post-war Surrealist works developed from very different ways of thinking and understanding the world around them.

Left: Desmond Morris (1928-2026) Entry to a Landscape [1947; c/o Christie’s]

Right: Ithell Colquhoun (1906-1988) Guardian Angel [1947; private]

There’ll be lots to look at and discuss – I hope you’ll be able to come along!

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The discussions are for everyone, whether residents or local community. Please note a £3 on-the-door request to cover the cost of coffee and biscuits. With all thanks to Barchester Health Care.

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