The week leading up to the show was a quite frantic set up, of which I was only tangentially involved.  There were several complex elements that had to be assembled, more of which later, but by 17:00 on Friday it was all up and the Private view began.  This was when most (but by no means all) of the visitors arrived, at least in the most condensed numbers.  It is also when most of the sales took place.  A small swarm of visitors, friends, families, local residents, fans of the gallery and fans of the Newlyn School of Art shows turned and  wondered around.  I was very chuffed to sell a piece the small black and white one you can see in the view top left.   The private view is fun but also tiring and quite intense.  You meet and talk to so many people. 

Let start about talking about me shall we?

It is an interesting experience having your pieces up in a show, particularly a group show.  As I discussed in the latest episode of my podcast with Mala Hassett you go through phases of being proud of your work and enjoying seeing it up, to feeling that it is not good enough and everyone else is better, and back again.  This carry's on throughout the weekend.  Now looking back at the show and having a bit of distance I am proud of them and do think they stack up.

It would take an age to go through everyone else in detail and talk about their work.  Broadly speaking we all had a little nook of the gallery in which our work was hung but then it also appeared elsewhere throughout the gallery.  Tremenheere is interesting in that the big wooden beams partition up the downstairs space.  The upstairs is, as you will see, much more open.

 Three of my co-exhibitors had installation spaces formed by these wooden beams,  Oren had a cosy little nook cut off from the main space by strategically placed duvets.  Inside was series of cushion from which you could watch his film.  Sheelagh had a similar space divided up with diaphanous hangings and inside a mock up of her work bench with casting of various tools. Anthony had a large pieces of paper on which visitors were encouraged to draw.  By the end of the show it was replete with a larger number of drawings of various kind (above right).  The rest of us  had on this floor more classical displays of paintings hung on the wall, or sculptures mounted in various places.  A couple of the later of these (one by James Cross, one by Felicity Fletcher) escaped outside. Felicity's sculpture was a large bronze Verdigris egg. small children, convinced it had a dinosaur in it kept on trying to roll it down the hill and had to be stopped.

In the back room though was set up Connor’s wonderous machine.  A series of tubes,  you put a ping pong ball into a tube and one pops up from another tube somewhere behind you or next to you, depending on where you added them.  The idea was you write something on one of the balls and receive another message from the ball that pops out. This was a big hit and it was delightful thing when you explained to people who were just observing that they could interact and how, and see the joy appear on their faces as they did so.

Upstairs was dominated by Lizzie Stevens' bamboo studio, displaying here bowls.  It occasionaly gave way in the heat and had to be persuaded up again.  It was set off wonderfully by the art on display, in this well let, church like but more open space. 

Manning a show like this is quite an intense experience.  You meet so many people.  People interested in your art, in the art of your peers.  People you know, people you don't.  At one point a coachload of kids turned up from a school near where I live and who knew someone I knew. Quite a coincidence.  There were also tutorials, one on how to present yourself as an artist, one on how to write your art statement (you can see mine here).

It was a wondersful show and a great experience.  I enjoyed it greatly but came away elated and exhausted and I am not quite sure I have yet recovered.

Do you know who the Expressionists are?  I have to say that prior to this show I did only vaguely.  If I really thought about it I might have come up with Kandinsky but probably I would have been confused with the later American Abstract Expressionists.  That very good show at Tate Modern allowed me to fill this hole in my  knowledge and fill it with a series of wonderful paintings and incredible artists, many of whom I hadn't heard of before.

The Expressionists were primarily but not wholly focused around Munich in a group known as the Blue Rider.  Their star (and I think he is this) and one you will almost certainly have heard of before is Kandinsky.  In the later part of the exhibition his large, colourful swirling paintings dominate the show (above).  They are incredibly eye catching and I like them very much.  There is a reason he is as famous as he is.  What the show also does very well is chart his progress to this point, show the other artists in the group and the influence they had on him and their own development.

 One of these was the fantastically named Marianne Werefkin.  She produces these slightly soulful almost melancholy paintings, often with a strong narrative and this painting (above left) called Into the Night is one such example.  I like the 3 focal points, the departing figures, the person in the doorway surrounded by warm orange light, and the distant white building at the end of the blue passageway.  It made me think of Terry Pratchett's Discworld but then most things do.  There is a strong narrative here so as well as admiring the painting and the swirling brush strokes you get caught up wondering what is going on and constructing your own story.

I have paired this with a very different street scene,  an early Kandinsky in fact (above right). I love views like this and often paint (or try to) similar things.  In someways its quite dull, just a pathway down a wall but I like the blobbyness of the background and the strong white wall at the front.  You can see just how far his later paintings (at the top) are from this.  Unlike the Werefkin painting instead of viewing a scene you feel like you are in the scene which is something I like.

Then we go back to Werefkin.  It is fairly well known that many of the impressionists were obsessed by Japanese woodblock prints and I am willing to bet money that Werefkin was too as this definitely has Hokusai views of Mount Fuji vibes.  Although of course the colour schemes are much more vibrant and having the orange sit on top of the blue. Then the figure and the strange house (church) mess with the perspective.  It is a strong painting and I think my favourite from the whole show.  I kept coming back to it.

Another painter I had not heard of was Lyonel Feringer.  The painting pictured (above left) has the rather unlikely title of Gelmorda II. I heard someone commenting about how it reminded them of the recent Dune films and they are exactly right.  Small figures and vast vaulting spaces made more stark by the geometric lines and the austere cold colour scheme.

Also you know what I said about the development of Kandinsky well in my short samples I have taken you back in time to one of his early paintings (above right).  I like this in it's own right.  Blobby colour that takes you into the painting and industrial looking buildings at the back.  It is though very interesting to scan back up to the top of the post and see the change from this one to those.

Next we have two very different paintings of the same subject matter, in this case portraits of Werefkin.  The first one (top left) is a self portrait.  She does not look happy in it, her eyes glowing red very severe and surrounded by colour.  You could spend hours and pages drawing phycological conclusions on this one and I am sure that people have.

The one next to it is happier and more flattering and is by Munter. It glows and smiles at you and I love the golden background.  This was another of my favourite paintings and again one that kept on drawing me to it. It's almost a mountain landscape with a head on top.  The triangular shape leading you up to the face.  And the colours in the clothes, and the background are not just blocks,  they are complex and mottled.  I like it very much.

It is a very good show and I highly suggest you go and see it.  It is on until October 2024 at Tate Modern. I shall sign off with this fine picture by Werefkin (below) of people mourning a ship wreck.