Learn the painting secrets of the masters and have a go yourself!

Blackberry Gathering (1912), Elizabeth Forbes, Walker Art Gallery

The Walker Art Gallery’s painting collection spans a broad spectrum of work from the Renaissance to the modern era. It includes artwork made in an engaging variety of contrasting styles, from the refined tempera paintings of the early Renaissance to the painterly, expressive brushwork and bold colour of the Impressionist era, to abstraction and beyond. Taken together, the collection illustrates the development in painting technique over eight centuries of artistic practice.

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Art Nouveau experience: Alphonse Mucha at the Walker

Reverie (detail), Alphonse Mucha © Mucha Trust 2017

I am in the extremely fortunate position at present of being a tour guide at the Walker Art Gallery’s exhibition of work by Art Nouveau master Alphonse Mucha, ‘In Quest of Beauty’. The exhibition presents visitors with a rare and privileged opportunity to spend time amongst the beautiful artwork of an artist and illustrator whose story is at once fascinating, moving and unexpected.

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Focus on: ‘Sunday morning’ by Alma-Tadema

Sunday Morning, Alma-Tadema

With the recent rediscovery of a ‘lost’ work by Dutch artist Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow it brought to mind another overlooked treasure by Alma-Tadema. Read more…

Sheep and Lambs celebrate their 150th birthday at Sudley!

‘Sheep and Lambs’ by Rosa Bonheur, currently on display at Sudley House

One of the joys of working at, and visiting, Sudley House is the chance to see, nestling amongst paintings by the likes of Turner, Gainsborough and Reynolds, paintings by a number of 19th century artists less familiar to the average visitor, but whose work and personal stories I often find both surprising and inspiring.

George Holt, the 19th century ship owner and philanthropist whose collection of artwork Sudley is home to, saw it as his duty to support contemporary British artists. Read more…