The Daily Norm

Jun 12

Composition No. 2 (Los Naranjos)

Last week I introduced a new painting and a very new style: Composition No.1 (squid with patatas a lo pobre), and hot on its heels I am very pleased to present my second Composition, likewise painted with gauche whose introduction into my artistic repertoire was inspired by the colourful enriching abstract works of Saloua Raouda Choucair currently on show at Tate Modern.

My second composition is inspired by those exquisite moments of summer time pleasure, when sat in the dappled Mediterranean light and shade of a ripe green orange-tree (Los Naranjos), you look up through the branches in whose semi transparent leaves the sun has scattered a panoply of greens, to see through those verdant lustres the unbroken clear blue sky beyond.

Composition No. 2 (Los Naranjos) © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, gauche on paper

I adore mediterranean trees, basking under their natural canopy both protected from, and yet semi-dappled with the glorious midday sun. I love the unmistakable perfume of orange blossom, and the dry earthy aroma of sun warming the wrinkled bark of these well-weathered trees. And for me, the effect of light bleeding through a shelter of semi-translucent leaves lent itself so well to this abstract style, which has at its heart the idea of multi-layered shapes. The result is a painting which I hope you agree has the essence of a summer’s day, but in a decidedly abstracted mood.

Composition No.3 will surely follow suit. Until then amigos.

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Composition No. 1 (squid with patatas a lo pobre) (daily-norm.com)
Saloua Raouda Choucair – Geometric East meets Abstract Expressionist West (daily-norm.com)

Jun 9

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RA Summer Exhibition – Grayson Perry steals the show

Now in its 245th season, the annual Summer Exhibition at London’s Royal Academy is reputed to be the largest open-submission exhibition in the world, and also one of the oldest. Yet while it is billed as being a show which offers all artists, no matter their qualification, notoriety, nationality or skill, the opportunity to submit work and be hung amongst a who’s who of some of Britain’s most prominent contemporary artists, it is more often the case that those prominent artists more than overshadow those lesser knowns who are lucky enough to have their work selected for the show. In previous years, the non ‘Royal Academician” artists have been crammed into the smallest possible spaces, while the larger galleries have been given over to the same old RA clique, whose submissions never appear to differ from one year to the next.

In that respect, this year’s show, just opened at Picadilly’s Burlington House, is very similar. The same old-same old is prominently hung, including works by the likes of Albert Irvine RA, whose florescent acrylic daubs continue to repel me despite my being consistently exposed to them at each annual Summer Exhibition, and Eileen Cooper RA, whose rather simplistic portraits look more craft fair than art show to my mind. Having said that, the RA appears to have learnt from past grumbles, and has not crammed the non-RA artists into a single small room, rather opting for a “Salon-style” floor to ceiling hang in many of the larger galleries, which, while rather bewildering to look at, at least makes for a more pleasant viewing experience when the large crowds of people, attracted no doubt by the smaller price tags, cluster around these works hoping to invest in the lesser known, affordable artists.

An El Anatsui “sculpture” hangs over the facade of the RA for this year’s show

While the Salon-style hang inevitably means that there are way more pictures on show than anyone can possibly take in on one visit, it does at least mean that there are huge rafts of works on show, and undoubtedly something to suit every taste. In keeping with my positive experience of last year (which resulted in my making two purchases), my favourite gallery of this year’s show was no doubt the print room – a gallery full of prints of all mediums, from etching to relief, screen printing to woodcuts, and I was very happy to see the artist Adam Dant on show at least twice, one of whose encyclopaedic works I had bought last year.

Adam Dant, The Mouth of Italy (Venice) hangs at this year’s show © Adam Dant

Many of the subsequent galleries flew by in a rush of sculptures, architectural models and so-so paintings. Only a few works really stood out enough for me to remember them subsequently, amongst them Julian Opie’s Maria Teresa I, which I adored, and reminded me of a pop-art Velazquez court-painting.

Julien Opie’s Maria Teresa I © Julien Opie

But undoubtedly the real star of this show and the work for which a visit to the exhibition is alone worth a visit, is one Grayson Perry, the witty, perceptive, social-commentating, cross-dressing craftsman and artist. I first estolled the virtues of Perry when I took a trip to his British Museum exhibition one year ago. Now, at the Summer Exhibition, a whole gallery (the last in fact) has been given over to a set of 6 tapestries by Perry which, under the combined title The Vanity of Small Differences, tell the story of one Tom Rakewell, whose rise and fall through life is captured insightfully and comically across these brilliantly detailed, multi-coloured and superbly designed Hogarth-inspired tapestries.

Details from The Vanity of Small Differences © Grayson Perry

As is so typical of Perry’s work, these tapestries offer a spot-on insight into what some call Britain’s “tribes”, from stay at home frustrated mother and groups of rowdy clubbing slappers, to our aspiration for the “high life”, a tendency to attack those who the masses perceive as “upper class”, and our obsession with money, gadgets and celebrity culture. There’s so much to take in in these brilliantly conceived tapestries, and even as I write, I am itching to go and see the works again so that I can take in more of the feast of details which Perry offers up for our consumption. In the meantime I include images of all six tapestries to tempt your taste buds, as well as some shots of the wonderful details which are literally stitched into the richly weaved layers of this work.

The Adoration of the Cage Fighters © Grayson Perry

The Agony in the Car Park © Grayson Perry

Expulsion from Number 8 Eden Close © Grayson Perry

The Annunciation of the Virgin Deal © Grayson Perry

The Upper Class at Bay © Grayson Perry

Lamentation © Grayson Perry

The Summer Exhibition is now open at the Royal Academy and runs until 18th August 2013.

Jun 6

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The Daily Norm’s Photo of the Week – Reflected Metropolis

My camera is never far from my side, whether it be my pocket Sony Cybershot, my good old iPhone camera, or my larger SLR. This enables me to capture the random moments that life throws at us all, or the unexpected compositions which emerge from every day living. Because so many of the resulting shots form something of a miscellany of photos, not fitting neatly into a larger, neater category of photos around which an album can form, I thought that the best way to share those odd shots with you would be to pick just one a week on which to focus.

Today’s photo of the week is an interesting shot. It’s from within my home – on my coffee table in fact, which I’m so used to looking at on a daily basis that sometimes I fail to notice the beauty of the reflections which form on the surface of its black glass. Yet at the weekend, I guess I turned at just the right moment, so that my eyes caught this scene and recognised the immediate beauty in it. Grabbing my camera, I zoomed closer, thus composing an image which now resembles, rather than a modern cubist chess set, something of a Manhattan-style city skyline.

For me, the image conjures up skyscrapers stood alongside a still river upon whose waters the buildings are reflected. The sense of landscape is augmented by the presence of blue sky which, owing to the position of my window, has become reflected on the glass of my coffee table. Meanwhile, the little glass vases bearing red buds from my geraniums are like idealised contemporary trees, something of a park within my imagined urban landscape.

They say the camera never lies, but as this photograph perhaps demonstrates, an isolated composition can certainly trick the eye, and provide the narrative, within the confines of its four dimensions, to an imagined land all of its own.

I’m already looking forward to picking out a photo for next week. See you then.

Marbella in May: a photography experiment (i) – my patio garden (daily-norm.com)
Marbella in May: a photography experiment (iv) – a Marbellan Miscellany (daily-norm.com)
Marbella in May: a photography experiment (ii) – Cappuccino Cocktails (daily-norm.com)

Jun 5

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Composition No. 1 (squid with patatas a lo pobre)

With Composition No.1 (squid with patatas a lo pobre), my painting has taken something of a new direction. Inspired by the simple abstract forms and “fractional modules” of Saloua Raouda Choucair, and intrigued by the medium of her choice, gauche, I have diverted from the more detailed figurative approach of my normal artwork to cleaner, simpler representational forms.

In this work, I am attempting to convey an atmosphere and an occasion: lunch by a Mediterranean beach – a dish of squid and patatas a lo pobre, the typical unctuous Spanish dish in which simple oil nourished potatoes are served with peppers and onion. I have attempted to convey the swirls of the sea, the curving delicate forms of a squid’s tentacles and the odd burst of red from the colour-rich peppers.

Composition No. 1 (Squid and patatas a lo pobre) 2013 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown (Gauche on paper)

As for gouache paint – it’s been something of a revelation. Something of a cross between watercolour and acrylic but drying matt, flowing seamlessly across the paper and easily controllable both with and without water mixed in, I’ve found it an inherently pleasurable medium with which to work. I love the flat finish, the overlapping colours, and the explosion of blues bursting across the picture. I cannot wait to work in gauche again. In fact, composition No.2 is already taking shape.

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Jun 2

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Weekend Review – Candy floss and tutus

Sometimes when a weekend is so bounteous in treats, both planned and unplanned, it becomes a chore to try and sift through the experiences and feature one or two on my blog. And since the alternative – which is to write about none of them – does not sit well with the spirit of blogging, nor indeed with what is, after all, meant to be an epnoymously daily blog (although admittedly I’m not currently doing all that well on that front…) I thought I’d just tell you about the whole darn lot!

So, on Friday afternoon, as the clock hand clicked past 5 and I started to feel the rush of weekend relief fill my worked-out body, I rushed home to start the weekend. For me this meant three things: First the completion of my new painting, “Composition I”, an entirely new direction of painted expression (which I’ll try to post up on the blog in a few days time) with which I have discovered gouache paint for the first time. It’s a work inspired partly by the Choucair exhibition I attended last weekend and partly by a typical luncheon by the sea in Marbella, with squid, and patatas – the perfect weekend on any view.

But back to Blighty, and with paint brushes put aside and a wooden spoon picked up in their place, I commenced cooking up a risotto feast – the perfect creamy end of week pleasure, and a good one for using up odds and ends of food after a week’s exhaustion of supplies. In this case it was half a packet of palma ham, some rather old chorizo, a few tomatoes, half a bulb of fennel and a little fresh mint which made it into my rather indulgent left-overs risotto. And what a treat to eat it al fresco too, on our warm London balcony, watching commuters aplenty passing by, the majority with a bounce in their step, overjoyed as we were that the weekend had come at last.

My “odds and ends” risotto

Dining al fresco…

But as ever the al fresco air inspired us to go out into the open air in search of dessert, and a walk across the vast expanse of Clapham Common and back towards Northcote Road in the Clapham Junction area brought us to a new entrant on the restaurant-lined street. In place of what had once been a rather chic Austrian eatery is now a cute little Spanish restaurant AND sherry bar, Rosita. Unsurprisingly we headed straight for said sherry bar in search of our dessert. The fact that we then ended up with two glasses of wine and a few savoury tapas dishes was perhaps inevitable, but dessert did eventually follow, in the form of deep friend sweet potato cakes in a honey syrup. Delicious.

Rosita’s sherry bar

Now too fat to move, we bemoaned our over indulgence and returned home, exhausted, to bed.

Mallorca in May – A photographic miscellany

While Mallorca’s capital of Palma may exude elegance, the surrounding island competes in charm, beauty and manifest variety. Who cannot be wooed by the picture-perfect hilltop town of Valldemossa, with its mélange of old stone town houses and green window shutters, topped by the turqouise-tiled campanile of the Real Cartuja de Valldemossa, the monastery made famous for the short stay of Frédéric Chopin and his lover George Sand during an embittered winter now immortalised in Sand’s book A Winter in Majorca. And if that idyllic town does not exhaust your capacity for admiration entirely, don’t forget Palma’s stunning coastlines, such as the view of the Illa d’es Malgrat from Santa Ponça, or the charming sight of a traditional fisherman’s vessel, laden with ropes and nets in the old fishing port of Andratx.

Despite only a short weekend trip to Mallorca, and my attendance at a whole series of lunches, dinners, and meetings during that time, my camera was never far from my side, enabling me to add yet more new shots of this magical island to my growing collection. Of particular interest to me this time round were the new sights and experiences – for example the brand new Port Adriano – a vast new complex which lacks the natural aesthetic charm of the Ports of Andratx or Soller for example but which, with its Philippe Starck designed street furnishings such as quirky street lamps dressed as standard lamps and chic glass and steel staircases, makes for an interesting sight, especially when enjoyed with a glass of something sparkling from one of the many swanky (but rather empty) bars that line the yacht-filled marina front.

So without further ado, here are 30 more shots of Mallorca in May – the island which very evidently never stops giving.

: This buoy looks like a Norm!

: Valldemossa

: These colours are stunning

: Philippe Starck’s street lamps

: I want to eat at this table!

: The Port Adriano

: Valldemossa’s monastery

: Fishing boats in Puerto d’Andratx

: Valldemossa

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Mallorca in May – The elegant streets of Palma (daily-norm.com)

May 30

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Mallorca in May – The elegant streets of Palma

The weekend before last, I was lucky enough to travel back out to the beautiful balearic island of Mallorca to discuss various exciting artistic commissions. The trip came only 6 weeks after my last stay on the island, and I was ecstatic to once again sample the delights of this magical Spanish island, to savour its delicious food and its chic restaurants, to fill my eyes with the stunning views which traverse both the island’s mountainous landscape and surround its craggy coast with picture-perfect view points, and to fill my nose with the heady scent of its floral Spring.

While the weekend was a busy one, the occasional opportunity to walk around the island’s gorgeous capital city of Palma reminded me of just how elegant a place it is, and no more so than in May, having undergone the verdant changes which accompanying the warming days of Spring. Thus, already beautiful buildings were now dappled with golden sunlight, strained as though through a kitchen colander between the gaps in the fresh verdurous leaves of trees and ample flowers beds which have burst into life across the city. The lengthened lighter evenings provided an extended period of warm buttery light with which to admire the city’s many squares, fountains and palaces; while ancient religious monuments, elegant wrought iron balconies of modernista masterpieces, and the exquisite street decor that makes Palma such a joy to behold can all be enjoyed with double the pleasure, as these fine architectural details are further reflected in long summer-extended shadows.

As ever, my camera never had much of an opportunity for rest as the enhanced beauty of Mallorca in May inspired a series of new immortalised moments. Here are just a few shots of the elegant streets of Palma.

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Mallorca (Part X) – Photography Focus 3: Favourite Shots (daily-norm.com)
The Daily Sketch: Norms take the tram in Soller (daily-norm.com)

May 28

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The Daily Sketch: Norms take the tram in Soller

Travelling from Palma de Mallorca to the little town Soller, on the old rickety Ferrocarril railway, is like stepping back into the time of Agatha Christie. You fully expect someone in a trilby hat or a feathered tiara to shout murder! at any second. After making it to the charming little town of Soller, set near the North coast of Mallorca deep in a vast mountainous valley, further rickety old wooden trams, running from the Ferrocarril station down to Soller’s picturesque port, give the town its undoubted charm, taking tourists and locals alike back to the good old days when transportation was slower, yet undoubtedly more reliable.

Norms in Soller (2013, © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown)

Take a glimpse in Soller today, and you can see the Norms trying the tram out for speed. Queuing in a little group, waiting patiently in the shadow of the imposing facade of Joan Rubio i Bellver’s Sant Bartomeu church, and besides the town’s charming little restaurant-filled square, these Norms are all prepared to take a ride on Soller’s iconic tramline. One Norm has even dressed for the occasion, bedecked in top hat as befits such a classical mode of transportation. There’s really no beating the good old golden age of the trams, as these Norm-packed carriages prove. Happy tramming Norms!

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Norms at Cappuccino Pollença (daily-norm.com)
Mallorca (Part X) – Photography Focus 3: Favourite Shots (daily-norm.com)

May 27

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Saloua Raouda Choucair – Geometric East meets Abstract Expressionist West

I hadn’t heard of Beirut-born artist Saloua Raouda Choucair before I dropped in, unplanned, to a small retrospective of her work at Tate Modern yesterday. In fact, as the literature accompanying the show rather depressingly tells us, “despite ceaselessly producing work for the best part of five decades, Choucair remains relatively little known internationally [and]… has not yet reached her deserved position in art history”. This is undoubtedly the reason then why our paths have not crossed each other before (and, I suppose in part has something to do with the fact that her name does not exactly spring to mind all that easily). Yet the moment I walked into the four room exhibition at Tate, encouraged to do so by the vivid bright colours of her almost fauvist abstract portrait which graces the posters of the show, I was in love.

I was in love first and foremost with her paintings, largely gouache abstract compositions, with geometric forms criss crossing over each other in a multi layered colour explosion, to her Les Peintres Celebres collection, a wonderful set of group portraits, where the form of the nude has been flattened and abstracted, and the poses reduced to softened linear forms.

Les Peintes Celebres (1948-9) © Saloua Raouda Choucair Foundation

Untitled (1948-9) © Saloua Raouda Choucair Foundation

Paris-Beirut (1948) © Saloua Raouda Choucair Foundation

Choucair’s paintings very clearly demonstrate the influential hand of cubist figurative painter Fernand Léger, under whose influence she came in 1940s Paris, and yet as she moves from figure paintings to her abstract composition, you can see equally clear evidence of the extent to which she was inspired by the geometric forms of Islamic art, which had entranced her when she became acquainted with them in Cairo. These “Fractional Modules” as she calls them, were almost certainly my favourite paintings in the show. Simple shapes interwoven and multi-layered resulted in a wonderfully satisfying overall abstract form, an image so complex in its pictorial language (despite the repeated use of a single shape or form) that it reminds me of the same level of aesthetic satisfaction that can be gleaned from those stunning patterned tiles and plaster work in the great Islamic palaces of Southern Spain.

Composition in Blue Module (1947-51) © Saloua Raouda Choucair Foundation

Fractional Module (1947-51) © Saloua Raouda Choucair Foundation

Rhythmical Composition in Yellow (1952-5) © Saloua Raouda Choucair Foundation

Composition with Arcs (1962-5) © Saloua Raouda Choucair Foundation

However in addition to the paintings, I also loved Choucair’s sculptures, which became her main preoccupation from the 1950s onwards, and into whose multi-dimensional forms the language of abstract expressionism has translated. Her works often reminded me of British greats Moore and Hepworth, particularly her use of strings strung across her metal sculptures to form rounded ephemeral planes. But I loved in particular her “poem” works – like a pile of bricks but each somehow melting under the tender hands of their mother-sculptor, curving into one another in an organic embrace.

Poem (1963-5) © Saloua Raouda Choucair Foundation

Dual (1978-80) © Saloua Raouda Choucair Foundation

The screw (1975-7) © Saloua Raouda Choucair Foundation

But perhaps the most powerful piece in the exhibition is Two=One (1947-51), one of Choucair’s painted compositions which had been hanging in her Beirut flat when a bombing raid rained down on the city during the Lebanese civil war in the 1980s, resulting in glass from one of her cabinets smashing and piercing the surface of this abstract painting. Thus the painting bears witness not only to that history, but, as Tate puts it, to the “circumstances through which Choucair not only survived, but continued to work with energy and enthusiasm”. Hopefully, with this superb exhibition hosted at the very heart of the Britain’s art capital, Choucair’s enthusiasm will finally bear fruit as she becomes recognised as an internationally important abstract artist, under whose skilful guise Eastern islamic geometry met with western Expressionism with stunning results.

Two=One (1947-51) (complete with hole at its centre) © Saloua Raouda Choucair Foundation

Soloua Raouda Choucair is on at Tate Modern until 20th October 2013.

May 25

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Chelsea Flower Show (ii) A festival of flowers

As the name suggests, Chelsea Flower Show is quite literally a festival of flowers – a splendid, multifaceted, rainbow coloured floral extravaganza of these natural masterpieces, and wow, how many masterpieces were on display in the show’s magnificent floral marquee, where some of the world’s best growers have brought the very best in floral finesse to show the world’s most beautiful species at their very best. From magnificent lush rhododendrons, to sunburst citrus coloured lilies, from lilac and cream tulips to vivd pink cacti, and from delicate mystical orchids to the poker straight, architectural forms of the star-burst allium flowers, I have frankly never seen a collection of floral gems quite like these. And these are just the photographs. Can you imagine the combined perfume of this paradisal bounty? Moving form one stall to the other, I was flushed with memories engendered by the different scents with as great an influx as I was bombarded with the multicoloured, multi-shaped spectacle that was before my eyes. As a floral tribute, it just doesn’t come much better than this. Enjoy!

© Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm, 2001-2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of the material, whether written work, photography or artwork, included within The Daily Norm without express and written permission from The Daily Norm’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Nicholas de Lacy-Brown and The Daily Norm with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.