my funny eye

How are you guys doing in this new era of madness that we find ourselves in? Is there any end to how much worse things can get? It’s like we’ve been in a death spiral since 2020 started, so I wonder - how do you keep sane? A few weeks ago they were giving out tips on the radio of things that we might feel helpful right now. I’ll share them here, and maybe there’s something that will make your days less heavy.

1. Turn off news notifications; only read the news when you feel like it, rather than be invaded by updates.

2. Stay in touch with friends and family.

3. Go out in nature.

4. If you’re feeling particularly anxious try walking mindfully, paying attention how the floor/ground feels under you feet.

5. Read novels.

I’ve spent most of my forties reading non fiction, but I switched back to fiction a couple of years ago. I just felt that I wanted to be transported to another place, away from the here and now. I prefer non-contemporary fiction as the last thing I want to read about is us now. I find it too boring to read about. But you know what the irony to all this is? I picked out George Orwell’s 1984 from my book shelves the other day, and strongly felt the need to re-read it with where we’re at this particular moment in history. I haven’t gotten very far into it yet, but the parallels between the book and where we are now is blowing my mind. But then this is not the first time we find ourselves in murky waters. Lordy lord lord, I didn’t mean to get so serious here, as what I actually wanted to do was to add another thing to the list above:

6. Look at art. Huge surprise, right?! You guys now how I feel about it. It’s my medicine, my cure for most ailments.

So let’s look at some. I went to a huge Vanessa Bell exhibition on at the MK Gallery in Milton Keynes at the beginning of February. We drove there on a bitingly cold and grey day, only to enter the gallery and be met by the most colourful and exquisite exhibition.

Vanessa Bell (1879 - 1961) was the older sister of Virginia Woolf, whom she painted in this portrait seen on the left. She and her sister were part of the Bloomsbury set, and Bell was an extremely talented artist and designer, and was tutored after going to art school by John Singer Sargent. I only became aware of her art a couple of years ago when her paintings kept popping up in my Pinterest feed, for which I’m very grateful.

Bell led a very bohemian and progressive life, staying married to art critic Clive Bell, whilst having a life long relationship with painter Duncan Grant, with whom she left Bloomsbury (a neighbourhood in London) to set up in the countryside at Charleston House, together with Grant’s boyfriend David Garnett. Confused? Well, those bohemians certainly did have very open and fluid relationships.

But let’s concentrate on the art shall we? I love her use of colour and how she framed what she was painting.

And she didn’t only paint on canvas. She, Grant, and Roger Fry, an ex-lover of hers and renowned art critic, started an artists’ co-operative for the decorative arts called Omega Workshops, selling furniture, ceramics and clothing,

as well as textiles. Can you imagine a sofa covered in the fabric to the left here? It would look so amazing… Sadly my picture of it here is far from it, but there you go.

I also thought a room decorated in the colours from this painting would look amazing.

A painting of one of Vanessa’s children, again with a beautiful colour palette.

I also really liked this watercolour, the weirdness of it really appealed to me. It turns out it’s actually a design for a stage set for a ballet production at Sadler’s Wells, which makes so much more sense. Although, looking at it again here, it is still weird, I mean, what’s with the random placing of the curtains?

A painting of Duncan Grant.

And one of their daughter Angelica. Aren’t all of these just amazing? She was not a particularly famous artist during her lifetime, which I’m sure had something to do with the fact that she was a woman, but one art critic called her the best colourist of Europe at that time, and I agree. (Swiss painter Felix Vallotton was also amazing with his colours, but he was much earlier). In reality Bell was mainly known for making all the book covers for Woolf’s books, which reviewers found awful and ugly at the time.

This section showed items that are from Charleston, and other homes where Bell and Grant had been commissioned to decorate. The doors here are the actual doors from Grant’s bedroom, painted by Bell. I’ve wanted to go their house for years, but haven’t gotten my act together yet. Maybe this is the year - I hope so. I think I might pass out when I see it though, as it’s stunning and right up my street.

In 1952, art historian Kenneth Clarke and his wife commissioned Bell and Grant to create a huge fine dining set, but instead received this set of 50 plates, with painted portraits of famous women from across the world, through ancient history to contemporary times (although Bell and Grant also included portraits of themselves in the set). The Famous Women Dinner Service formed a part of a wider ambition of recording women’s histories. Virgina Woolf later wrote ‘Very little is known about women. The history of England is the history of the male line, not the female. Of our fathers we know always some fact, some distinction. They were soldiers or they were sailors; they filled that office or made that law. But of our mothers, our grandmothers, our great grandmothers, what remains?’ Quite.

All the portraits were beautifully painted, and I realise now I should’ve taken more pictures of them. You can see and read more about the set here instead.

Some more paintings before this post ends. Take them in.

Lastly, I found this still life rather beautiful, and a I think it’s a good one to end on. If you want to read up more on Vanessa Bell you can do so here. I also recommend reading Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway as a good counter to right now - if you haven’t read it already. It takes a few pages to get used to her way of writing, but once you do it’s an amazing read, and I probably need to re-read that one too...

Dear friends, I hope you are as good as you can be, and have had a nice moment of your day going through these, and been shown something different from everything else out there today. Big hugs to you all xx

United Colors of June

Cheers! 🍻

People in galleries I

Art therapy