Tuesday 22 July 2014

MASTERFUL MATISSE

Sometimes it feels like you have seen it all, there couldn't possibly be anything else out there that might inspire you than you already know about…and then as if by magic you are grabbed by the collar, shaken around a bit, set on a new path and full of fresh energy and inspiration once again.  This is what happened to me the other day. I was having a girls day out with my sisters…..to be honest I was much more excited about having lunch at Kit Kemps latest hotel than I was at stopping by the Tate, but I knew a bit about Matisse, I had studied his paintings at school.  I had loved them then, enjoyed the bright colours and beautiful composition of his paintings, but when I packed up on leaving university so too did I pack away all my posters, box up my books, head to London and really start a new chapter of my life.  So it was to my great surprise that I realised that all this time I had missed one seriously exciting chapter of his life - his 'cut out' period and wow how relevant to what I am doing now……I never dreamt back at uni that I would be a block printer, so perhaps there was no need to see his cut outs, but now…….it just all makes sense.
The exhibition is wonderful, a little crowded, you cant stand back and admire a picture, you have to mussel in and see it up close, but thats fine because then you can see where the scissors cut, the pins were stuck and where something must have been stuck and peeled, stuck and peeled until he reached the perfect composition as he did so cleverly in his paintings.  The colours are frighteningly current and wonderfully exciting….no more modern cubes or grey palettes around here.
My heart sped up, my eyes dashed about and my energy levels soared as I soaked up all that he has created in these last years……its all about blocks of colour - wonderful - its all about hand crafted, one off pieces, fantastic - love that…..its joyful and fun and thats rather how I felt once I had seen it, ad lunch at the Ham Yard Hotel (more to come on that later), visited the New Craftsman, caught up with the sisters, settled down on the train with my book - finished my book - oh such a happy ending! and arrived home back to the nest and the brood, all washed and smiling and ready for bed……

Some images from the exhibition - I have sourced these from Google Images:








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