Airborne Creatures

Hello everyone

I hope you have been applying the factor 50 lately!

In our last blog post we presented you with a challenge of finding all the little sandals thoughtfully painted into Janet Melrose's new body of work.
Our challenge for you this, the final week of the Janet Melrose RSW and Jenny Matthews exhibition, is to spot some butterflies.
Now, there's a lot of them! Including Scotch Angus, Small Heath and Small White as observed in this exquisite watercolour:

'Insects from Summer 2011', watercolour by Jenny Matthews.

This painting was secured by a lovely gallery visitor who was keen to buy a special work of art in memory of her mother who sadly passed away last year. 'Insects from Summer 2011', I feel, is a very sensitive and fitting memorial.
However, there is another, solitary 'airborne creature' in the exhibition which, on seeing for the first time, I immediately feel in love with:

'View from my Studio', acrylic and watercolour by Jenny Matthews.
I am sure, given a little time, you will find the tiny 'airborne creature' fluttering around on his (or her) lonesome voyage.
For me, the subtle insect is the icing on the cake of what is a truly beautiful work of art.
The more and more I study Jenny Matthews' work, the more I consider her to be an engineer as well as a brilliant painter - and this painting is a perfect example. I think the drawing work here speaks for itself - how she's captured the heavy rain with her confident and bold mark making requires no words from me. The energetic strokes work superbly with the subtle, yet precise collage work on the bottom and on the left of the work.
Yes, I think it's fair to say that from the Jenny Matthews side of this really special exhibition, 'View from my Studio' is a curator's choice.

Please come back to find out what UG's curators choice is for the Janet Melrose RSW side of the exhibition.....I might need some tissues!

Speak soon x