Macmillan Cancer Support Weekend, 26th/27th November

The Macmillan Support Weekend is a charitable iniative we have been running for over 30 years.The weekend is a fund raising art exhibition which runs for two days only (this coming weekend 26/27 November). Of every sale 10% of the artwork's price is donated to Macmillan Cancer Support.The show is open from 11am-9pm on the Saturday and 11am-6pm on Sunday.

               Hannah Battershell, Crocodilian, £375

 

Originally started in 1977 at her own home by the gallery director, Jill Hutchings, the exhibition

has been running every year since.Jills particular connection with Macmillan Cancer Support
comes from her backround in nursing in the oncology wing at the Middlesex Hospital, where she nursed cancer patients specifically.

Every year the exhibition raises money, as well as awareness, for the charity.It is also a great opportunity to see a more eclectic mix of artwork than is usually shown by the gallery.Some of our staple artists are represented in the show. Henry Walsh  a much loved and long serving Curwen Gallery artist will be showing Insouciant (below), one of our favourite of his paintings.          
                 

                  Henry Walsh, Insouciant, £700

Another of our current favourites; Lee Sellers, whose charming paintings have been most recently shown on our stall at the Affordable Art Fair (Battersea) in October.Going for a Walk (below) is without doubt the most delightful of all his work.
                Lee Sellers, Going for a Walk,£750

Two very new artists, both showing at Curwen Gallery for the first time during the Macmillan Support Weekend, are Robin Spalding and Hannah Battershell.Both have an unexplained fascination with Crocodiles! Hannah Battershell's dreamlike and uncanny paintings are both unsettling and at the same time rather adorable.Robin Spalding's Golden Crocodile could be said to occupy similar conceptual ground, its toothless smile making it as cute as it is threatening.
                     Robin Spalding, Golden Crocodile, £450

Alison Neville- Cathedrals,Mosques, Madrasas and Little Houses 3rd-23rd November

Alison Neville is probably the most well travelled artist we have ever met.Her career spanning show at Curwen Gallery is a document of the many exotic places which she has travelled to and been inspired by.

       Alison Neville, Royal Albert Hall, etching, £450 fr

Alison Neville is an adept printmaker with a distinctive, characterful style.This show
builds upon a solid grounding of work from her early career (Westminster Abbey, Poets Corner was shown in Curwen Gallery's first show 30 years ago) and charts both a lifetime of work and of travel.

For me, the most significant factor in this body of work is that Alison is exceptionally accurate when capturing a sense of place.There is a feeling that Alison has absorbed so much from each place and then managed to transcibe this experience into a single image. Each etching is like a distillation of the essence of the subject location.For the places I know, I get a genuine feeling of nostalgia, for the many places I have never been I feel that I must go at once!From conversations with the other visitors to the show, I think these sensations are a surprisingly common reaction to this work. 

                             Alison Neville Mosque-Pesharwar, etching,£375 fr

Her most recent works document a trip down the Congo River.Last Tuesday evening (15th Nov.) Alison delivered a fascinating talk on this rare experience.From this trip she has created a series of delicately produced  etchings of the "Little Houses" she encountered while travelling down the Congo.The remarkable character of these makeshift buildings are what Alison has most faithfully reproduced. One gets the feeling that there are a wealth of different stories which live in the fabric of these little houses.Also, when the whole series hang together, there is a real sense of the narrative of Alisons own journey and the many stories which she could tell of this much mythologised river.

                                         
        Alison Neville,Congo River Series:The Widow's House, etching,£150 fr 
Alison Neville- Cathedrals,Mosques, Madrasas and Little Houses runs from 3rd-23rd November

The London Suite

The London Suite are a set of 10 lithographs published by Advanced Graphics London in 1982. 10 well known artists were invited to each make one print to illustrate to the world that printmaking didn't have to be flat.They are a very vibrant set of screenprints, all with a unique character and the hallmarks of their artist.The suite is a rare and very collectible set of prints with some of this centuries best loved artists contributing.

Albert Irvin RA Battlebridge

 Advanced Graphics kindly let us borrow their complete framed set which is currently on show in the gallery.We have one available copy of the suite of prints (unframed) which is priced at £7000.