Royal Academy of Art Summer Exhibition

 For the past few years my husband and I have travelled to London every year to see the Royal Academy of Art Summer Exhibition.  It is an amazing exhibition that runs every summer.  Anyone can submit a piece to be considered, from a grandmother in wales, a student in Birmingham, a celebrity musician through to a member of the RA-anyone (BBC iplayer usually has a great programme where they follow some of the people through the submission process.  If you ever get a chance to watch them I recommend it).

 There are SO many different mediums from fabric, sculpture, glass, paint, digital etc with styles from classical to modern.  The picture above is a fabric and stitched piece.

  

This one of skaters was one of our favourite in the exhibition.

This Amy Winehouse figure was made from beads and findings.

 

 Some of the artists are instantly recognisable such as this Gilbert and George piece

 Whilst other pieces took you by surprise

 I particularly liked this piece

 This large piece of lace was a great piece to see hanging on the wall

 There was SO many different styles.

 These pieces had money stuffed into their mouths!

 In the architectural section this digital 'blueprint' was stitched onto fabric

 Whilst in another gallery this chair was made from spent ammunition cases

Once again my eyes were drawn to pieces such as this on old book pages.

Inspiration at every turn-a great day out

Kyla

 

Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition

So, you may have noticed that I have not blogged for a few weeks.  Mainly due to a combination of my RA flaring and leaving me exhausted and the 'pay the bills' job being in overdrive and taking up much more than the 40 hrs a week it is meant to!  Not a great combination.

In an effort to break the cycle, hubby and I decided to book a very last minute break in London for a long weekend.  We did lots of 'arty' stuff but the main reason was the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition.  We have been going for the last few years and this year was a fabulous mix of different styles and mediums.  

The Summer Exhibition has been running for 247 years, which in itself is amazing in its own right.   It is sometimes accused of  being stuck in the past however this year, the exhibition is co-ordinated by Michael Craig-Martin RA – a leading artist of his generation and the teacher who nurtured the talents of Gary Hume, Sarah Lucas and Damien Hirst.  It really showed, some of the room were painted bright colours and complemented the art.

I took lots of photos and these are just a few, I make no apologies for the photo heavy content of this post, if you'd like to see some of the art then please feel free to scroll down and enjoy.

 This sculpture was made from plastic sheets, similar to the sort you make conservatory roofs from, painstakingly cut and layered to create the figure.

 The art varies in size from large to small and intricate

 This one was created from various layers (like a tunnel book).

 When you looked through the apertures you caught a glimpse of the picture behind

 It gave me a feeling of snooping as you caught glimpses of life behind the curtains

 This piece was within a large glass block and the way it was cut meant you saw different views depending on where you stood

This giant head was made from coat-hangers!

 Some of the pieces were slightly disturbing

 Others blew me away

 The detail in this piece was breathtaking

 I love the fact that famous, infamous and the public can all submit pieces for consideration.  This was a large tapestry by Grayson Perry (we have been lucky enough to see a couple of his exhibitions over the years)

 The serenity of this painting was a joy

 Jim Lambie’s kaleidoscopic stairs lead up to the Main Galleries. It was really weird being able to walk over a piece of art!

 Outside you are greeted by the towering formation of steel 'clouds' by Conrad Shawcross

A fabulous trip and if you are in London over the summer and love art then I recommend a trip to the RA.  I will blog about the other exhibition we went to over the coming week or so.

Kyla

 

Seasick Steve, Gilbert and George and some yarnbombing

 Hello peeps, well I am back from a week in that there Devon.  

The weather was not as good as the previous weeks but we managed to dodge most of the showers and on those days when the weather was not too great we managed to visit quite a few exhibitions and museums.  

We even managed to get to the RAMM (Royal Albert Memorial Museum) in Exeter which is free and also has a great cafe.  The museum was recently refitted and boy does it show-I recommend it if you are in the area.  Also, they had a temporary exhibition by the contemporary artists Gilbert and George-no photos but if you search on the net be warned that a lot of their work is a tad explicit-great to see such contemporary artists outside of london and for free!

Some photos I did take of the week though included some yarn bombing in Lyme Regis

 

 Some new graffiti here too

 We also visited Hannahs near Newton Abbot.  It  is a sustainable social enterprise that promotes learning, experience and adventure and specialises in enpowering people with a range of disabilities and their families.  They are in 90 acres of Devon countryside and have a therapy centre, art studios, fabulous bistro, rooms, gardens and music practice rooms and recording to name just a few things!  I love this place and always visit the small independent workshops that artists can rent out to sell to the public and run courses-so anything you purchase from these artisans go towards also supporting the great work at Hannahs.

The exhibition I went to see was "The Curious World of Becky Adams".  She had some amazing 3D stitched pieces...this was the only photo I was allowed to take:

 The jacket is stitched from book covers!

We also went to Bovey Tracey to the Crafts Guild to see an amazing paper exhibition.

These were all hand cut and this one stood several feet tall!!

We also visited the Thelma Hulbert gallery in Honiton and was lucky enough to see the preview for an auction of art they were holding in aid of Dementia week.

All this art was free!!  It just goes to show what you can do with a bit of research (and a little luck!).

To top it all we popped into a music shop (hubby is in a punk band so is always on the look out for kit) and Seasick Steve (the American blues musician) was sat in there trying out a guitar!!  I couldn't believe my eyes!!  Of course, being reserved British we all left him alone to try out the guitars!

A great week off.

Happy crafting

kyla