Henry Moore Prints

Goodness, here we are half way through January already and I'm only just writing my first blog post of the year. There's been very little art in my life over the last couple of months. Work has been all consuming and what time there's been away from it has been taken up with caring responsibilities and Christmas prep. New year, new outlook however. New start in fact. Last week, I hung up my abacus and left the data factory for good. Mixed feelings about it but that's another blog post.

So, back to the art, now that I (temporarily) have more time. On Wednesday I was in Winchester for a meeting at the Art Cafe about an exhibition we're having there later this year. The cafe is just opposite the Winchester Gallery so I took the opportunity to pop in and check out the current exhibition - Henry Moore Prints. I'm not a fan of his sculptures particularly but there are some lovely prints in the show, which consists of mostly lithographs. Many are monochrome but some use two or more colours in a really subtle way. I particularly liked Minerva, Prometheus and Pandora, a lithograph from 1950; I'm thinking about Greek myth a lot at the moment.

Moore really uses the different effects achievable with lithograph; Lullaby (above) is a good example. I don't know how it's done, some kind of oil and water resist maybe, but the background of the image has a wonderful stony texture. The sleeping figure emerges out of the stone, almost like one of his sculptures. All the forms in his prints have that weight and solidity so characteristic of his sculptures.

The show is on until 31 March.

The Walthamstow Tapestry

Feeling more than a little wiped out at the moment. Just emerged from a four-week Ofsted inspection of Children's Services which is probably one of the least fun things I can think of, and as a consequence, we are now four weeks behind on the end of year returns, four of which have to be in by the end of June (we've started one...). Throw in an office move last Friday... who knows what chaos awaits when I go to the new place on Monday.

So, I have data fatigue and was feeling somewhat in need of a change. What better way to shake this off than with a visit to Winchester Discovery Centre to see Grayson Perry's Walthamstow Tapestry; a mind-blowing 15 metres of intricately detailed images and text woven by Flemish weavers.

It's Perry's comment on consumerism bound up in a 'seven ages of man' narrative. The tapestry is peppered with household brand names which sit supposedly randomly in amongst the images. Every inch of the picture plane is used and is heavy with symbolism and his influences are evident: medieval and folk art and Sumatran fabric for instance. It has been likened to the Bayeux Tapestry.

Despite some of the macabre imagery, it's a very beautiful thing. The colour and texture and the drawings themselves are lovely and one could gaze at it for hours and still find new details to delight and ponder over. Perry is a consummate doodler with humour - I mean that as a compliment - and it took me back to my childhood and the hours I spent immersed in my collection of Richard Scarry books. Again, this is not to denigrate the downright genius of the Walthamstow Tapestry, but rather, is a comment about the visual impact the work has and its ability to hold the attention. I think it's wonderful. And I'm very pleased to have been able to see it as I found a newspaper article today stating that last month, it was sold to an art school in China. It will be in Winchester until 6 July so go see it.