Some treats in the Leeds Art Gallery...

My interest in Stanley Spencer goes back to 1979 when I was first in the UK and spent a day with Liz Mandler and Barbara Brooke (of the ChCh gallery) visiting Cookham - Spencer's home town and the setting for much of his painting. Later I saw his work in the Tate and read about his life. The works I was most familiar with were those related to the local 'swan-upping' and also the ones in which the residents of Cookham are depicted rising from the dead! He is a complex artist whose subject matter can sometimes obscure the fact that he is a superb draftsman and colourist.

The Spencer work in the Leeds gallery were a surprise, especially this one titled Two Sisters. It was quite stunning and so unlike anything of his I had seen before.

And then there was this sad work, of Spencer's wife and  daughter, whom he had left for another woman and then tried, unsuccessfully, to return to. Such a psychologically penetrating and poignant painting.

It was lovely to see Frances Hodgkins represented, though no mention of her New Zealand origins.

And, to end on a happy note, this piece of anthropomorphised sculpture delighted me. Such energy and joi de vivre - makes you smile :-)

Incidentally, this is the first time ever that I have taken photos in an art gallery. There was no suggestion that I shouldn't - as there is in many galleries. But I'm not really sure how I feel about the ethics of this...