Illustrated talk with Charles Sinclair, 4th Feb 2010 – review
Charles Sinclair
Charles Sinclair , head of Art at Axminster Community College delivered an insight into the workings of his creative and rather scientific mind. Full of humour and wonder , his art was the subject of his recent MA. He takes organic matter and allows it to decay and grow, but in a very controlled way through grids, grills, jelly moulds and the like . The result , both fragile and beautiful, is then recorded in a series of photographs. Touchingly supportive, I felt, his wife contends cheerfully with the likes of the odd dead “ratty” mouldering away somewhere, and cremated bread pyres almost burning the house down! All his artistic experiments are connected by the desire to be “part of the process” A fascinating Artist!
Dot Page, 24th March 2010 : Art History – review
Las Meninas, Velasquez, 1656
We were treated to a very professional but highly personal view from Dot Page, Director of Art at Woodroffe School. In effect she gave us one of the lectures on her A-level syllabus and utterly fascinating it was too. Oh to be at school again – lucky kids!
She demonstrated how art can elicit a very physical as well as emotional response from the viewer and convinced us that Velázquez’s Las Meninas really is the “best painting in the world” when viewed in the flesh. Artists as diverse as Salvador Dali, Picasso and the modernist James Turrell agreed that this is indeed true and have all produced work in homage to Las Meninas. If you haven’t already seen the picture, make Madrid your next holiday destination, possibly followed by a visit to Turrell’s volcano, in Arizona, which he bought 30 years ago and has turned it into a work of art ( the biggest work of art in the world).
This whistle stop tour round the biggest and the best art was rounded off with a delicious bowl of soup from Eleanor and Anthony in the Dining Room.
