Royal Academy Summer Exhibition

I was lucky enough to see the Summer Exhibition at the RA on my visit to London earlier this week. It was a real inspiration looking at the mix of professional and amateur work. The fact that just anyone can enter and the boost of being chosen must be  a fantastic experience. The visit to the exhibition has spurred me on and I will look towards entering a piece of my own for 2017. The juxtaposition of the 'city' and organic offers a fabulous contrast. The possibility of having a piece of my own work 'made' up of only organic matter positioned in such a city scape such as London would truly be the icing on the cake!!!

​Here are some favourite pieces of mine from the show:

 1) Fagus II etching on beech leaves by Emma Buckmaster & Janet French
​I was drawn to this because of its delicacy and the fact that real beech leaves have been used. It made me think 'how was this made? 'This is what I want people to ask themselves while viewing my work.
2) Apartment digital print by Seung Yeon Choi
​This piece was an amazing play on perspective. At first glance it looked to be a textured 3D piece but on closer inspection it is in fact a digital print. Viewing it you realize you are looking at the outside of a window but looking closer the inside is the outside!!
3) Migration by Cathy copper, wire, Elastoplast, silk, pigment by Cathy de Monchaux
​This was a rich collection of materiality in one contained 3D frame for me. It visually exudes a complex process of making. The physical hand work that has gone into producing this piece is stunning.
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All of these works demonstrate my love of  the aesthetic of dark and light contrasts. The need to take this further and explore other contrasts such as city/rural, fast pace/slow pace, organic/synthetic, cosmopolitan/unsophisticated is strong since my visit to London town!!