Monday 27 February 2012

A Visit to Laing Art Gallery


So after the fun of visiting the Designers Bookbinders Exhibition the other week my day led onto a number of other craft and art related things... While in Newcastle library I wandered around and stumbled across a number of art & design books. A couple that particularly caught my eye were the books on calligraphy, when I was little I remember having book and practising my hand at all the fancy and decorative style of this beautiful lettering forms. I have borrowed a couple of the books and hopefully will trying my hand at some and posting my handy work up here soon.

Newcastle library is sat right next to Laing Art Gallery, whilst being so close I thought it would be enjoyable to spend a few hours looking at some beautiful art. The gallery hosts a range of different art work including historic, modern and contemporary pieces... There were a couple of pieces that really stood out to me were Stephen Hannock's 'Northern City Renaissance' and John Martin's 'Belshazzar's Feast'.

Northern City Renaissance is a beautiful piece, it's striking not only in terms of its large size but also in its intricate detail of the city of Newcastle. Commissioned by musician Sting, he had wanted a piece to capture and reflect his home city and the birds eye view painting certainly does that. The painting details all the iconic structures associated with the city, such as the Sage and the Tyne Bridge... the colour scheme is fairly dark with a sense of bleakness around, shining lights dotted around the painting and through the landscape lead your eye through the piece. At first the painting appears to be a simple representation of the city, it is only when you get closer to the painting that it reveals historical details scratched into the paint in tiny lettering about these iconic and historical parts of the city. Overall a truly beautiful piece that I felt reflects the city and somewhere that now links closely to my new home in the north east.

Belshazzar's Feast is a historic piece of art that first made him famous when it was shown in 1821. The painting depicts as biblical scene with such detail, the oil painting depicts King Belshazzar and his servant Daniel, he explains the supernatural writings to the king who has committed crimes by defiled silver objects stolen from a Jewish temple. This piece really stood out in terms of the way it was displayed... Tucked in it's own booth, the viewer is able to sit opposite the painting whilst sounds of thunder and and red and orange lights flash in conjunction with the sounds. This dramatically alters the viewers perception, the different flashes reveal differing aspects of the painting such as the main figures in front and also the dramatic architecture at the front.

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