Dreich without, drama within

Today was really dreich: thoroughly grey and miserable all the way to Tate Britain, and not cleared much on return home.  But that was just outdoors, and to be expected at this time of year.  It simply makes being indoors even more of a delight.

Druid landscape (image from here)
For a few reasons I was looking forward to the Paul Nash exhibition.  I am fascinated by English artists of the early 20th Century, I was intrigued and excited by Laura Cumming's review of the show, and I have been drawn to several of Nash's individual paintings over several encounters.  Many of his paintings are famous, but this exhibition showed so much more, in the context of his own development and in one room in particular with the work of his contemporaries - fellow members of the Unit 1 Group, and with the Surrealist Eileen Agar.  An excellent blog post on the exhibition can be read here.

 

Winter sea (image from this review)
The landscapes are what I knew of Paul Nash, including the war paintings.  I admire his coastal pieces (as mentioned in Mags Ramsay's post on the exhibition.), as well as his landscapes with megaliths. 

Landscape of the megaliths (image from here)
And although I had seen several of his Surrealist landscapes, I had not really had a good look at them - especially in the context of his interesting still life paintings.  I was definitely intrigued.

Dead spring (image from here)

Month of March (image from this article)
I was also interested to see this magnolia in the sky above the sea - it reminded me of Georgia O'Keeffe's work.

Flight of the magnolia (image from here)
The exhibition made quite an impression, and I have been energised to revisit a previous intention which I let slip - gosh, it's two years ago now!