Leeds Gallery Visits: Henry Moore Institue, Leeds Art Gallery, Monroe House, Colours May Vary + The White Cloth Gallery

Yesterday I took advantage of the glorious (and rare) Leeds sunshine and went on a tour of the city to visit all the galleries in Leeds to see if I could gather any inspiration for my upcoming projects. 

The first stop was Leeds Art Gallery. Unfortunately the British Art Show 8 had ended so there was only one room open at this time, the classical paintings room displaying their impressive collection of historical artwork. Every time I visit I am mesmerised by the scale and detail of the paintings, getting lost for a few minutes in the story of each one. These are my two favourite paintings from the gallery. After studying the work of John Keats at A-Level I am very fond of any artwork featuring nymphs and mythological creatures. 

The first painting 'Iris' 1886 features Iris, a messenger of the Gods, sent to wither the flowers in autumn, and being punished by being turned into a rainbow for loitering amongst the water lilies. The iridescent paints used are delicately mesmerising and perfectly capture the exquisite fairytale nature of the story. 

The second titled 'The Temptation of Sir Percoval',1894 by Arthur Hacker Depicts one of King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table, Sir Percival being tempted by a beautiful, but predatory maiden. The delicate and detailed brushstrokes in this painting are exquisite to study from the brambles in the bottom right to the fabric of the nymphs dress. I'm also blown away by how realistic the face of the knight looks as some historical paintings can look a bit strange and distorted yet the shading and detail on this is breathtakingly realistic.  

Next stop I visited Olga Jevrić's 'Proposal for Monuments' Exhibition at the Henry Moore Institute. I'm not usually a huge fan of sculptural work but the raw, minimalistic elements of the pieces and unique textures and shapes they created were really engaging and interesting to study up close. Jevrić's work explores the elements of mass, volume and texture, investigating the relationships between solid matter and empty space. She worked mainly with a mixture of cement and iron dust to create modelled masses pierced and shaped with iron rods and nails.

The warped and almost decaying look of these sculptures have an almost post-apocalypitic quality to them, looking as if they have been bent and eroded by the elements over time so only part of the shell of a once solid structure is left behind. 

After the Henry Moore Gallery I went down town to have a look at the Gallery at Munro House and  while I was there I stopped at colours may vary. In the back of CMV I found an exhibition set up and submitted by the Level 5 Illustration students at Leeds College of Art (My University) and was blown away by the amount of beautiful prints created by the students. The aim of the exhibition was to submit a print made of just 2 ink colours inspired by a musician. These were my 2 favourites: 

Untitled by Olivia Northrop, Lino Print 2015 

Untitled by Tyler Robson, Digital Print 2015

I adore everything about these prints from the from the colours to the compositions to the overall look of the illustrations! I look forward to seeing what else these two young designers produce in the future. These two designs aswell as some of the others from the show have inspired me to experiment with some new techniques in my next project such as lino print, mono print and screen print as they create a much more interesting and engaging final resolution with a more hand made quality to them. 

Finally I went to check out the 'Women in Music' Exhibition at the White Cloth Gallery. There were some really beautiful portrait photographs in both black and white and coloured film of a range of female music artists.