This 365-year-old painting of a tiny bird has become one of the most popular of its time and is one of the most celebrated paintings of Mauritshuis Museum in The Hague. Carel Fabritius (1622-54) trained in Rembrandt’s studio and later moved to the same hometown of Vermeer – where he died, tragically young in a gunpowder explosion, which took out a quarter of the city, along with his studio and many of his paintings. This small charming painting, on a wooden panel, depicts a goldfinch chained to its perch on its feeding-box, set against a whitewashed wall. This is the very painting that inspired the author Donna Tartt’s globally acclaimed bestseller, The Goldfinch, which won the 2014 Pulitzer
September is here already! What a busy summer we have had. My exhibition in conjunction with the opening of Cloud Gallery’s Flagship store in Worthing was a huge success and the Lowry month a joy for me, a month of painting, reading, watching and discussing one of Britain’s favourite artists Laurence Stephen Lowry. The film #Mrs Lowry and Son (on at cinema’s across the UK) was a fascinating snap shot on Lowry’s life – quite a claustrophobic existence with his mother to say the least! How fantastic Timothy Spall and Vanessa Redgrave were in their roles. Vanessa playing the role of Lowry’s cantankerous and over-bearing mother was terrific and Timothy’s subtle and quiet performance playing La
