Tag Archives: landscapes

Above and below the ground in London’s Guildhall

Posted on by
Reply

THE GUILDHALL ART Gallery is one of London’s many excellent places to view paintings, often by well-known artists. Until 20 September 2026, it is holding an exhibition of paintings by Jock McFadyen, who was born in Scotland in 1950. He studied art first at the Glasgow School of art, then at Chelsea School of Art.

The exhibition at the Guildhall is called “Underground (and Surface)”, and is displayed in three rooms. One of them, the first you enter, has McFadyen’s large scale paintings of Underground (‘Tube’) stations. These works transform the mundane aspects of these everyday sights into dramatic works of art. The views and details that so many commuters see twice a day, and probably hardly notice, become strangely significant when viewed in McFadyen’s pictures. The room housing these pictures is not silent. Recordings of Underground train sounds, collected and recorded by Jem Finer of The Pogues (a popular music ensemble) provide a background to the paintings.

Another large room contain McFadyen’s images of London above ground. Like the Underground paintings, the overground ones are large. They depict views of London in ways that make ordinary scenes become extraordinarily beautiful. One picture is curious because it shows a line of buildings in Bethnal Green standing beneath a portrait of Mont Blanc covered with snow.

The third and smallest room contains some of McFadyen’s portraits. They are competently executed but not nearly as visually exciting as the works in the other two rooms. Nevertheless, taken as a whole, the exhibition is worth a visit.

Discovering a female artist at Tate Britain art gallery

Posted on by
1

OF THE TWO Tates in London, Tate Modern and Tate Britain, I prefer the latter. Yesterday, 29 May 2026, while strolling in the Tate Britain, I entered Room 18, and came across a collection of paintings by an artist who was new to me. With the title “Prunella Clough: Urbscapes”, this was a display of thirteen paintings by Prunella Clough (1919-1999).

Prunella was born in London. In 1937, she enrolled at the then Chelsea School of Art. While there, she received tuition from the British sculptor Henry Moore. During WW2, she worked as a cartographer in the Office of War Information. During her whole life, she resided in London.

Prunella was fascinated by what she described as ‘urbscapes’: urban and industrial landscapes. These are depicted in the paintings being shown in Room 18 until 8 November 2026. Almost abstract, each of the pictures is a landscape or part of one. However, at first glance, the viewer might be forgiven for imagining that he or she is looking at abstract art. One of the paintings that I saw from a distance before reaching Room 18 looked a bit like something created by Mark Rothko, but close up one can see that it is a tall blank wall. According to the Tate’s website:

“Clough maintained that ‘nothing that I do is “abstract”. I can locate all the ingredients of a painting in the richness of the outside world, the world of perception.’”

This same website also quotes the artist as having said (in 1949):

“Anything that the eye or the mind’s eye sees with intensity and excitement will do for a start; a gasometer is as good as a garden, probably better.”

The artist Patrick Heron is reported (in the Tate’s website) to have said about Prunella’s work:

“… her paintings are machines for seeing with.”

And I can see what he meant. Prunella Clough was able to transform the mundane into to something visually intriguing. I am pleased I discovered the exhibition of her works, even if I stumbled on it quite accidentally.