Faded patchwork

Richard Diebenkorn

I am very pleased to have caught the Richard Diebenkorn show at the Royal Academy before it closed. I have to confess I knew nothing about him beforehand, but looking through the RA website I expected that I would love the later abstract paintings.

In fact when I got to the show I found that it was his mid-career figurative works that spoke most to me. I find the sense that the landscapes above and below are both flattened and contoured very interesting, and I love the sense of light and shadow. You can anticipate the clean abstraction of his later paintings, but it is the detail and the specificness of the landscape which make these so wonderful.

Perhaps my favourite paining of the show was this one of a knife in a glass of water. Again you can see some of the qualities of his later abstraction - the flattened planes of colour and clean lines and shapes - but it is the weighty realness of the objects that most appeals to me.  

Pleasing patterns

Here are some nice examples of patterning in architectural details I have spotted recently.

From top: Smithfields market, Clapton Methodist church, Smithfields stall roller,outside Temple underground station, Smithfields market,