After a busy day, the exhibition is now up at the Cornerstone Langworthy Road, Salford. The organiser, Tony Easom, has put a lot of work into organising this with the two main themes being the Billy Unsworth story and the Flowers of Manchester. Billy Unsworth was a Salford man, who was killed in the first World War and Graham Walker, a former serviceman, has been collecting information and pictures about  him and has displayed them in this  event.

The second theme is 'The Flowers of Manchester' with images of the  Manchester United players who lost their lives on this fateful day in Munich. Also featured are paintings celebrating the history of Manchester United since this date.

There are also paintings from other local artists with many of the pictures featuring local scenes.

The Cornerstone gives artists the chance to show their work to the public and is one of the few places that is able to do this. It is an excellent community hub where a wide range of activities are available for local people. This facility should be a beacon for other centres in Salford.

The exhibition is on until the 31st August, weekdays 8.30am -8.30pm and is well worth a visit. 

http://www.langworthycornerstone.co.uk/​
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As part of The Art Of Salford's annual exhibition at the Cornerstone, Langworthy Road, the organiser Tony Easom decided to include a tribute to the players who lost their lives in Munich Feb 1958.

In 1958, I was only seven so have very little memory of the crash or it's effects. I have followed United since I can remember and decided to honour these players by selecting memorable events in the club's history. 

From standing in the Stretford end, for every game, my first heroes were Dennis Law and George Best. At one game. I was on the sideline, when George's boot came off ! For ordinary players this would have meant stopping and putting the boot back on, but not George! He continued playing, holding the boot in his hands. It's memories like this that make you realise just how good he was! I love watching TV clips from this period. It's amazing watching him going past players, as they tried to kick him. He would ride their challenges and carry on, not thinking at all of going down! These clips should be shown to Neymar to show him a real genius!

I was fortunate enough to be at Wembley in 1968, for the European Cup Final and that memory will always be one I treasure. The King, otherwise known as Dennis Law, didn't play in that game but his goals earlier on in the tournament certainly helped the team to the final.
The excitement in extra time as United scored and collected the cup was unbelievable! Sue recently bought me a commemorate T-shirt of this match.

The next couple of paintings show the iconic ground which is Old Trafford. The ground has been continually improved and as you go to a game, the nearer you get, you can feel the excitement building up until you are inside. The atmosphere inside the ground is electric and when the fans erupt when a goal is scored! Absolute magic!

The next highlight, was in 1999- you've guessed it- when United won the treble! Watching the team progress in each cup competition, as well being the leader of the Premiership, was nerve wracking for all supporters. As they achieved each one, the pressure increased until the European cup final, where they were losing until added time. Then scoring the two goals, in two minutes! What a fantastic achievement!  Sue and I were in Manchester, with thousands of supporters, to greet the team as they toured the city. The crowds were unbelievable!

The last picture shows a memorial for the Munich Disaster, with the crowd at the ground remembering the people who tragically lost their lives on that fateful day, 60 years ago. Hopefully this selection of paintings of mine will be a small but fitting tribute! 

Until the end of August, the paintings are on sale at the Cornerstone, Langworthy Road, Salford.

Last night was the opening ceremony for the first ever Salford Open Art Exhibition at Salford Art Gallery and the official opening of the exhibition, 'Salford Royal Academy Takeover'

These exhibitions are a landmark in our city, as for the first time several organisations have come together to create them. Salford Art Gallery has worked with the Lowry and Salford University to bring about these events. Other notable establishments involved, include the Royal Academy and other art galleries in the region, who have loaned paintings. A Manchester city centre gallery, Contemporary Six has also been involved in this unique event.

This has been a concerted effort and as the mayor, Paul Dennett said, in his opening speech, raising funds for this took a great deal of effort but after seeing the exhibitions, it has all been worthwhile.

On the night, the Open exhibition was full of visitors, as they viewed 159 artworks by artists linked to Salford. This exhibition featured a wide range of work, covering a diversity of subject matter. It was encouraging to see that art was flourishing in the city of Salford! There is something in the exhibition to suit everybody's taste; including two of my landscape oil paintings!

After the speeches and prize giving, there was a chance for everyone to view the work and enjoy the evening. On a personal note, it was nice to catch up with old friends and meet artists I had only seen on Facebook.

This exhibition will continue until November and now will be a feature on the Gallery's calendar every two years. It will give the chance for local artists to showcase their work in a prestigious venue.  Exhibition opportunities in Salford have been lacking for quite some time now in Salford so let's hope that this exhibition draws lots of visitors and favourable comments to encourage the local council to fund more events like this. Salford Art Gallery have organised workshops and activities through out the summer to complement the exhibitions, which will add to the experience.

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In the next gallery hangs the work from several notable Royal Academicians, which again is another impressive exhibition. I attended an excellent talk, given by Danny Morrell, earlier in the week and  the stories behind these paintings are fascinating. The whole exhibition is well worth seeing.

Linked to the Salford Art Gallery's exhibitions is a smaller one at Ordsall Hall, situated at the Quays area of the city. Here the Academy paintings are from the gallery's own collection. Again, a nice place to visit over the holidays with several activities taking place, especially for those of you who have children or grandchildren.  
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So no excuses over the next few weeks, not to enjoy the diversity of artistic talent on show. 

Salford people should be proud of their heritage and thank all these organisations for their hard work putting these exhibitions together.

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After a quiet few months I have a busy few weeks ahead. As well as a couple of pictures in Eccles Community Art Gallery,  along with other members of Salford art club, I was invited to show a couple of my paintings in the Summer show at the Legacy Art Gallery in Todmorden.

We dropped off the paintings a couple of weeks ago and didn't really have a chance to look around the town. This time we planned a full afternoon's visit.

As we arrived there was already a nice buzz in the gallery. As you entered through the front door, my two paintings were on the far wall and I was pleased how good they looked. After viewing the exhibits and chatting with Stella Hill, the owner, we went to a nearby café for a hot drink.

After the drink, we decided to explore a little further. Across the road there was an interesting antiques and collectors market, which seems to be on quite often. 

As we wandered around town, we came across a couple more galleries and some interesting shops, the types you don't find in many larger towns. 

Being a Sunday some of these weren't open and we certainly plan another visit to explore further.

As we wandered we even came across a couple of surprise sculptures that certainly livened up the place.

As we arrived back at the gallery for a final look, it was pleasing to see that the rooms were now full of people enjoying the artwork and excellent buffet. 

An enjoyable afternoon, I now have to hope that someone likes one of my paintings enough to buy it.

I am always interested in seeing the work coming out of Universities. Sue and I have been following the progress of a friend of ours from the art club, George Lee and were invited to his final exhibition.
It has been interesting talking to him about his course and seeing the work he has been doing.

The course has involved various areas of study including photography, printing and sculpture, as well as being taught about organising and publicising an exhibition. For his final work George had focused on the decline of the local public houses and the changes in society related to this.

His exhibition featured a Warhol inspired wallpaper, several photographs and sketches as well as a large Resin sculpture containing items from a pub. His area was distinguished by a large Flemish Weaver pub sign. 

It was really pleasing to see his work and we wish him all the best with his future endeavours in the artistic field.

It was then interesting touring the other students exhibitions. Like in a lot of these shows you see a wide range of work. There  were a few with a political or moral message, some traditional art and a range of abstract work. Many students were at different levels of development and still experimenting with ideas.You could see that a few had decided upon a theme and one stood out. This was because they already had the language to go with their work as well as an accomplished style.

An enjoyable evening and we look forward to next years when another member of the art club will be on show.

Fancying some fresh air, we decided to go to the Quays and this gave us the chance to see the latest exhibition by Chantal Joffe. at the Lowry Centre.

On entering the rooms, the first impression is that these are in quite a naïve style, with loosely painted images. The paintings explore motherhood and show  Esme, Joffe's daughter, as she grows up. These images are enhanced by the juxtapositioning of mother and daughter within the canvas.

As you become immersed in the paintings, the images start to convey messages of the interactions between groups or feelings of awkwardness in adolescence. Joffe has played around with different viewpoints and  we found the way that she hadn't always painted the full heads of her subjects unusual and interesting.

The artist also pays homage to Paula Modersohn Becker, who was a key figure in the development of Modernism in the early 20th century and is probably the first Western woman artist, to paint herself naked. The information said, 'Her frank, but intimate approach defied expectations of how the female body should be painted, as defined by her male counterparts'.

​You can see several pictures that represent similar poses from both artists.

So, to sum up, an exhibition that surprises you; at first you see a picture and think the eyes are painted wrong or that is not a natural pose but this is where an artist can convey more than a photograph. Well worth a visit.

During our trip to Vancouver last year, we walked  along the seafront and after a while sat down for a rest. We shared a bench with a local man and after a while, he enquired about our accent. As we talked he said that he had visited England and his highlight was a visit to the Beatle experience in Liverpool. When we told him we only lived thirty minutes away, he was surprised that we had never been to the exhibition. At this point we were a little embarrassed and vowed to go some time in the future. 

Having booked it several weeks ago, we arrived in Liverpool to some excellent weather, although there was a cold wind from the river. The experience was impressive and we spent a couple of hours reliving memories of that time in music's history, before coming out into the dock area.

After meeting our daughter and enjoying a drink in a café, we entered the Tate Liverpool. We started at the top floor, where there was an exhibition that was designed to help you to relax. There was a section for making herbal teas and a row of hammocks on display. Although they were meant for numerous people to lie down in them, unfortunately, at the time of our visit, the display was not open for use and as we didn't like the teas on offer, we soon left this floor and continued to explore the rest of the gallery.

We went down to the next floor and into the Roy Lichtenstein exhibition, expecting to see the pop art paintings he is famous for.

It was a great surprise to see a range of his landscape pictures. Apparently, these sea and landscape scenes were a recurring subject matter from 1964 onwards. He had a very experimental approach using synthetic materials in his quest to create illusionistic optical effects. In these works he used Rowlux and other plastics to convey the effects, such as water reflecting sunlight. You can still see the influence of his pop art paintings but these were a completely different genre. 

It just shows that you think you know an artist and then an exhibition, such as this, throws up surprises.

On the next floor down, we visited the modern art gallery. After the busy gallery above, the lack of people in here, I believe, sums up some of these exhibits, as we have discussed in previous blogs.

http://www.philipwestcott.co.uk/blog/its-the-way-you-write-or-talk-about-your-art

http://www.suewestcott.com/blog/mickey-take-of-the-tate

In the next gallery was the Constellations exhibition. This was to encourage the exploration of connections between major modern and contemporary artists. These were arranged in constellations over two floors and offered an imaginative way of viewing and understanding the artworks through how they relate to each other rather than chronological sequence. 

Although, I didn't always see the link it was interesting to see this range of paintings side by side. 

After a busy day, it was back to the hotel  for a meal and as it had been such an artistic day, it was a chance for me to do a couple of sketches in the bar; as we relaxed ready for the next day.

 couple of years ago I read an article about the ten most popular pastimes and hobbies of the present day. It was no surprise that nine out of ten of these featured computers and mobile devices. The only one that was different was Geocaching; where people go out into the countryside or around town, armed with a GPS unit looking for hidden caches. Once found, these are logged and the person can continue.

Since this list was published, it wouldn't surprise me if Urban Sketching could now be added to this list, as this seems to be one of the biggest growing pastimes in the world. I have seen various groups spring up and my local town, Eccles, even has a small group now. Whenever I go out, I often see people sat sketching, quite happily taking in the environment.

This leads me onto my visit to the Lady Lever Art gallery. Arriving on a sunny day, the first room we entered was an exhibition featuring etchings by Whistler and Pennell,  called 'Etching the City'.

I couldn't help but notice that these works were very similar to some of the sketches I had seen recently at Salford Art Gallery, in an exhibition there by the Manchester Urban Sketchers. Although not coloured, the etchings captured images of the city in their time. Some captured the idea of a quick sketch, as people went about their everyday work; others were more detailed and were careful studies of the buildings.

I have researched the Etching process but there is no mention of whether studies were done for these on site and then worked on in the studio, or if they had some work do on the etching plate at the viewpoint.

These pictures of London and Manchester certainly capture the city, much as the present Urban Sketchers are doing nowadays. Hopefully, the movement will continue to flourish and as a hobby, enables people to enjoy the world around them rather than sitting in a room on an internet device.

With the weather being so nice over the last few days, we have had a chance to get out and do some walks. 

Many years ago I was fortunate to catch the attention of Lord Rhodes and his daughter with my paintings and after visiting him at his home and selling one of my paintings to his collector daughter, I was offered an exhibition at Saddleworth Museum in Uppermill. It was nice to return and wander around the gallery and the town again. 

The first time we visited was at weekend. Unfortunately, parking can be a problem, especial;;y on a Bank Holiday so  we finished up parking quite far out. On this occasion we just wandered around town and enjoyed the shops and cafes before returning home.

Today, as we were in the area to get some of my paintings framed, we decided to go for a walk along the canal.

This also gave me a chance to try out my travelling art kit; although I decided not to take my folding stool. This meant that to sketch I had to sit on walls. Sue, who sat beside me writing in her notebook, forgot about nettles and brushed against one when getting down. Sadly, we couldn't remember what dock leaves looked like and didn't think it was a good idea to rub random plants on her arm!

The first sketch was of lock 22W, where the rushing overflow was at the side. The second thing that interested me was a couple tending their allotment. The woman was working busily away whilst the man sat and watched. No comment needed here!

Walks like this are also a great inspiration for my oil paintings or just a chance to admire the beauty of nature or the ingenuity of the  people who constructed these waterways and bridges.

On an interesting note, last time we were here we did a trip on a canal boat and when we were in one of the locks the boat became wedged against a wall and started to turn sideways, as the water went down. This was quite scary and the people in charge had to climb on the roof to free it. A memorable adventure!

Having seen the impressive structure during the day and the light show put on there in the evenings, we were looking forward to visiting the museum. Also around town we had seen posters for an Urban Art Exhibition there. 

As we entered the building there were tables with small projects on them for children. This was a good idea as it meant they were already involved in the themes on show in the gallery. As we looked at the different exhibitions offered, we realised you had to pay separately for each of  them. As this could become quite costly, we had to pick the one that interested us the most. Although we came for the Urban Art exhibition, the Digital Immersive Experiences; Future World -Where Art Meets Science. intrigued us more, so we decided on that.

The first room we entered was dark and as we sat on the floor the walls and floor were used for a video showing flight. This was quite disorientating but we sat and enjoyed the experience. 

As we left this room, we were not sure what to expect but as we entered the next hall, it was a hive of activity. Adults and children sat colouring in pictures of fish and sea creatures. I did a fish and Sue did a sea turtle and a lizard. These were then scanned into a computer terminal and my fish appeared on the wall amongst others and Sue's turtle swam along the floor.

​As we moved on, the next area featured a cityscape. Here you could deign buildings or spaceships. I did a spaceship and a rocket. Once on the screen you could interact with them.

Moving on there was a slide that you could come down and as you passed over shapes they changed colour and pattern. In another area, you could move buildings etc. around and interact with the layout of the town.

We spent a great deal of time in this large room, as there was so much of interest.  All around families were joining in with the activities and enjoying their time in the gallery. There were large coloured balls to move and giant squares that changed colour when moved around. There was also a fantasy wall where, when you touched the symbols moving around, they changed into animals or mystical beasts. In another room, the walls were filled with crashing waves that were reflected on the walls.

A thoroughly enjoyable time spent in this fun gallery. Maybe, we didn't see any paintings but as a means to involve families and get people into these places, it was excellent. I imagined my landscapes done here, where people could walk through the painting, interacting with nature possibly even smelling the flowers etc. Or in one of my cityscapes meeting the people I have painted. How this would add to the experience of seeing the painting and then experiencing it.

​Admittedly, in this instance, there weren't any paintings on show but if this type of experience encourages people into galleries then an appreciation of art will hopefully follow on.

In London the Monet and Architecture exhibition gives 3D representations of his  work: ​https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/the-credit-suisse-exhibition-monet-architecture?gclid=CjwKCAjwlcXXBRBhEiwApfHGTYfGtQSED3qtqH2ObALU37IDkN1AYq9OKuK3KZCGPwRvFgyx3vIg0xoC_t0QAvD_BwE​

In Paris:
​ A digital gallery in Paris is making art an immersive experience for visitors who can walk into and over paintings projected around a warehouse.
The Atelier des Lumieres, or Studio of Lights, opened this month with an inaugural exhibit featuring Austrian painter Gustav Klimt's work not hanging on walls, but lighting up floors, ceilings and walls in a colorful, 35-minute moving sequence.
Gallery director Michael Couzigou says: "We use photos scanned in high definition to make this digital exhibition a universe of music and sound."
The show, set to classical music, attracted 60,000 visitors in its first 10 days.
Organizers say the gallery is the biggest of its kind in the world. It has 140 fixed video projectors installed across the 3,300-square-meter (35,521-square-foot) space.