Thursday, 13 June 2013

Ready, Steady, Abseil!

Outreach Manager, Amelia Calvert, writes about her experiences as part of Art in Healthcare's intrepid abseiling team last month...


Ready to go..
 And so, on a deeply foggy day in May, with heartbeats racing, harnesses tightened, helmets fitted and gloves poised, a team of intrepid staff members, trustees, supporters and friends of Art in Healthcare, found themselves lined up along the Forth Rail Bridge, 165ft up from the beach below, a stone’s throw away from the noisy trains thundering overhead and staring rather anxiously at the vertical rope in front of us that disappeared ominously into the distant abyss of crowds cheering below.


Six months of anticipation, JustGiving plugs and wonderings about whether we would actually achieve the task condensed into this one moment, the moment when each of us were asked by our individual helpers, in a relaxed but instructive tone to “now step over the railing”. This was it, no going back, no time to think, just a simple move towards ‘sealing the deal’, as easy as climbing a fence, no? And then to sit back, straighten our legs and enjoy, ha! Oh and smile at the camera before heading down..

Heading down..
The rest is history. Remarkably, we mostly did all smile at the camera and we mostly did all make it to the sand below in both good heart and good health (the latter perhaps less remarkable because the safety of the event seems very watertight). What remains now is to issue multiple thank you’s. Thank you to all our supporters for their generous donations, raising us a total of £7,194.55 plus Gift Aid to date and still increasing.. Thank you to our friends and families for their emotional and mental support – no, the bridge will not fall down and no, there will not be killer seals waiting for you at the bottom. Thank you to CHSS for putting together a fantastic event of which we could be a part (a phenomenal £155,000 was raised on the day for different charities and over £100,000 was raised for CHSS alone) and, most importantly, thank you to the weather fairy for hiding the true scale of the bridge in thick fog before we made our anxious ascent to start the daring descent..
We did it!


Watch our YouTube video of the event, kindly put together by fellow abseiler and volunteer, David Oxley: http://youtu.be/65Wo2mzlCcc

Thursday, 6 June 2013

Artist Uncovered: Ade Adesina

Martine Foltier Pugh presents Art in Healthcare latest artist

One of the highlights of the Art in Healthcare calendar is the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) New Contemporaries annual exhibition, not only because of the concentration of emerging talents on display, hand picked amongst the best of Scotland’s recent graduates but also because they are able to purchase works for their collection with funding from the Hope Scott Trust. 
This year Art in Healthcare have been bowled over by the art of master printmaker Ade Adesina, who graduated from Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen.
                                                                                                                                                                           
    RSA exhibition, image courtesy of the artist

It is easy to see why. The Nigerian born artist now based in the UK brings together technical virtuosity with thought-provoking themes. His highly detailed lino cuts and etchings showcase his dual Nigerian and British cultural heritage and his concern for environmental issues is delivered with a keen sense of humour. The accuracy of his drawings comes mostly from direct observation recorded through sketches and photographs while experiencing other cultures. Travelling is important as it helps him formulate the issues of cultural identity that are at the heart of his practice. 
                                                                                                                                 
RSA exhibition, image courtesy of the artist

The amount of details and repetitive marks that fill his landscapes is astonishing, each print taking him on average two months to complete.  He recalls the moment when, while visiting Paris as an undergraduate, he was awestruck by an impressionist painting by Claude Monet where tiny brush strokes filled up the large canvas. Adesina revels in labour intensive processes.

“I like to work hard and I like people that are hard working. Seeing the Monet painting, I felt the pain and sleepless nights.”



Mirage lino cut 112cmx76cm
image courtesy of the artist

There are echoes of Monet’s paintings in ‘Mirage’, one of the three acquisitions by Art in Healthcare, where almost every head of wheat stands out across the expansive field. The deep trenches carved by heavy agricultural machinery take the eye down to the myriad of ripples on the Firth of Forth and to flotillas of fish farm enclosures flanked by the rail and road bridges, with the city spread around Edinburgh castle in the far distance. The use of iconic imagery here makes intensive farming appear even more incongruous and unsettling.



Decline lino cut 112cmx76cm
image courtesy of the artist

‘Decline’ is a comment on the disappearance of the majestic and slow growing baobabs because of unsustainable logging. In the print, the trees seem to act as buffers between the restless and troubled sky and the ground. What will happen when they have all gone?



North East Safari  etching 100cmx70cm
image courtesy of the artist

 In ‘North East Safari’, where ‘North East’ refers to the Grampian region with Dunnottar Castle and the oil rigs in the distance, the punch is forceful and the argument is multi-layered. From the nesting grouse, that famous native bird game, in the foreground to the African endangered wildlife roaming the plain below, the peace in this Garden of Eden is about to be shattered by the hunt appearing on the left while the feigned naivety of the composition derides colonial perceptions of African culture. 
This satirical element transforms the work and places Adesina within the tradition of artists such as Chris Offili and Yinka Shonibare who both inspire him.

Adesina’s remarkable talent was rewarded during the RSA New Contemporaries exhibition by no less than three prizes. He has also now sold out a number of print editions. Altogether this is a highly deserved achievement that predicts a bright future.

Martine Foltier Pugh is a freelance writer and visual artist based in Edinburgh


Credits

With thanks to Ade Adesina for his information and images

Links

Ade Adesina website http://www.adeadesina.com
The Hope Scott Trust http://www.hopescotttrust.co.uk
Gray's School of Art http://www.rgu.ac.uk/about/faculties-schools-and-departments/faculty-of-design-and-technology/gray-s-school-of-art/gray-s-school-of-art
The Royal Scottish Academy New Contemporaries exhibition http://www.royalscottishacademy.org/pages/exhibition_frame.asp?id=392


And special thanks to Balfour Beatty Investments and Arts & Business Scotland for their financial support, which has enabled Art in Healthcare to produce 18 Artist Uncovered blog posts and accompanying video productions.





Thursday, 30 May 2013

How Painting a Mural as a Class Can Lift Students' Spirits


Now introducing guest blogger, Marcela De Vivo, from Los Angeles, writing on how painting a mural can lift students’ spirits. Art in Healthcare’s University Society recently completed a mural at Mannafields School, which has greatly brightened up their playground..


Mural at Mannafields School by Art in Healthcare University Society
It’s no secret that art can help independent young people find themselves, or even be used as a valuable means of healing and therapy. In fact, making art together can provide a group with a focused sense of meaning and pride.



For a classroom, such a powerful bonding experience can take things to the next level and crafting a large-scale mural is a perfect way to accomplish this. Here are a few impressive benefits of classroom mural-making that teachers should consider.

Image Courtesy of Franco Folini/Flickr.com

Creating Group Art Can Create a Group

Assign a classroom to individually paint or draw projects on their own; you’ll still have the same motley crew of young minds presenting varied islands of creativity. Assign that same collection of students to somehow produce a room-sized, coordinated color painting and the result will be an integrated organism of students with a shared sense of identity.



Making a work of art collectively is a powerful way for students to get to know each other in a profound manner. You can’t make a mural without voicing your ideas, showing your skills and—a necessary part in creating a group identity—exposing your vulnerabilities.



If a class-created mural strikes a chord among its artists, the set of individual minds that created it will have been at least slightly transformed. Leaders will have emerged. In the brainstorming, executing and administering phases of mural-making, students are likely to discover hidden strengths, allies and sense of purpose.



The Sum is Greater than its Parts

Beginning artists—or students who don’t even see themselves as artists—can be easily daunted in the creative process. Creating a work of art as part of a team can undo this insecurity in magical, unexpected ways.



First, while fledgling painters and sketchers feel nervous when presenting their ideas and feelings all alone, when their work is in conjunction with a community of classmates, it can take the heat of their individual performance. When even a clumsy-handed student can take a share in the pride of having created a massive wall painting, it’s an equally massive ego boost.

Image Courtesy of NID chick/Wikimedia Commons



Second, there truly is an element of alchemy to group creation. The voyage of discovery that happens when you let your ideas run free next to the visions of others is truly liberating—and among young people new to letting the creative juices flow, it might just be life-changing.



Murals Are the Change We Want to See.

Here’s a true anecdote that illustrates the positive power of murals. Several years ago, a Ford Motor Company plant in Detroit hired a muralist to redecorate the walls of one of its factories, giving free reign to the artist. Rather than impose his own vision, the painter asked each and every one of the plant’s line workers to tell him the images they wanted to look at every day. The artist captured a cornucopia of favorite singers, hot rods and beloved hunting dogs…resulting in the happiest, most productive set of workers the plant had seen in years.



Similarly, a group of students in Scotland found a sense of meaning by creating colorful murals for children in a school.



The point? Our lives tend to be a lot brighter when the backdrop is a colorful representation of our dreams, hopes and memories. This experience is all the more powerful when we are the ones physically responsible for creating that environment—and potentially even greater when we work together to transform the worlds of others into better places to live.



Marcela De Vivo is a freelance writer in Los Angeles who writes on everything from health and fitness to technology and marketing. In addition to writing for Northwest Pharmacy (http://www.northwestpharmacy.com/drug-safety-and-authenticity.html), she loves inspiring creativity in others, especially her children, in order to encourage teamwork.


Monday, 20 May 2013

Volunteering for Art in Healthcare: Art & Artist Research Project for QR Codes

When I first volunteered for Art in Healthcare's art and artist research project for QR codes, I hadn’t heard of the organisation, didn’t know what a QR code was, and had no formal training in art. The idea of doing something useful and interesting from home appealed – but would they have me?  Very swiftly I was invited to a friendly induction meeting and let loose on some paintings in the Oncology Ward of Edinburgh’s Western General.

Arabella Crum Ewing's, The Sea, The Sea
The volunteer brief is to write a short piece, up to 500 words, on each artwork, which will be accessible through the QR code on the label and on the website.  After looking at the works 'in situ', I use online resources, including the artist’s website.  Sometimes I then contact the artist.  I’ve found all of these steps fascinating, and, although at times unsure about my interpretations of the paintings, I enjoy putting the descriptions together. I’ve now written around 20 descriptions of a variety of pieces – water-colours, oils, multi-media collages, etchings and screenprints, photographs and tapestries.  I’d like to write about my experiences with the three works illustrated below.

Arabella Crum Ewing’s etching, The Sea, The Sea, is in a small room in the Western’s oncology ward.  I enjoyed my conversation with the woman whose bed was next to it. (One of the pleasures of visiting the hospital is seeing how the people who see the pictures every day react to them.) She liked the vivid scene and the detailed birds.  But like me she was puzzled by the pink mushroom-like plants in the foreground! I never worked out what they were. (Any suggestions from botanists reading this are welcome!) But when I got home I found a bigger puzzle.  The etching’s full title is Oaharra! Oaharra! The Sea! The Sea!  Was Oaharra a place name – possibly Irish?  Or Maori? I’d been in New Zealand – was that the Auckland Harbour Bridge in the background? Eventually I googled “the sea, the sea”, and found that Xenophon recorded these words as the cry of the Ancient Greek army after their trek through Asia Minor.  In Greek it was Θαλαττα (pronounced “thalatta”), so the title was simply The  Sea!  - repeated four times. At some point someone had mistranscribed the Greek words.  Mystery solved!

Stephen Lawson's, The Old Town from Waverley Bridge
Stephen Lawson’s, The Old Town from Waverley Bridge, interested me because of the artist’s distinctive style.  He has specialised in time-lapse photography and his website includes a fascinating 12 minute film describing the development of his technique.  The work is composed of 60 vertical slices of the view, taken at regular intervals over a day. The railings at Waverley Bridge are in the foreground, and as one’s eye is drawn along the long photograph, from Arthur’s Seat through the Old Town, the Castle, the Scott Monument to Princes Street on the left, one also becomes aware of the changes of the light on a November day – from dawn at 8am to darkness by 6pm.  Another time lapse work on the website is of the Callanish Stones on Lewis.  On a visit to Inverness Museum in December, it was a wonderful surprise to see that photograph on display.

Sometimes a painting can delight because of a personal connection.  I took an instant liking to Shona McEwan’s, Inverleith Allotments, because I had recently seen my stepdaughter, actor Gowan Calder, in a Fringe play there. This watercolour seemed to me to perfectly capture that fertile, but slightly windswept and haphazard quality that allotments seem to have!   I learned that Shona had carried out some public artworks in the 1990s and I contacted her to see what she was doing now.  This is part of her reply:
Shona McEwan's, Inverleith Allotments

“I’ve always had a great love of colour and pattern.  After graduating I was commissioned to do murals for the Children’s Ward at Monkland’s General Hospital, and for the recreation area of Polmont Young Offenders Institution.  I also helped restore a Second World War mural in Abbot House Dunfermline. I’ve been an arts worker within a social work day centre, and am now doing my best to bring an artistic slant to promoting the work of the adult protection committee.  I don’t do any of my own work now, but since moving a year ago, I’ve now at last got my own garden, and with my seven-year old daughter am discovering the joy of planting seeds and bulbs and watching things grow.”

It was lovely to get this email, which says so much about the importance of art in everyone’s life. 




Written by our guest blogger and volunteer, Kate Calder, while Martine Pugh is away.

References: Arabella Crum Ewing The Sea! The Sea!:

Stephen Lawson: Edinburgh Old Town from Waverley Bridge:

Sunday, 12 May 2013

Artist uncovered: Adrian Wiszniewski


Martine Foltier Pugh meets the internationally renowned artist

Adrian Wiszniewski apologises for the mess as he opens the doors to his studio conveniently built in the garden of his house on the outskirt of a tranquil Renfrewshire village. This is in fact a very well organised series of working spaces designed to accommodate large scale paintings and small detailed watercolours.


 Adrian Wiszniewski in his studio
image courtesy of William Murray Brown

Many people will be familiar with Wiszniewski’s figurative paintings of pensive youths engaged in mysterious pursuits. The figures are formally poised often against exuberant landscapes of sensual, luscious flowers and fantastic birds, flooded with vivid colours interspaced with large expanses of black. The overall feel is of suspended animation. 


First Anachronism of the Day  2011, oil on canvas, 122x183cm
image courtesy of the artist

Wiszniewski relates his group paintings to the ‘Attitudes’ of Lady Hamilton, the 18th century beauty who became famous in Naples for her living pictures where she posed as characters from Antiquity. His figures are indeed actors, or metaphors, that allow the artist to explore poetically certain issues. Their features are composite and this hybridity indicates their creator’s internal argument. But the debate needs no resolution. Wiszniewski likes to keep things open-ended, this is what sustains his excitement for his work. 


The Shaman  2011, gouache on paper, 114x157cm
image courtesy of the artist

He chooses to depict his characters on the brink of action because of the innate potential concentrated in that moment. For instance he prefers the loaded tension of Michelangelo’s sculpture of ‘David’ to Bernini’s contorted and spent hero. 
Adrian Wiszniewski was born of Polish, Irish and Scottish parentage and brought up in Glasgow. Although happy to have been born in Scotland, he has always felt more European than Scottish. He first studied architecture at the Mackintosh School of Architecture before taking up painting at Glasgow School of Art (GSA) in the 80s. He finally graduated in mixed media with filmmaking. European and American art together with performance artists such as Bruce Mclean and Gilbert & George, these were the early influences that inspired his distinctive take on the figurative. 


Les Temps Perdus  2011, oil on canvas, 122x91cm
image courtesy of the artist 

He left Glasgow soon after graduation to see the world and partly also to break away from the Scottish art scene and the ‘New Glasgow Boys’ label that had brought early fame to himself and his GSA peers Steven Campbell, Ken Currie, Peter Howson and Stephen Conroy. Wiszniewski went on to build an international reputation with solo exhibitions and many prestigious public commissions.
He has been back in Scotland with his family for a number of years and continues to defy categorisation by successfully mastering new practices in parallel with painting:  printmaking, ceramics, interior design – he designed the chair in his studio. He is also an acclaimed writer and playwright. The reason why he does not take up photography is simply because he would have to master it to perfection and there would be no time for anything else! 


Fruit on a slice of lemon  1997, acrylic on canvas, 90x75cm
Art in Healthcare collection

Interestingly the painting in the Art in Healthcare collection is not figurative. It was commissioned in 1997 particularly for a hospital environment and the brief specified “no black” because it is a “depressing” colour. Typically Wiszniewski thought otherwise. After all “Manet, Matisse, Chagall and Picasso all have a fantastic use of black” he adds. His appreciation of Matisse is particularly strong here with the flat planes of bold colours. Adrian Wiszniewski’s sense of humour comes through in the title, the slice of lemon in question is the pool of yellow on the floor.

Martine Foltier Pugh is a freelance writer and visual artist based in Edinburgh

Video on Adrian available on YouTube at: http://youtu.be/9Yd6jkhaEQM

With many thanks to Adrian Wiszniewski for his time and hospitality.

Links
http://www.adrianwiszniewski.com/index.html
http://www.beauxartslondon.co.uk





Tuesday, 23 April 2013

The Royal Edinburgh Hospital is two hundred years old


In July this year the Royal Edinburgh Hospital (REH) will be two hundred years old. Its bicentenary is marked by an ongoing series of events and lectures that highlight its history.

To trace the contributing factors which led to the creation of the REH, we have to go back to
a particularly tragic incident in 1774.


At twenty-four, Robert Fergusson was already a much admired and established poet whose brilliance thrilled the crowds in pubs around Edinburgh, the ‘Auld Reikie’ of his poem. 

Today his statue outside the Canongate church still entertains as it appears to be hurrying past visitors to the Royal Mile. 

Already prone to bouts of ‘melancholia’, his condition worsened after a head injury incurred in a fall. 

Soon it became too difficult for his mother to look after him. If Fergusson’s family had been well off he would have been sent to a private institution at great expense. But for ‘paupers’ the only option was the Bedlam asylum where treatment was non- existent and restraint prevailed.  
  

Fergusson’s health deteriorated fast and he died two months later. The circumstances of his death had a lasting effect on his friends and followers such as Robert Burns who publicly acknowledged his influence. 



One of Fergusson’s friends was Dr Andrew Duncan who visited him in Bedlam. Duncan was so outraged by what he saw that he resolved to improve the conditions of so-called ‘lunatics’.
He set about to raise support and funding for the creation of a humane asylum but despite his efforts and the prominence of his position - he was President of the Royal College of Physicians for a number of years - progress was very slow. But he did not give up although it took eighteen years to appoint trustees and another fifteen for a Royal Charter to be granted to him by George III. Finally sufficient funds were secured and in July 1813, thirty nine years after Duncan conceived his plan, the ‘Edinburgh Lunatic Asylum’ opened its doors to its first fee-paying patients in the village of Morningside south of Edinburgh. Provision for non-paying patients would have to wait longer still until the 1840s. 


These beginnings seem very modest by today's expectations but they were ground breaking at the time and greatly influential in shifting the perception of mental disorders from crimes to illnesses.


Other pioneers were emerging in England 
and Europe, for instance William Tuke in 
Yorkshire and Philippe Pinel in France, 
who advocated replacing chains with 
humanity and compassion in the care of 
the so-called insane. 

So inspirational were Pinel's ethics to the 
inaugural Board of Management of the 
hospital that a plaque portraying him as a 
younger man was embedded in the fabric of 
the building as well as his bust as an older
man to commemorate the centenary of his 
death. From this high viewpoint he can still 
oversee the hospital's comings and goings. 





During the nineteenth century, two long-serving hospital superintendents were highly influential in asserting the reputation for innovation of the REH. Dr William Mackinnon believed that patients should be kept busy and that their work should reflect the skills they had before coming to the asylum, tailoring, weaving and gardening for example.  We now recognise in these principles the basis of modern Occupational Therapy.  


Mackinnon House garden created and maintained by patients
Lothian Health Services Archive collection

Dr Thomas Clouston raised the standard of hospital attendants by improving their pay and education. He also modernised the existing hospital units and expanded them by pushing for the purchase of neighbouring land.


Nursing staff in hospital corridor, late 19c
Lothian Health Services Archive collection


The memory of these and other pioneers is kept alive today with the preservation and display of their painted portraits and commemoration plaques and with the naming of buildings and wards around the hospital. There is something heartening about the thought that the principles of the Enlightenment that started it all can still inspire the future generations of carers and practitioners two hundred years later.


Martine Foltier Pugh is a freelance writer and visual artist based in Edinburgh


With many thanks to
Tom Arnott, REH Operations Manager, who took the time to give me a guided tour of the hospital and brought its history to life
Lothian Health Services Archives (LHSA) for providing digital documentation. 
The LHSA have launched a Royal Edinburgh Hospital Appeal for photos, letters and any other documents ranging from the 18th century to the present day
www.lhsa.lib.ed.ac.uk  


For details of the remaining lectures in the Bicentenary series:
www.lhsa.lib.ed.ac.uk/home/REHBicentenaryLectureSeries.htm

Reference articles
on Robert Fergusson  http://www.edinburghliterarypubtour.co.uk/makars/fergus/fergusson.pdf 
on Bedlams, William Tuke and Philippe Pinel http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/people/~/~/link.aspx?_id=4A14D38C7A9D4911BFF3189417B56EE1&_z=z
on the Royal Edinburgh Hospital 
http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/scotland/state-of-mind-how-the-royal-edinburgh-hospital-helped-change-attitudes-to-mental-illness-1-2559542
'History of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital' by Alexis R. Easson, typescript c.1970, courtesy of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital



Don't miss out on any of our forthcoming blog posts. Subscribe by email address at the "Follow us by Email" above right and receive notifications when we make a new entry.


The next 'Artist Uncovered' blog
will be on Adrian Wiszniewski

Thursday, 4 April 2013

Artist Uncovered: Barbara Rae


This month our tour of the Art in Healthcare gallery focuses on Royal Academician painter and printmaker, Barbara Rae. The four works in the Art in Healthcare collection illustrate some of the media and techniques used by the artist: printmaking, paint and collage. 



Mull Ferry  watercolour  105x88cm  1996
Art in Healthcare collection

Her creative process always begins with creating studies on location whatever the weather. She is currently away somewhere “on the west coast of Ireland, sketching near the ocean’s cliffs in wild weather” her spokesperson tells me.  But Barbara Rae is not interested in topographical features and rejects emphatically the label ‘landscape painter’. What she seeks out are the signs that show the passing of time and the craft of humankind that give pattern and structure to the landscape, as she explains:
"It's the historic aspect fashioned by mankind, whittled away by use and weather that fascinates, the outline of an ancient farm building half-hidden in dense grass, a portal, wooden door once used now broken, paint flaking, a standing stone engraving barely visible clad in moss. I take time, sometimes weeks to absorb, you might say "experience" an area and meet the people there before I begin work." (March 2013)


Walled Garden, Culzean mixed media, collage  81x107cm 1979  
Art in Healthcare collection  

She logs her observations in beautiful and detailed studies, many of which can be viewed on her website.
Back to her studio, sometimes the process of transformation begins with the translation of her studies into print. Rae has been using printing to experiment with the image and with colours since her undergraduate days at Edinburgh College of Art. She uses her studies only as guides and does not aim to reproduce them in the finished artworks. Monotypes worked in the studio explore the original study, key variations forming the basis of future paintings.



Ballachulish I  monotype 87x70cm1985
Art in Healthcare collection


Barbara Rae is always challenging her painterly process through controlled layering of significant collage material and washes and through her search for inspiration which takes her to the margins of Europe, Africa or the United States. The sombre palette acquired during her formative years in Scotland changed completely during a trip to New Mexico in 1985 where the clear light revealed the intense colours that have recurred in her work ever since.




Spanish Window  lithograph 99x72cm 1992
Art in Healthcare collection

She often revisits the same locations and when I enquired if her trips followed a cyclical pattern, she replied:
“Now and then I return to old haunts because I know things will have altered. Paso del tiempo - time passes. Aspects of the historical artifact that first caught my attention can change radically, or in different light in a different season cause me to notice something new on it or around it.” (March 2013)

Time is as much a feature of Barbara Rae’s practice as the locations that inspire her. There is the time she spends researching and recording the alterations brought about by man and the passage of time. This slow cumulative pace is then punctured by the release of creative energy and the cathartic rituals of her painting process, itself a race against time. And let’s not forget that her paintings themselves reveal many archival layers that we, the viewers, can savour at a leisurely pace.


Martine Foltier Pugh is a freelance visual artist and writer based in Edinburgh



Don't miss out on any of our forthcoming blog posts. Subscribe by email address at the "Follow us by Email" above right and receive notifications when we make a new entry.


The next blog will be a whirlwind look
at the history of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital
to mark its bicentenary


Credits

With thanks to Barbara Rae for her comments.

‘”It’s chance, but it’s controlled chance”: An Interview with Barbara Rae’ by Andrew Lambirth, in Barbara Rae, published by Lund Humphries in 2008.

Links

Barbara Rae  http://www.barbararae.com/ 

Royal Academy of Arts http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/