Archive for category Author: Ray Balkwill
A Picture of Cornwall || Ray Balkwill
Posted by henry in Author: Ray Balkwill, Medium: Various, Publisher: Halsgrove, Publisher: Halstar on October 25, 2010
As the jacket blurb so succinctly puts it, “Cornwall is artist country”. With such a variety of landscapes and both north and south-facing coasts that give contrasting effects of light, the county does indeed have much to offer and attract the painter.
This is, of course, not a book primarily aimed at the amateur artist, but rather at the art tourist or maybe just the carriage-trade souvenir market in general. It’s certainly a welcome antidote to the usual sort of lucky-charm-piskie tat!
However, we’re not interested in that and the relevance here is not just the fact that this is written by and contains quite lot of the work of Ray Balkwill, but that it also features a huge number of other artists who are associated with or have worked in the county. They include Ken Howard, John Raynes, John Brenton, Amanda Hoskin and more and they have a huge variety of styles that Ray has done well to seat comfortably together. Visually, this is a feast, with illustrations filling many of the 144 pages and a text that sets the locations in context without intruding more than it needs to.
Ray Balkwill has gained many fans as both an author and an artist and his choice of other painters has a significant level of interest and authority that should make this appeal to his fellow practitioners. On top of that, there’s the landscape and topographical interest that gives the publisher a deserved winner.
http://rcm-uk.amazon.co.uk/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=artbookreview-21&o=2&p=8&l=as1&m=amazon&f=ifr&md=0M5A6TN3AXP2JHJBWT02&asins=1906690235
A Picture of Devon || Ray Balkwill
Posted by henry in Author: Ray Balkwill, Publisher: Halsgrove, Series: A Picture of, Subject: Devon on October 6, 2008
It’s a good many years now since Ray Balkwill was first recommended to me as a good local artist in the South Devon area. At the time, he was unpublished and it’s been gratifying to see a number of books appear with his name on, including Halsgrove’s Ray Balkwill’s Exe Estuary, which exclusively featured his paintings.
This attractive new volume, however, covers the work of a great many different artists as well as Ray himself and he acts as the overall editor, describing both what he refers to as, “An English Eden” and introducing the artists and the individual paintings. It’s worth the rather laborious process of listing the contributors in order to give you an idea of what a treasure-trove there is here:
Lionel Agett, Stephen Brown, Colin Allbrook, Alan Cotton, Alwyn Crawshaw, Stewart Edmondson, John Hammond, Judy Hepstead, Michael Hill, John Hoar, Robert Jennison, Paul Lewis, Michael Morgan, Tina Morgan, Robert Mountjoy, Martin Procter, Keith Stott, Richard Thorn, Barry Watkin and Tony Williams.
It’s a wonderfully varied selection and covers many different styles of painting and of subject, giving a very real sense of the county. I’ve been a visitor for many years and I’ve genuinely found this to be something to enjoy. If there’s a small niggle, it’s that some of the reproduction is maybe not up to the standard Halsgrove is capable of. This is almost certainly down to less-than-perfect transparencies and to not having the option of going back to the original paintings but, if you’re a perfectionist, it might be a slight fly in the ointment. One worth getting over, though.
Ray Balkwill’s Exe Estuary
Posted by henry in Author: Ray Balkwill, Medium: Oil, Medium: Watercolour, Publisher: Halsgrove, Subject: Boats & Harbours, Subject: Landscape on December 11, 2006
Ray Balkwill is at home in pretty much any painting medium, but is perhaps best known among fellow artists for his mixed media work. Living in Devon, a great deal of his painting is done in the south of the county and this book has all the hallmarks of having had a decent amount of material to choose from: there’s nothing included that gives any sense of being a make-weight or, indeed, of the transparency being “good enough”; the reproduction is spot-on.
As you’d expect, a lot of boats, harbours and waterside scenes feature here, but Ray isn’t afraid to make a few trips inland for some landscapes and buildings as well.
The book will be required reading for any fan of Ray’s work, but will also appeal to anyone who has any contact with the area as well.
First published 2004, reissued 2006
£24.99
