Jennifer Wyse Art and Design: Art and Yorkshire at the Mercer Gallery

Had a fab day out in Harrogate with my friend Alice on Thursday. We went to see Art and Yorkshire: From Turner to Hockney. I thought it was a wonderful exhibition which introduced me to a few artists I hadn't come across before, as well as giving me the pleasure of revisiting some pieces by some more familiar ones!

Hockney always inspires me and I have to admit I came home with a lovely little book 'A Yorkshire Sketchbook', having managed to convince myself I had been working extra hard recently and deserved a treat!

David Hockney b. 1937 Regional College of Art, Bradford, 1989 Print Private Collection © David Hockney

I particularly liked this one although the detail is lost here, a 1989 print in the artists private collection. I love the gathering of separate moments that go to make up the whole as we are invited into the varying scenes, such as the windows with differing interiors and the cyclist on the right hand side. Oh yes, and what is the shadowy figure in the foreground up to?

I was also very taken with the work of Constance Pearson, again perhaps because we are invited in to a scene reminiscent of the Dutch genre painters. 'Morning Tea' - an everyday domestic scene, is a snapshot of a moment cleverly reflected back at us as if we are the hand about to drink the tea. Likewise in de Hooch's 'A Woman Peeling Apples' the mirrored cupboard above the seated figure serves as the device as to which the scene is reflected back to us This in turn brings me to Bonnard who never ceases to evoke my total admiration as an artist and master of the everyday. In his 'Cherry Pie' it is the dog greedily peeking over the table edge at the pie that serves as the mirror; which unnervingly draws us into this simple scene.