Visting the Winter Decorative Antiques and Textiles Fair at Battersea Park last month I was intrigued to see how the exhibitors would showcase their antiques furniture, collectable and decorative arts to the modern market which has in recent times focused on the Swedish aesthetics of clean lines and minimalism. 

After purchasing this stunning oil painting by Ethel Wright ROI,  I discovered something very interesting about it which I completely missed upon first looking but has changed the whole mood of the painting for me.

This picture was exhibited in London c.1999. It was painted by theatre designer Thierry Bosquet who is has designed costume and sets for over 200 opera and theatre productions mainly at the Royal Theatre of La Monnaie, where he was the principal decorator for twenty years, He has dedicated his life to the study of opulence and his home is a shrine to ornamental overload. The level of technique in this picture is staggering and is a fantastic decorator's piece.

I recently purchased this etching from the family of Raymond Fawcett executed in 1964. It's title is 'Events in the day of a typist's life'. One struggles to find the events in the events the title suggests. There is a view of a woman dressing (or undressing), what looks to be a keypad of some kind but the other symbolic references have defeated me so far.

All of that though does not matter. It is a fabulous, enigmatic picture that makes you think which is exactly what art should always do.

This oil on paper abstract still life was painted in the late 1950's when the artist was living in London. The arrangement of shapes and forms draw you into the painting and the colours make it exciting and vibrant.

Harry Walton was a gifted artist who could turn his hand from portraiture to landscape to big narrative subjects, such as the holocaust which obsessed him in the later years of his life.

He lived and works in Leicestershire and he ploughed his own furrow, he was so single minded in his approach to art that it really overtook his life and his work is a testament to his capabilities.
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He became interested in abstraction in the 1950’s and this piece of work from the late 50’s early 60’s, is a transition period back from abstraction to realism. He called it Regeneration and it shows a tree stump or log with a fungus growing from it and flowers and plants in the process of growing. A great picture.

Born in 1917 in Poland, Halima Nalecz came to Britain after the war and was horrified to find that you couldn't buy Modern Art of any description on Bond Street. To rectify this she opened her own gallery which she called The Drian Galleries - A homage to the artist Piet Mondrian who was one of her heroes.

​Irene Stocks studied Art History under professor Quentin Bell in the 1960’s in Leeds. She was much influenced by his take on art. She is designer of abstract forms with a degree of colourful interpretation of the world surrounding her.

Amsterdam has a wealth of museums; The Van Gogh, The Rijksmuseum, Anne Frank’s house, Rembrandt’s house to name a few. You can spend days, if not weeks touring round them all and still have more to see. However, the one great gem in Amsterdam is the Stedelijk Museum which holds a fantastic collection of 20th Century Art.