Newport Museum

Yesterday we went to Newport Museum to do some sketching. Again, we were keeping to the theme of World of Water and so focusing on items on display relating to this topic.

Newport Museum

On the second floor there were lots of beautiful fossils and casts of mussel beds and such, which I did a few quick sketches of (I know they're not great, but time was limited!)








On the third floor there was an exhibition relating to the Newport Medieval Ship, which included some interesting pieces:










But what I was really drawn to was a painting on the third floor by Thomas Rathmell called The Swimming Pool.


I love the bustle and busy-ness of the piece - when I look at it I can instantly hear that cavernous echoey noise of the pool with kids shouting & squealing and splashing & feet kicking the water.

Mainly it's the individual characters that fascinated me - how they have been captured in such simple, broad, loose, expressive strokes.





Here are my favourite 3, together with my quick 2 minute sketches and annotations. I especially love the third character - the lady side-swimming. I love that it's just a few strong lines to depict the half of the body above the water and a few vague smudges of paint underneath the waterline to depict the rest of her body.

Once the Medieval Ship Exhibition finishes at the end of the year, the Museum have offered to hold an exhibition of our work that will be in place for 2 years. We are all to create a piece of work based on something we have seen in the museum, and they will select 20 of their favourite pieces to exhibit. I will be basing my project on this piece by Thomas Rathmell.

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