London on a sunny day is hard to beat.

I had a free day ahead of my first (and most likely last) half marathon, and took myself south of the river to Dulwich to visit the Art Gallery. The sky was blue, the air mild and definitively spring like, it was a joy to be out and about. Dulwich feels like a village in the countryside; it was founded in the 5th century by the anglo-saxons and its name means ‘the place where dill grows’. The herb was introduced by the Romans, and was probably grown here to be sold in the market of central Londinium 5 miles away. It has a huge park and lots of delightful coffee shops.

And an excellent book shop too, always a good sign… (https://www.village-books.co.uk)

I was heading to the Dulwich Art Gallery and it was a delightful, leisurely ten minute walk. Lots of people about, dogs wagging their tails, daffodils and pretty houses to look at.

I was here to see the Tirzah Garwood’s exhibition I heard so much about and I was not disappointed. Absolutely brilliant.

Probably better known as the wife of the artist Ravilious, she was an incredible artist in her own right.

from the Gallery Website:

the exhibition contains 80 of Garwood’s works, and explore her ‘sophisticated naïve’ approach that infused apparently innocent subjects with deeper meanings. Representing each area of her practice, the exhibition showcases almost all of Garwood’s existing oil paintings, alongside her witty wood engravings, pencil sketches, experimental marbled papers, and collaged paper constructions.

Her wood engravings are magical, the way she shows textures, from fabric folds to woodgrain and even skin…

Her paper marblings are exquisite too. Being a woman, she didn’t have time to be a full time artist, but somehow she always managed to create. Inspiring.

And her paintings are whimsical and magical, they draw you into them, they’re quite uncanny in fact… I love how she plays with proportions here, that wasp has no right to be that big, and yet it works!

Some of them are dream like, it is easy to lose yourself in them.

Not to mention her three dimensional works… ( I have a weakness for shadow box art)

I could not paint to save my life, but her embroidered pieces are very inspiring and made me want to have a go…

I was in there for ages, there are so many details to discover in all work. And their childlike quality is completely deceptive, these are social pieces, they are funny and well observed and pure fairytales in hard times, and they show the irrepressible creative spirit Tirzah had.

Stupendous.

The rest of the gallery is pretty awesome too.

… so if you visit, take your time to have a look around. This piece was my absolute favourite:

And don’t skip the cafe’. You’ll regret it.