Ravilious

Loved this exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery. It contains many of Ravilious's iconic images, and a good few that I had never seen before which are held in private collections. Ravilious's reputation suffers in comparison to other artists of that age, because apart from the Morley College murals that he worked on with Edward Bawden, his work was rather modest in scale, and he chose to work in watercolour rather than oil paints - the medium traditionally favoured by other artists. 

Ravilious's watercolour technique however is absolutely beautiful, and these paintings are like little time capsules of a bygone era, full of obsolete machinery and modes of transport. They fill you with nostalgia and make you yearn for those simpler times.

I loved the watercolours that captured the secrecy of the British intelligence war rooms of the 1940s, as well as the more popular landscapes with chalk figures. All of his themes - interiors, landscapes, war artist, and watercolour designs for ceramics are represented.

I thought Ravilious was almost as good as Imagined Realities the large birth centenary retrospective of his work held at the Imperial War Museum in 2003, and hope to visit the show at Dulwich again before it closes.

Ravilious
until 31st August
Dulwich Picture Gallery
London SE21
www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk