Home Thoughts of Abroad

 

My first solo exhibition in eight years opened at the Alnwick Playhouse Gallery on 25th January. When I was approached to put on a show, I thought it might be only a small affair as, when I was last there, the gallery space was not large. However, I found that the gallery space has now moved upstairs and there are two long walls, each six metres long. This meant a complete rethink of what I might show: I'm not keen on simply putting up a set of unconnected work, but would always prefer a theme. Eventually, I came up with this as a working idea and indeed, this is the text used in the publicity: 

In his poem, Home Thoughts From Abroad, Robert Browning put himself in the position of one who has been away from home and is missing it dearly. Harry Bell has cheekily turned the concept around and named his exhibition Home Thoughts of Abroad. After two years of enforced isolation in the north east of England, this lover of European travel keenly feels the loss of strolling in the sun-filled streets of Greece, Italy and Spain, and even the chillier streets encountered on a visit to the Czech Republic. To ease that heartfelt need, he’s put together a collection of his favourite paintings of those places in the hope they’ll cheer us through the winter months and hint at what we might regain.

There are eighteen pictures in the exhibition which continues until 6th March.