York Art Gallery

A few weeks ago myself and my mam decided to take a trip to York to visit the Art Gallery. We did not know what the exhibition was going to be before we got there but when we arrived it turned out to be a compilation of works from artists during world war one. Some of the artists were women which was surprising to me, and many of the pieces included women or how women were viewed during the war.

My favourite pieces were three portraits by William Orpen.

The pieces, although painted at the time of the war, resemble something from a contemporary artist which I think is what attracted me to them.

Some other interesting things at the gallery were Mark Herald's Lumber Room and the fact that you can leave your own piece of work in sketchbooks lying here and there around the gallery.

The bright red of the lumber room gave the exhibition an eerie quality, along with the old aged portraits and the very strange mourning clothes hanging upon the walls. It seemed haunted, and just walking around it gave me the creeps. It reminded me hugely of the television program Penny Dreadful and then I remembered how I started off second year wanting to basically transcribe a Gothic novel into paintings.

I think having to pay to get into this gallery reminds you just how important art is to the community, some people are put off by a fee but once you're inside and view all of the wonderful pieces it totally changes your perception of paying. The gallery had such a variety of works from contemporary sculptures to Georgian portraits.