J & J Rawlin

J & J Rawlin James and Jessica Rawlin are a husband and wife Arts partnership based in Suffolk, working as independent curators and advisors throughout UK and London.

Art Advisory

Ok, so it’s art in a tent time again as Treasure House fair comes to town. I’ll post some proper photos later once I’ve ...
24/06/2026

Ok, so it’s art in a tent time again as Treasure House fair comes to town. I’ll post some proper photos later once I’ve cooled down, but for now here are a few details and textures which caught our eye!

1 John Tunnard with Richard Green
2 forgot to snap the label but with Mayor Gallery
3 Lee Krasner with Long-Sharp Gallery
4 pyrite formation with Stone Gallery
5 William Scott with Richard Green
6 H.H.La Thangue with Winsor Birch
7 John Piper with Portland Gallery
8 Bryan Wynter with Osborne Samuel
9 chandeliers with Fileman Antiques
10 Anthony Williams with Messum

Very strong shadows this morning, making this corner of the house look quite dramatic! Early painting by , a tall vase ...
01/06/2026

Very strong shadows this morning, making this corner of the house look quite dramatic!

Early painting by , a tall vase by and stones from island trips some years ago!

This striking portrait is by an artist I don’t usually like much, but this painting really caught my eye today. Guess wh...
27/05/2026

This striking portrait is by an artist I don’t usually like much, but this painting really caught my eye today.

Guess who painted it - suggestions please!

I’ll post the answer tomorrow

If you look at our previous post, you’ll see some thoughts on the new Patrick Heron show However this painting, Christm...
07/05/2026

If you look at our previous post, you’ll see some thoughts on the new Patrick Heron show

However this painting, Christmas Eve, is so good it really justified a post to itself!

For a start, the scale is amazing - it is 10 feet wide which for a mod Brit painting at that date was positively gargantuan. This gives it a really enveloping and panoramic feel.

Within the whole space are a series of vignettes, some of them intensely personal, even within a painting that is so family-centric.

The children with their toys are captivated by the candle rings, the dressing of the tree by Delia, the playing of the piano (by Patrick’s mother I believe); all make for an image that is both homely yet vigorously modern, as well as featuring some delicious colours

The painting was Heron’s entry for the Festival of Britain’s 60 for ‘51 exhibition (75 years ago now!) but still feels a very fresh and special piece.

I’d say it is worth visiting the exhibition for this painting alone!

My next stop was to see their newly opened exhibition Patrick Heron 1950-54Heron is a well-known artist and the early p...
07/05/2026

My next stop was to see their newly opened exhibition Patrick Heron 1950-54

Heron is a well-known artist and the early paintings have always had good coverage, but there is perhaps a temptation to show them as the route towards something else, Heron’s shift to abstraction from 1955/6 onwards

Whilst this is of course valid, it can sometimes distract from what are really wonderful and beautiful things in their own right and in this show, which includes several paintings I have not seen at all before or only knew from illustrations, absorbing yourself in the images and the colour is very rewarding.

It is also tempting to look at paintings like this through Heron’s own knowledge of and admiration for European big names like Braque, Bonnard, Matisse and Picasso, but that is only part of the story. These are pictures about exploring colour, space and form and Heron does this in spadefuls!

I would defy anyone to not find something enjoyable in this show - be you collector, specialist, painter, art historian or enthusiast, spending a little time with these works offers a lot back. Formed from a mix of loans and works from the Heron Estate, there is plenty here to see.

I especially wanted to take home the painting in the first slide, unfortunately it was on loan from Leeds Art Gallery!

Open until July 10th, this is well worth a visit - there is also a very good catalogue, featuring an essay by as well as some of Heron’s own writings on Bonnard

I was lucky enough to see two gorgeous exhibitions today, the first throwing out a wide net, the other focussing in clos...
07/05/2026

I was lucky enough to see two gorgeous exhibitions today, the first throwing out a wide net, the other focussing in close.

My first stop was at to see their current exhibition, Ancient Form / Modern Vision. Looking at the connections for British artists, predominantly of the mid c20th, between their work and ancient art and artefacts, this show includes some lovely and very covetable objects.

The jumping off point is a Cycladic sculpture once owned by Ben Nicholson and so off we go on a magical mystery tour, via wonderfully sculptural Neolithic stone axes, Roman and Greek sculpture fragments and other fascinating objects sitting side by side with works by Henry Moore, Kenneth Armitage, William Turnbull, William Staite Murray, Barbara Hepworth and Emily Young.

Some links are obvious, others need closer inspection - zoom in on image 4 and you’ll see the resonance with Hepworth’s figure drawings of the 1940s and 1950s.

This sort of connection was once clear in the collections of that modernist generation - think Kettle’s Yard, Hoglands or Willow Road where all sorts of objects live alongside each other - but it isn’t a bad thing to restate the aesthetic links, partly because they are rather beautiful!

The show is on until 3rd July but is by appointment only, so use their @ above to arrange a time to visit

I see this tree virtually every morning when I take the dog for a pre-breakfast airing, and it struck me that it has sud...
04/05/2026

I see this tree virtually every morning when I take the dog for a pre-breakfast airing, and it struck me that it has suddenly become very green!

So I went back through the recent snaps and here we have it over the last six weeks or so, quietly getting ready for its summer outfit. First slide was this morning, last one was early/mid March

Supper on Thursday , home of and several great local alesHeadband: Model’s own
02/05/2026

Supper on Thursday , home of and several great local ales

Headband: Model’s own

30/04/2026

Hodge Podge... Jarvis and his wife, the creative consultant Kim Sion, are curating a new exhibition The Hepworth Wakefield, which will open next year.

Challenging what art can be, Jarvis and Kim are building the show to encourage visitors to explore their own creativity with works from Jeremy Deller, Peter Doig, Barbara Hepworth, Klara Kristalova, Emma Kunz, Mark Leckey and Agnes Pelton, plus outsider artists who have never exhibited in British museums before.

Find out more about Hodge Podge in this new interview with the pair: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2026/apr/30/jarvis-cocker-and-kim-sion-to-curate-art-exhibition-at-hepworth-wakefield

📷 Tom Jamieson

So today took me to where they have a fabulous collection of British Constructivist art on display1-5 Victor Pasmore (t...
27/04/2026

So today took me to where they have a fabulous collection of British Constructivist art on display

1-5 Victor Pasmore (the run of five large reliefs is brilliant but wide so had to photograph on an angle!) No.5, the transparent relief is a stunner
6&7 Mary Martin
8 Robyn Denny
9 Robert Adams
10 John Ernest

This is all from a single-owner collection they are selling, and I was pleased to be able to hear a fascinating talk by Susan Tebby, artist and assistant to Kenneth and Mary Martin too. There are also some really good Anthony Hill pieces too but I couldn’t get decent snaps of those!

It’s great to see this group together (and they have also produced a superb catalogue too) but you’ll need to hurry - the sale is on Wednesday so viewing tomorrow and Wednesday morning (I think, check before you travel as they say!)

But a big well done to and her team for producing a beautiful and intelligent hang of this collection

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