5 Online Art Galleries You Need To Know (To View Art Again)

Updated: Dec 28, 2021

To art lovers and art collectors -

Art and Patterns is my "Hub of Creativity', it's my online portfolio of handmade art and earring projects. Art has a positive effect on our mental welfare. I believe everyone can be creative, and find inspiration from viewing all types of art. I also blog to flex my writing muscles and practise my research abilities.

I create colourful abstract collages for your visual stimulation and blog to give you useful information.

Exhibition-by D. Lawrence of Modern Abstract Art

BEFORE LOCKDOWN WE WENT TO ART EXHIBITIONS

Like you, before the global phenom we all now know as ' Lockdown due to COVID-19'. I would find myself, looking forward to visiting an art gallery, exhibition or museum.

This became a much loved weekend ritual. The visits inspired my artistic creativity and helped me learn about an artists' work. It became so regular that a surge of adrenaline would rush through me in anticipation. I imagined movements of the artists paint across surfaces and made mental notes of the colours used by the artist.

I would especially get excited when the weather was warm and dry which meant more time spent outdoors at these galleries.

Things changed this spring when CovId -19 reduced us all to being housebound, working remotely and searching for various ways to keep our sanity and artistic fix.

SEARCHING FOR ONLINE ART GALLERIES

As an artist I started to look for my visual fix, by searching online for museums and galleries websites. I know that some of these institutions offer virtual and online tours of their works of art. Due to the 'lockdown' the search for online creativity became even more urgent.

Below is a list of online art galleries and exhibitions that you can start with, they cover works for pattern lovers, drawings and lovers of colour and paintings.

Pattern lovers can visit the William Morris Gallery online .

IT'S ALL PATTERNS AT WILLIAM MORRIS GALLERY - EAST LONDON

Want to know about William Morris and his love of patterns, you can get your online fix by going to the William Morris Gallery website. It has a world class collection of objects and information relating to his life and works. You will discover all about his involvement in design, patterns, textiles, furniture and wallpaper.

An added bonus, Kehinde Wiley ( African-American painter) has an exhibition on until July 2020 and images of his works can be viewed here. It's a colourful mix of patterns and female portraits. The exhibition called 'The Yellow Wallpaper' is a visual response to the feminist text 'The Yellow Wallpaper (1892)' by American novelist Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

It's worth visiting, if we ever exit out of 'lockdown' and is still on at the gallery.

I have a love for patterns and this local London gallery always provides a historical grounding in understanding patterns and how they can be used across all types of products.

We move from patterns by Morris, to drawings on paper by Walker now.......

KARA WALKER - DRAWINGS - E-CATALOGUE

You will find this interesting, it's an e-catalogue of drawings by Kara Walker.

Kara Walker is a female African-American artist whose art practice explores issues of gender, race, violence and sexuality. Her mediums are watercolour, graphite and ink and main material is paper. Tate Modern-London held her latest large scale installation - Fons Americanus 2019.

A solo exhibition was held at the Sikkema Jenkins & Co. gallery in New York (April 2020) - Kara Walker Drawings.

Her latest drawing are available in the e-catalogue and they are a selection from her own personal archive. This access will enable you to get a glimpse into her special art world, which is normally viewed publicly as large scale paper cut silhouettes or installations.

Her work always forces you think and question the present and past.

......and from drawings by Walker, to paintings by Titian.......

EUROPEAN ART AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY

The National Gallery has an online series of talks on YouTube. There is a good choice available.

Titian was one the most prolific painters of western European art in the 16th century.

Europe's rich and powerful commissioned artworks from him.

The high point of his career was being commissioned by Philip of Habsburg, King of Spain from 1556. Titian produced a series of works he called 'poesie' because he saw his paintings as visual equivalents of poetry.

He was a great manipulator of paint and colour to dazzling effects. Inspiration for these stories were taken from the Roman poet Ovid’s 'Metamorphoses' and other Classical works.

The series of paintings can be viewed on YouTube - Titian : Love, Desire, Death .

The curators give an in depth talk on the background story of the paintings.

There are 5 videos with a time range of 5 to 20 min shorts.

.....from traditional paintings by Titian, to modern interpretation of colour by Krassner.

LEE KRASNER - EXPLORING COLOUR IN ABSTRACT

Lee Krasner (1908-1984) a key figure in American art, was an Abstract Expressionist who had a major presentation of her work at the Barbican UK in 2019.

This was an exhibition I was unable to visit and was pleasantly surprised to come across

an online exhibition of her work on the Google Arts and Culture site.

Lee Krasner: Painting as Life .....Starts with a video of the artist talking to camera and continues through with a good overview of the artist and her work. With high quality images and close ups of her paintings, you get a taste and sense of her use of abstraction, repetition and colour in her work.

Scroll to the end of the online exhibition to read an extract of an essay by Charlotte Flint-Introducing Lee Krasner.

FOR GLOBAL ART LOOK INTO GOOGLE ARTS AND CULTURE

If you want to get lost in a treasure trove of viewing art pleasure, then the online space to go will be the Google arts and culture site.

It has a vast library of all types of art and artists from around the world, it will certainly keep you online for a few a hours.

You can search through the directory for artists, mediums, art movements, historical events and places.

There is also a dedicated page looking at experiments that combine art and technology

Google-Arts and Culture has a visual gallery of more than 23 abstract artworks that explains how to view abstract art and understand it through form, colour and shape.

Google Arts and Culture has a vast library on all types of art and artists from around the world, it will certainly keep you online for a few a hours.

LET'S VISIT AND VIEW SOME UK ART

Art UK is an online repository of UK art collections from more than 3000 art institutions.

The aim of the online site is for the public to have access to a variety of artworks for viewing, learning and research.

There is a directory of venues for all regions of the UK, you can search for Artist, pour over

200 000 artworks and learn about different art styles.

FINALLY UNDERSTANDING SHAPES AND ABSTRACT ART

You may have a preference for a particular art style, I have always been drawn to abstract shapes and colour. Abstraction allows me to lose myself within my work and reimagine forms, space and colour to tell a new story.

These online sources should keep you occupied during this lockdown and help get you art fix, pass on links to family, friend and art lovers you know.