The RA Summer Show: a few things that caught my eye.

It’s a while since I went to an RA Summer Show: perhaps 20 years.

Eclectic is one way to describe. ‘Art Porn’ is harsh but there’s a giddy and rampant tone to it all. No where else would you expect to see such variety on the same wall – except maybe in a teenager’s bedroom.

I like and loathed stuff in equal measure. I soon became as interested in the people as the art: there are always pairs, rarely partners, more often a father and daughter, or mother and daughter … perhaps there a grandparent and a grandchild, occasionally a couple of schoolgirls who had escaped their party. You can letter the inner conversation out if you have someone to talk to.

Why did some art sell well, and others not at all. I guessed it had something to do with price – it was. Modestly priced prints of works for a few hundred pounds. You can have ‘Solo in Blue’ featured in the middle of my collage above for £850. The drawing of multiple faces, ‘Conversations in London at 1.00pm’ is £230.

In contrast, the multimedia ‘frieze’ called ‘Migration’ which shows mythical horses racing through a wiry wood is £35,000. There are oil paintings, such as ‘Evening at Sea’ for £25,000. And various Gillian Ayres oils from £6,000 to £55,000 (she has six pieces in the exhibition). One of the most popular, ‘Four Fish’, a screenprint by Dame Elizabeth Blackadder RA is available for £1,030. ‘Fluffy Woman’ (Cardboard, acrylic and fleece) by Lucille Moore has already sold for £1,200. I fancy making ‘Fluffy Men’.

All lovely stuff if I had the money, the walls and the inclination to indulge myself.

I go away inspired.