I've always admired the artist Bridget Riley and been fascinated by her work but have only seen the odd painting in the Tate, so when I heard she had an exhibition at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill I had to go. We've been to the Pavilion before and it is a beautiful building which has some great exhibitions and events. Obviously I knew the paintings were optical art but I was totally unprepared for their effect on me - amazing, the colours are vibrant, painted to perfection (which is important as I love a perfectly flat colour!) but I couldn't look at them - the whole wall of painting moved - swam - jiggled - flowed and made me feel completely dizzy. It was as if I'd taken a hallucinogenic drug and things were moving that shouldn't be - I eventually found looking through one eye helped but I was disappointed and quite shocked that a flat painting could have such an effect - but then that is the point!
The other photos above show a few shots of Bexhill, a garden dedicated to beach clean finds and Normans Bay - one of the 1066 beaches.
