LONDON.- The Watercolours + Works on Paper Fair returns to the stylish and spacious Level 2 Galleries at the Science Museum, South Kensington, London from 2 - 5 February 2012. The 2012 fair brings together an impressive range of art on paper exhibited by leading art dealers from across the UK.

This eclectic and lively fair presents all types of art on paper from the 16th Century to the modern day. Works include original drawings, watercolours, prints, photographs and posters, all of which are for sale, with prices starting at £500 rising to £100,000.

The fair gives visitors the chance to see works by well known artists from earlier eras for example, a lithograph by Odilon Redon (1840 -1916) ‘Lueur Précaire, une Tête à l’Infini suspendu’ (Precarious glimmer, a Head suspended in Infinity) for £1,750 and a soft-ground etching by Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) ‘La Dance à la Campagne’ (Dancing in the Country) for £10,000. Both are exhibited by Elizabeth Harvey-Lee.

A rare watercolour by John Absolon (1815 -1895) of ‘The Transept from the South Gallery, The Great Exhibition of 1851’ for £12,500 will be one of the highlights of the earlier works presented by Guy Peppiatt Fine Art.

Newcomers this year include, Thompson’s Galleries showing David Sawyer’s watercolours of Cambridge, Mary Deeming, presenting Japanese woodblock prints, Orme 11 showing watercolours by contemporary Turkish artist Ali Yanya, and the Bristol based Alexander Gallery exhibiting watercolours by Scottish artist Peter Graham and other new contemporary talent.

Loan Exhibition
Drawings by engineer, astronomer and artist James Nasmyth (1808-1890) are the starting point for this loan exhibition of rarely seen pictures from the Science Museum’s archives. Selected works by several artists reveal their shared fascination with the surface of the moon and show how they attempted to record it on paper.

The exhibition will be held alongside the Watercolours + Works on Paper Fair, Level 2, Science Museum, 2 - 5 February 2012.

In addition to the major focus on Nasmyth, the exhibition features works by other artists who recorded their observations in drawing, or who pursued imaginative lines of enquiry, as they tried to capture some of the mystery surrounding the moon that has gripped many observers through the centuries.

The exhibition gradually leads the viewer into the 20th Century and ends with the iconic moment of astronauts walking on the moon, as interpreted by Sandra Lawrence in her screenprint “One Small Step for a Man - One Giant Leap for Mankind of 1991-1994.”

This exhibition is free to the public and the works are on loan, not for sale.