July 2026

Trois Crayons Magazine, July 2026

to listen

Stories in Colour: What is synaesthesia? Can you hear colour?

The National Gallery’s Stories in Colour podcast is back for a second season. Composer Dr Deborah Pritchard and leading expert on synaesthesia Professor Jamie Ward answer questions such as: What is synaesthesia and what might yellow sound like? The guests are joined in the studio by violinist Greta Mutlu and cellist Richard Harwood. They help bring Deborah’s own personal experience of synaesthesia to life through music.

to watch

The drawings of Jusepe de Ribera (1591–1651)

In December 2025, Sir Gabriele Finaldi delivered The Burlington Magazine David Scrase annual lecture at the National Gallery in London, focusing on the weird and wonderful drawings of the Spanish baroque artist Jusepe de Ribera. The event marked the inauguration of a new annual lecture series established in honour of David Scrase (1949–2020), celebrating the study of Old Master drawings and the enduring pleasure they inspire. Martin Clayton is scheduled to deliver the second lecture in late 2026.

to read

Through a lens brightly: an interview with David Hockney

With the recent passing of one of Britain's greatest masters, David Hockney, Apollo magazine have resurfaced an interview from 2010 in which the artist spoke to Martin Gayford about his unorthodox and firmly held beliefs about the Old Masters. Hockney’s 2001 book, Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters controversially argued that many Old Master painters used optical devices, a notion which has been hotly contested by art historians.