London in November

It's mild and I am so well wrapped up for winter that I feel hot all day long.  I am bouncy despite a poor night's sleep following following my better half's late return from Southampton last night.  You still worry about them even when they are 60+.  

All works well with the trains, I get the civilsed 9.24 but loose my lovely fold up bag on the way to the station. My rubbishy pockets.  First stop is the Courtauld Gallery.  They are setting up the Skating at Somerset House and it looks so cool.  Like glass.

I am here to see Soutine's Portraits. I love the exhbition as it depicts the emotions of ordinary people, something understood by Chaim Soutine  who had very humble origins and a melancholy personality.  Read more about this amazing artist here .  He would have lived much longer if he had belonged to our era.  He had complications of a peptic ulcer which are not seen nowadays due to the proton pump inhibitors, discovered when I was a young doctor. 

Le valet de chambre  1927

Le petit patissier  1922-3

Note the colours in the folds of his uniform 

La Jeune Servante 1933

After a coffee in the rather slow and over priced cafe (note the enforced 10% 'service' charge), which is also over heated but a pleasing setting, I head to meet my own Art Historian.  We have a lovely chat and sandwich in her canteen.  

Another walk for me, along to the National Gallery to discover how van Eyck’s 'Arnolfini Portrait' was one of the beacons by which the Pre-Raphaelites forged a radical new style of painting.

The exhbition Reflections on Van Eyck and the Pre-Raphaelites   covers one large room only and is informative and entertaining.  It helps that I like the PRB

and  Velazquez

The Arnolfini Portrait 1434

Here is my favourite, it pertains to a late out post of the PRB, the Birmingham Group

'I am half sick of Shadows' said the Lady of Shalott 

Sidney Meteyard 1913

Home on a crowded Black Hole of Calcutta train and an evening with my current Spanish series!

A hidden gem in Lichfield

Before my tain R takes us for a drive to an area that is being re developed.  When I last came here twenty years ago, before we moved away, this was just being talked about and the area was a dump. Now the Lichfield and Hatherton Canal  is coming back to life, thanks to the help of what appears to be a very active trust.  It's looking great.

Time to get the train and head off for an evening at home 

More at the MAC

At the side of the exhibition there is a 1980s room with L's archive, it's excellent

Here is Sally talking about the exhibition at the end of the seminar



After my meal I enjoy the play Uncommon Ground read more here and here
I hope we can bring this lively and thought provoking production to Greenham
Home on the bus and train with a hot choc at Fiveways then beers with the C's

An early start today.  I'm inspired by the horticulture of the station but the loos are out of order and my train is cancelled!  Train to Fiveways, a journey my husband used to do everyday, then bus to Midland Arts Centre, aka mac.  

Time for coffee.  I'm looking forward to my day which involves a  seminar , a private viewing of the exhibition and a play.  Not to mention a nice dinner and an Ubu beer

The seminar is very inspiring and some of the speakers would go down well in Greenham.  For example, I learned a lot about art during the Cold War.  

The exhibition by Sally Payen is great and I had the privilege of meeting the artist at the end of the course..

Invisible Woman and the Telephone Tree, 2017

Cross Stitch through the Dirty Page of History 2017

The Remains 2017

Black Cardigan 2016, BlackThread 2017 and Black Sea 2017

Seven Days, Seven Nights, Part 1 and 2

The West Midlands; here I come

I've travelled up to Lichfield by Cross Country train.  It was easonably uneventful.  Lovely to be staying with the C's.  And even better that Brewhouse and Kitchen 

has a branch here now.  We have a great evening. 

 

London Again

The trains are a nightmare today, cancellations x2 and the points playing up again.  When are we going to have a decent infrastructure?  I recover with a coffee on Piccadilly then it's off to see my art historian!  

She takes me to Jasper Johns: Something resembling truth
The exhibition is great byt the title strange.  I enjoy his uplifting work.

Painted Bronze, 1960

Regrets, 2013

0 through 9, 1961

It's warm enough to eat a wrap in St James Churchyard.  We have a nice natter.

Then I am transported to Dali-Duchamp
This is a fascinating exhibition about the links between these two artists

 Salvador Dali has a very interesting personailty, he is a damaged genius.  Not sure I would like him but he was very comical.  Duchamp  is an amazing modern artist and a much calmer person

 Apparition of Face and Fruit Dish on a beach , Dali 1938

Follow the links to read more about these artists. 

I'm feeling lazy in this blog post!

Oxford again

Sunny today and I am off to Oxford for a spiritual top up.  First stop is Leon for some stodgy but acceptable porridge with blueberry and seeds.  

Here I post Jon's fascinating photos from the Peace Museum at Nagasaki onto our social media sites. 

And the sun still shines in the town but it's too busy because the new shopping centre is open 

The service focuses on Hope.  I light a candle for the hope women now have, following the scandal at Westminster.  Afterwards at the club we have a great chat.  I say from a Buddhist angle not hoping could be good 

Afterwards I go to 'Imagining the Divine' at the Ashmolean 

From top left clockwise Jewish Parochet 18C, The Buddha, tempura on silk, Tibet 15C, Pilgrimage certificate (to Mecca) 15C and Lancaster Cross 8C.  Imagining the Divine #Ashmolean  I hadn’t realised there were no images of the Buddha before about the first century AD.

Home to tea and Parkin and a lovely chat with my Art Historian.  A nice dinner with T, now to bed with the Spanish series, Se quien eres