Highlights of All Too Human at Tate Britain

Fantastic pastels by Paula Rego - black lines edging everything. A collection of feet in the centre of this (below).....

The Betrothal Paula Rego

The Deer Park Michael Andrews

S

 Swimming Pool 1971 Leon Kossoff

Highlights of the Groeningemuseum, Bruges

Van Eyck

Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele

Joseph Denis Odevaere
Lord Byron on His Death Bed

Judgement paintings hung in courtrooms in medieval times - I didn't know that. This one isn't for the squeamish: The Judgement of Cambyses by Gerard David. Cambyses is being flayed alive. What a truly horrible form of torture.

Flemish primitives i.e. detailed realism in the depiction of materials....

Peter Lanyon and Trevega Cliff

Felt like walking today even though the weather wasn't that promising - and it was a good 4 mile walk in the end which started on Trevalgan Hill just outside St Ives.
Wonderful to see a slate in memory of Peter Lanyon at the summit on a huge granite boulder.
His paintings have such strong links to this landscape - the painting below of Bojewan Farm, not far off.
More here.
Then a depressing walk (alas) downhill to Trevalgan Holiday Farm and caravan park, past territorial signs and electric fences to keep walkers on track. Narrow walkways in the mud, close to hedges and a slurry pit.
Anyway - onward to the sea - exhilarating.
In just over two hours, I didn't see a soul, unless sheep have souls.

Even the track back inland was lovely - not always the case on circular walks.
Main thoughts:

• I wonder what a (very) long walk  would be like - the Camino, for example. Though people talk about all the people they meet - companions along the way etc. Solitary walking is very different.
• There was a moment - suddenly - when I could hear the sea.  'I can hear the sea.' Someone's favourite quote from King Lear. Such a noise....
• Seagulls diving bombing into the water. Must have been a shoal of fish driven into the rock
• Demons in the mind: Cavafy and Ithaca. Travel well - but remember that you will bring many monsters with you.... 

Icy spring and music in Leipzig

Click here

A whirlwind trip to Leipzig to see Siefried at the Opera House - and just by chance was lucky enough to catch the Dresden Boys' Choir rehearsing at St Thomas's Church, Leipzig. Breathtaking. Bach was a choirboy in this church. The first performance ever of St Matthew's Passion was here.
Outside, an icy wind and few signs of spring apart from these baskets on the pavement (the bulbs are planted so high, they become part of the display - must remember).
The white interior of St Nicholas' Church very peaceful - especially the painted pews .... Bach was organist here. Near the altar is a striking crucifix from  Coventry Cathedral: didn't manage to take a picture.

Siegfried started at 4pm and by the second Act the square outside was so busy with skaters.  Blue lights - reminded me of visits to Warsaw soon after Epiphany.
Inside the opera house, Katherine Broderick takes a bow after her debut as Brunnhilde on this stage.

Ecce homo and flipping a chess board

The monochrome exhibition at the National Gallery - Rembrandt's Ecce Homo alongside a print by Jan Van Vliet, his engraver. The image is flipped and some parts of it in reverse gain strength, others lose. The man beckoning to the crowd is more noticeable in the print, as is the  man in the turban in the centre of the picture.
It's like flipping a chess board online - you see all sorts of possibilities, for losing as well as winning.

Derbyshire Alabaster, St Just and the Three Kings

Going to see the reredos behind the altar in St Just Church is a Christmas ritual (am not sure that it is backlit at any other time of year). More about the history here.  It's very delicately carved in Derbyshire Alabaster.
This year someone has enthusiastically placed flower arrangements right in front of them, but never mind.
Outside - there's no escaping it - St Just's can look pretty bleak. Such a lot of granite. But everywhere does this time of year when the sun doesn't shine.

An urban sketcher in Goa and St Francis of Assisi

Love this urban sketcher @doodlenomics in Goa and the painting of the Basilica of Bom Jesus. Seems a lifetime ago that I went there (guess it is most of an adult lifetime) on my honeymoon and saw the uncorrupted body of St Francis of Assisi. We gave a beggar far too much money outside (not knowing).

Strange suddenly to see a place forgotten for decades and then half remember the facade. Wonder if I will ever go back.

Pastel on brown paper

Woman in a Blue Dress (1890 - 1909) (Pastel on brown paper)
Thomas Wilmer Dewing.
Love it.

Hidden meanings and Rachel Whiteread

Tubes from toilet rolls

Hot water bottle (or enema bag) cast in resin

So many hidden meanings at the Rachel Whiteread exhibition at Tate Britain.  Have to confess that I opened the door to the room then walked out again as the first sight of so many (mainly) grey casts was so daunting. Went in again, after having read the introductory panel outside - and then everything made sense. This is about what the objects are not - rather than what they are. And there is a bit of colour. My own captions - not the official ones.

Mattress

Hot water bottle (or enema bag) cast in
dental plaster

Bows and frills

The new Tate exhibition Impressionists in London isn't all that interesting... a bit too much about quite an obscure subject (French artists in exile between 1870 to 1904). But the final room of Monet's Thames series is wonderful. AndJames Tissot's paintings have some fabulous fabrics. Apparently he was the son of a fabric merchant so had a very sharp eye.
The ribbons, bows and frills of his high society paintings are breathtaking - to think that women really dressed like this. The fabric in portraits of men, too, is pretty stunning - whether framing the languid - or jaded - partygoer or the dazed wounded soldier.

Hush! James Tissot/1875

Captain Frederick Burnaby: Late at the Ball

The Wounded Soldier/James Tisson c. 1870

A bedroom and (un) comfort zone

A fabulous bedroom on display in a shop window in Mayfair. So very 50s -  the brilliant use of fabric creates an atmosphere. I used to have a dressing table like this in my bedroom as a child. In fact still have one sans the drapes. But this bedroom isn't a peaceful haven - it's deliberately created to disconcert (more on the designers' website) - the cigarette, the pills, the underwear, the kicked off shoes and overturned chair.... 

Sea sculpture and a colour chart

A haunting sea sculpture at Praa Sands ....

And @maryfrancesness on Twitter posts an inspired colour chart....

St Michael's Way: Lelant to Marazion across country

An odd overcast and damp walk - the first part very crowded with dog walkers (and dog fouled paths!)
 .... and some sections are poorly signposted as you head to Trencom Hill and beyond.
The first glimpse of the Mount (once thought by ancient pilgrims to house the Holy Grail) is a highlight - and it's exhilarating to see it getting closer as you walk

Starting at St Uny Church, Lelant, down the coast to Carbis Bay - then up to Knill's Monument and directly across the peninsular to Marazion. One of the pictures of the Mount in the distance is out of sequence, but I can't work out how to change it.