I have enjoyed my few days in London spending some time with Louise and Jonathon, cooking tea and bussing into town on the 91 for a look around my old haunts.
Yesterday I visited the National Portrait Gallery to see the 2017 Exhibition of Portraits. Imagine my surprise to see a New Zealand entry included and then to see it had been awarded the Youth Prize. Well done. I wonder if that made the news back home!
When you consider that 2,580 entries are received from 87 countries it is a accolade to get accepted let alone win an award. My favourite was Honest Thomas but it was not an award winner.
I do enjoy this exhibition and find it amazing that each year I have been there a whole new range of talent emerges and themes change too.
There was a great new portrait in the foyer,pride of place as you enter.I really it being Catherine Middleton, this year it is Ed Sherman. It was hilarious watching all the younger people lining up to have their photos taken with it. Such is fame.
They have another section too which has been expanding of famous people like Dame Judy Dench, Catherine Middleton and a collection of other famous people.
I also visited The National Gallery but only part of the ground floor Impressionist section plus a special exhibit on Ruebans and Rembrant artists. There is so much to take in that it is best to just target a small section at a time. It was interesting though to return and remember the greats here too as there are lots of parallels to the other exhibitions we have visited on this trip.
To see numbers of Monet, Pizarros, and Sisley's in one room is amazing.
I went into see the Wallace collection another day, amazingly it was free to enter plus it offered a nice cafe where I had a cup of tea and a scone.They have an excellent collection of old masters,very ornate rooms with furniture to match but it gives you a great insight into how the wealthy lived.
On Wednesday Brad and I met at St Martin's Crypt for lunch and had a catch up on the past few days.She issue off to see a performance at the National Theatre where she could only get standing tickets for two performances today. Three hours in the afternoon and four at night,then she had to catch the train back to Hemmel and walk to Elaine's place. She got home at 1.00pm. Not bad for a senior plus she left home at five am!!!! A marathon.
And finally after meeting up with Brad for lunch I went along to the Courtauld Gallery which has a superb collection beautifully displayed in a grand old building. It is a pleasure to go there and I was one of only a few people so plenty of time to stand and stare. Their Impressionist and Post Impressionist paintings is one of the best I have seen. Manet and Van Gogh, Degas feature works here alongside an exhibition from the Bloomsbury Group.
They have a wonderful selection of Cezanne's originals,such as The Card Players and some of his landscapes and still life's.
The medieval section downstairs was interesting too. I had not gone in here before but the richness of the colour and embellishments on the old ecclesiastical paintings from 12 th C onwards is amazing.
Anyway it has been fun revisiting these galleries and I have not been to the Tate yet so plenty more to do before getting on that plane for home.
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