Last day in London

The photo of The Husband holding Lynx is so cute I had to post it, even though of course it has nothing to do with London...

The second photo is me desperately hungry and tired, wishing the waiter would hurry up and bring the parmigiano so I could start eating! This restaurant, Carluccio's, had the best (bitter-chocolate) gelato I've ever had in my life. Mamma mia!

Today was our last full day in London. I'm very tired (I find big cities interesting but exhausting) and definitely homesick for my smaller town and my critters (I call them my "animolecules").

Went to Marlborough Art Gallery (gallery selling art, not a museum) specifically to see if they had any Euan Uglows displayed, since I've found none in any museums. The guy working there fetched what they had, two paintings ('Girl in a Green Dress' and a still life of yellow flowers), from the basement to show me. How cool. It was like a private showing. The paint was much thinner than I'd expected--really very little surface texture. Anyone know if that's typical for his work? How much do you suppose those paintings would go for? I can't imagine. Of course I didn't ask. :)

Back to Tate Britain to see what I missed the other day. First question I have for you: re John Everett Millais' 'Mariana', how in the world did he get that color??!! (the color of her gown). It's the most astounding hue. I know it's not simple ultramarine (genuine lapis lazuli), at least not the kind I bought a small tube of from Daniel Smith Supplies online out of curiosity, because the kind I got is a rather pale, thin, extremely-low-covering-power sort of thing.

Some of Turner's paintbrushes, used palettes, and small sketchbooks were on display. The brushes (I don't know what kind they were) certainly looked ragged!

Turner's largish oil 'Seascape with Storm Coming On', besides being gorgeous, as far as I can tell used actual black paint, where you wouldn't think it would work--almost dead center of a painting that didn't seem to have any other black pigment in it. But not only does it work, it's amazing. In the photo I've linked here, it looks as if it's a very dark blue. But in person, man, it is true black. The Tate commentary here says it's an unfinished work. Um...really? Then it's a damn good thing he didn't "finish" it. It's sublime.

Does anyone know what color blue(s) Turner used for his oil skies? It's somehow the most true sky blue (that is, true to real-life blue skies) I've ever seen, and I swear no paint I've ever tried looks quite like it. Granted, I don't paint landscape, but still.

Adored a small Henry Moore sculpture, 'Animal Head.' Wonderfully organic looking. Excellent from every angle. If I hadn't been so tired, I'd have liked to sketch it from a lot of different perspectives.

And that's the news from here...flying back home tomorrow.

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com

Tate Modern and Tate Britain, London

Well, interestingly, I'd expected Tate Modern to be the highlight of my informal, individual, and completely subjective London museum tour...instead, it turned out to be Tate Britain.

Yesterday I went to Tate Modern for a couple of hours. The single Rothko they have, a primarily green-gold color, looked so lonely all by itself on a huuuuge wall. Not the greatest presentation for it, as Rothkos (at least for me) seem to have an amazing expansiveness, and this setting dwarfed it and thereby diminished it.

I recently discovered Nicolas de Stael's work and love it, so was thrilled to be able to see the only de Stael on display anywhere, as far as I know. I had been really curious to see just how thick and textured the paint was. It was even way more than I'd expected. It was like mortar troweled on! Here's an illegal photo closeup (we honestly didn't know we weren't supposed to take photos...until the angry uniformed lady came bustling over).

Another very fun thing at the Tate Modern was a room filled with an enormous table and four chairs. Sorry, I don't remember the artist. They looked like regular wooden dining room furniture, except that the size of them was such that a person became Lilliputian next to them. It was cool to find out what it feels like to be a cat wondering what might be up on top of that table...

Today I went to the Tate Britain. One whole subway line was shut down for repairs, so I did insane amounts of walking again...gonna have to put my feet up again (see photo on previous post). First gem was Sargent's Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose. Beautiful, of course. There's a quite hard dark (painted) line along the top of the center girl's head--perhaps to help separate her from the background? It seemed kind of awkward, though. Anyone know anything about that?

There was a medium-sized acrylic monochrome Rothko on paper, and a gorgeous red-and-black large Rothko (oil). And I was in heaven when I discovered that the Seagram Murals were there! I'd thought they were gone, because The Husband had actually seen them months ago and told me they wouldn't be around any more when I came to London. (The Husband is doing an executive MBA wherein he's traveling monthly to either New York or London.) So to just stumble across them was so cool. I think the artwork that you don't know is there, and which suprises the hell out of you when you see it, is a lot more fun than what you know is there and you're specifically going to see. It wasn't very crowded today at the Tate Britain, so I sat down in the Rothko Seagram Murals room and waited a while...until finally I had a minute or so completely alone with the murals. Well, just me and the security cameras. Aaaah...it was really lovely. It felt like some kind of cathedral. Yes, I do worship Rothko. Something about the expansiveness of Rothkos, especially those, since they're so huge...I feel as if they breathe, somehow. (I haven't yet been to the actual Rothko Cathedral in Houston, but I'd love to see it one day...even though it means I'd have to actually go to Houston...ugh.) P.S. What do they use to hang something that size on a wall?!

I think I could happily live with some Rothkos on my walls at home. Anyone who wants to get me some for my birthday in April, well, I'd write you a very nice thank-you note.

And, wow!! the Turners. Apparently there are some 300 Turners at Tate Britain, part of a special bequest. Some of them are wonderfully simple, small watercolors or pencil + gouache, that look purely abstract. Of all the Turner oils, it's the totally abstract sea ones that just kill me. No boats, or barely a hint, no people--just ocean and those amaaaazing skies.

I didn't get to the whole museum today. Going back tomorrow.

To keep you entertained in the meantime, here is a little video of Lynx wrestling with Miss Lemon:

More art on my website: jalapfaff.com