Travels With Picasso

We left London and arrived in Dublin this morning. After a fun and informative taxi ride with Bernie we arrived at The Maple Hotel, associated with Ned Keenan’s pub. It’s a funky old place near to downtown.

The trip from London was more than we bargained for – literally. Aer Lingus charged us big bucks for our bags because they have a 20 kilo per person limit. I had paid for extra bags, but that didn’t give us extra weight. Interesting concept. Anyway we paid the freight and arrived safely.

This afternoon we took a hop-on-hop-off bus tour of central Dublin to get acquainted. The same ticket will take us back to the highlights we want to visit tomorrow that are a bit far for walking. On Thursday we’ll walk to closer places.  The art agenda includes a current special exhibit of Freida Kahlo and Diego Rivera at the Museum of Modern Art, a Matisse exhibit at Trinity College, and the Irish National Gallery of Art. Nights will be spent in pubs with Irish music.

Today we returned to Tate Britain to do more in depth study of some of the pieces we saw last week. It was nice to revisit some of the paintings, take a couple of docent tours, and visit a hands-on Turner workshop.

Of particular note was an effort to better understand J.M.W. Turner and his art. The special Turner exhibit demonstrated a greater breadth of style, content, and use of color than we previously knew. Turner is most well known as the painter responsible for landscape painting much as we know it today. His career spanned six decades up to 1850. During that time his use of color adapted to advances in chemistry and technology that created new colors and consistencies of paint. He adapted his palette colors to the locations rather than working with a set palette. Finally, as he matured his paintings became less detailed and more focused on color and light. His last paintings look as abstract and impressionistic as Monet’s final paintings 70 years later. Here’s a link to a Turner site that has many paintings: http://www.j-m-w-turner.co.uk/

Other significant lessons included John Millais, who spent about 3000 hours on Ophelia. That included 1600 hours spent plenn aire painting the background in exquisite detail.

John Singer Sargent‘s Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose is a captivating painting. It is even more amazing to learn that this painting was completed plenn aire over the course of two summers. He rented a Cotswald house and hired his friend’s two daughters to light lanterns in the garden each evening at dusk. This gave him 20-30 minutes to paint each evening. November arrived and the painting was incomplete so Sargent rented the house for the next summer when he returned and completed the painting in the same process. 18 months and about 300 thirty minute painting sessions!

The Tate created a hands-on Turner workroom to learn about his advances in the understanding of color and line. There was so much to digest it was like taking a class. In addition they had a sketch room set up where you could copy Turner’s own pencil sketches. (Or at least attempt to do so.) Between the videos, hands on experiments, and demonstrations there was much to absorb.

After such a wonderful artistic day we decided to walk to Westminster Abbey (Anglican Church) for Evensong. Upon arrival we learned that there would be no music as the choir was singing for Vespers at Westminster Cathedral, the Catholic Church. We hustled to Westminster Cathedral and spent an hour in Vespers. Lovely!

Looking for dinner after Vespers, we found a wonderful Italian restaurant near Victoria Station. The food was wonderful and we made friends with our waitress, an Argentine woman with a terrific smile and personality. Although Argentine, Katerina  was French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish by her grandparents’ origins. We shared some stories and she encouraged us to visit Argentina, “the most beautiful place on earth.”

As usual, our day ended with a mile hike from the tube station to The London Guest House.

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Yesterday we went to the Tate Modern. The day dawned grey and drizzly, but we made it to the tube with just a few sprinkles. The Tate Modern covers the 20th century. I like Fauvism, Expressionism, Abstract Expressionism, and the Depression-era Realism, but most of the rest does not excite me. One artist quoted John Cage, “I have nothing to say and I’m saying it.” That sums up too much of modern art in my opinion. I prefer Mark Twain: “If you have nothing to say, say nothing.” The few pieces I enjoyed at Tate Modern are not worth making a return visit.

One more comment about Tate Modern: it appears to be a poorly managed institution. Signs are everywhere saying no photography, no drinks, and no food. However, people wandered everywhere taking pictures with everything from cell phones to high end digital cameras with the museum staff looking on. Others ate and drank as they strolled through the exhibits without any feedback from staff. Below many pieces there remained plaster dust, apparently from drilling holes to hang the pieces. Finally, the lighting on some pieces seemed to make them dull and faded. This points to a lack of management direction. Other London art museums have been much better.

We got caught in a thunder storm on the way to the tube station. By the time we got on the train we were soaked below our jacket bottoms. Pants, shoes, and socks were sopping. I left a puddle where I stood on the first train and a wet seat on the second. We walked the mile back to our lodging in a light rain. Arriving “home” we decided to send out for some hot Indian food for dinner.

The locals are quite happy to get some badly needed rain. All of Europe is quite dry. The exception seems to be Ireland, where we will be next week.

London is the most cosmopolitan, multicultural city I’ve ever experienced. New York and Paris don’t even compare. This morning there were five languages being spoken in the dining room of our small B&B: Hindi, Danish, French, Italian, and English.Also, multi-ethnic couples are almost the norm.

Today we spent about five hours at the National Gallery. I can’t tell you how many languages I heard there. Many different Asian languages, several slavic ones, a few Scandinavian languages, French, German, Italian, Spanish, some African and middle eastern languages, and a little English. No matter what your language it is spoken in London.

Since we covered less than half of the National Gallery in our five hours today I will reserve comment on that for when we complete our visit. Trafalgar Square was lively this evening with lots of buskers, a campout of socialists protesting budget cuts that hurt the poor, people and cars. We ate dinner at one of the many upscale pubs that surround the square. It was another polyglot of cultures.

Today we stayed in Acton. This old Irish neighborhood has undergone considerable change into an multi-ethnic area that is now becoming more gentrified. We walked through some residential areas and saw a good number of remodeling projects underway. It’s a mix of well kept houses and gardens and some more run down.

Then we stopped for some time at Acton Park. This small park has a beautiful flower garden. Many roses are done blooming already! Lots of flowers, herbs, and greenery. Huge maple, oak, and beech trees. We met and chatted with a friendly Kiwi who has been living here for 10 years and now she’s ready to return to New Zealand.

Then we walk down Acton’s High Street. It was a busy Saturday with a market going on in one square, lots of folks walking the street, and few tourists. One friendly Irishman approached us to advise Jean to put her camera away because it would be attractive to snatch thieves. We chatted with him for several minutes. Lunch was at a nearby pub. I had chicken tikka masala and Jean had Thai curry Chicken. How’s that for pub grub? Those lunches and 1 1/2 pints of bitter cost us only 10 GBP.

Late in the afternoon I sketched in the front garden of our B&B, trying to capture the rows of 100 year old row houses along the street. This was a good exercise in perspective that didn’t render any keepers.