Balloons and Bobbies

Off to London town for the weekend to look after Flo the cat in Hammersmith. Firstly to Tate Britain.

In 1889 Henry Tate, an industrialist who had made his fortune as a sugar refiner, offered his collection of British art to the nation. The works here are all by British artists plus a selected few that made an impact on art in Britain e.g. Sir Anthony van Dyck, who became the leading court painter in England. Frances Hodgkins is here!

Frances Hodgkins 1869–1947 ‘Flatford Mill’ 1930 Oil paint on canvas

Catherine wanted to check on Ophelia because the last time she visited she (I mean Ophelia!) was out on loan to another exhibition somewhere in the world. So we planned to spend a day at the Tate Britain. We started with a 45 minute talk, with our guide choosing six paintings that depicted how far women had come over the centuries. The Tate has rooms organised by the years so we started at 1540 and moved forward. So much to see, so many ‘old friends’ it seemed. But those friends always surprise in some way – size, colour, texture, detail or other – when you see them in the flesh. Studying art in London must be delicious.

Sir John Everett Millais, ‘Ophelia’ 1851-2 Oil on canvas

We managed to do half of the rooms so planned to come back again the next day and do the remainder. We checked out French artist Charles Pétillon’s first public art installation in Covent Garden.

French artist Charles Pétillon presents his first public art installation – and his first ever live work outside of France – in Covent Garden as 100,000 giant white balloons fill the grand interior of the 19th Century Market Building.

Off to catch up with a friend from Thames in her new restaurant in Fitzrovia. Full of delicious pizza, we planned to visit the Serpentine Gallery and visit the 15^th Serpentine Pavilion on the Serpentine’s lawn in London’s Kensington Gardens. But we picked the wrong night – only open at night on selected Friday nights! So it was dark and unlit when we arrived. By now it was raining and dark and we were now locked into Hyde Park it seems. And both now wearing matching bright yellow transparent ponchos bought earlier for 2 pound just in case! But we found a way out through a gap in the railings and made our way back.

Spanish architects selgascano designed the 15th Serpentine Pavilion.

The next day we walked to Notting Hill to take in some of the annual carnival, spent too long there maybe. We only saw a fraction of it and missed all the messy fun later in the day, but met some great people while we people watched.

  

And then ventured back to the Tate for the other half of the rooms. We started again with another 45 minute talk, this one on Joseph Mallord William Turner. And then we stopped, could go no further – so its back to the Tate Britain for us when we next hit London town. We would never have done justice to the work.

Henry Moore ‘Locking Piece’ 1963–4 Millbank, London – outside the Tate, by the River Thames.