Self Portrait

For my recent visit to London the original plan was to visit St Paul’s cathedral. The last time I visited the cathedral was on a school trip so you can guess how long ago that was… However, after the plan was made protesters took up residence just outside the cathedral so a plan B had to be hatched.

Plan B was a visit to the Tate Britain art gallery, which was rather adventurous because last time I went there I didn’t make it past the teashop. I was just about to sit down with a nice cup of tea when the fire alarm went off and the building was evacuated. But that is another story…

The first port of call in the gallery was the Apocalypse exhibition by John Martin. His paintings, amongst other things, depict biblical scenes, heaven, hell, death, destruction and other dramatic events. I thought it was an excellent display of his work, especially the triptych of judgement day which was displayed as a proto-cinematic effect son-et-Lumière display. The centre painting showed God surrounded by his angels casting judgement. On one side of this painting, there was another that showed the abyss with fire and brimstone and bodies falling to their doom. The painting on the opposite side showed Paradise and souls that had been found worthy enjoying themselves alongside cherubs.

The ten minute light show was very dramatic. The lights highlighted and changed the colours of the paintings, and, on occasions gave the impression of movement within the paintings, which the artist painted in the 1830s. The light show was accompanied by sound effects and a commentary.  I thoroughly enjoyed this exhibition and spent quite some time in it.

There was also an exhibition by Barry Flanagan which was more modern and abstract, most of which wasn’t to my taste but after that I had a quick look around the other galleries. A cab ride to Charring Cross was followed by a slow stroll back to Marble Arch and the coach. A good day out was had by all.

Living Art

Trafalgar Square

14 Comments CherryPie on Nov 9th 2011

14 Responses to “A Day in London”

  1. Sean Jeating says:

    The Tate is great. And so is St. Paul’s. What do you think about the protesters?
    As for Trafalgar Square. The fountain reminds me of Silvester 1971. After watching “Hair” in the Shaftesbury we decided to welcome the New Year on Trafalgar Square, together with about 100.000 other folks. Lousy cold it was. Still, some naked people were trying to sit down on the pipe and stop the water.
    Imagine the cheering and clapping whenever one of them succeeded. :)
    I do remember this very night vividly, but far be it from me to bore Mylady and her visitors with more details. After all, it’s time to fall into the feathers and practise taciturnity.
    The peace of the night.

    • CherryPie says:

      The original protesters had a point and their message was good. The problem with those sorts of protests is they grow from their original intent. Different groups with different agendas join in and the original message gets distorted. Protests have a habit of turning quite political.

      Your experience of New Year on Trafalgar Square sounds like it was a lot of fun :-)

  2. I was glad I visited the Martin exhibition myself even if I found most of it rather overblown. The son et lumiere presentation of the great triptych was worth the visit though!

    • CherryPie says:

      I rather enjoyed the biblical scenes, I thought they were representative of the bible passages they depicted. The light presentation was by far the best bit and worth the admission fee on its own.

  3. jameshigham says:

    the Tate Britain art gallery

    I spent hours there last year and it was well worth it.

  4. JD says:

    ‘mad’ John Martin is what they called him and he is (or was) unjustly forgotten and neglected
    very overblown and dramatic pictures but wonderful :)

    (better than Kapoor’s endless mirrors)

    • CherryPie says:

      I rather liked that fact that they were overblown, it fits the subject matter perfectly.

      Mirrors and reflections I have to admit to being a fan of those although I am not sure I class it as art.

  5. ....peter:) says:

    I love your first shot Cherie…. great imagination… and the garden growing on the wall was a bit strange…. and you have framed Trafalgar Square beautifully….peter:)

  6. Ginnie says:

    Yes, Cherry, that first image is most intriguing. I’m standing on my head to look at it. :) I’ve been to London thrice now and love it. How can you not!

  7. Come to London tomorrow.
    It’s free to visit St Paul’s tomorrow – the only day in a year.
    Thanks to Lord Mayor’s of London.

    • CherryPie says:

      That is the weekend we normally do the trip to London, but the organiser was on her hols this week so we went a couple of weeks earlier than usual. I will bear that in mind if we revert back to our normal week next year :-)