In Edinburgh today. A wee visit to the Portrait Gallery then coffee then a wee look then home. The girls stayed on looking for sales bargains.
One of my favourite paintings in the whole gallery.
Part of the large scale murals in the entrance hall.
The blurb on the wall about the L.D.V painting.
A photo to try and show the scale of the murals in the entrance hall.
Finally a couple of photos of my Christmas presents-
I was very lucky to get such interesting, useful and creative gifts this year
Slight downer to today was I fell on the way home on black ice landing on my side having slipped into the road . A car stopped to see if I was ok and another offered to drive me home. I declined gracefully , walked gingerly home ,was fine on the whole , a tad shaken and my pride dented. Grr 😠 ice!
Love the LDV portrait... my Grampa was in the Home Guard during the war as he was in a reserved occupation (steelworker). He used to keep his Rifle in the press and patrol the Glasgow to London railway line at night. The ice was really bad over the last couple of nights... I had a few hairy moments with the dogs pulling me along in the park!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed hearing about your grampa. Ice replaced by torrential rain. It was miserable changing buses yesterday coming home from Falkirk.
DeleteAlan Tradgardland
Apart from the aesthetics, I have not missed anything about a Scottish winter in the thirty five years I have been in Auckland. We get all that sort of winter nonsense in the South Isoand, but up here, the worst we see is an occasional frosted up windscreen...never any ice on the footpath or road...and snow...it's as likely as 40c in Aberdeen!
ReplyDeleteGlad you have civilised weather to contend with. As I write the rain hammers down, once again…
DeleteAlan Tradgardland
Hope your okay , we don't bounce like we used too.
ReplyDeleteI’m fine thanks. Don’t think I ever bounced too well.
DeleteAlan Tradgardland
Sound like it was a nice day out but the ice is nightmare, I came down heavy a couple of weeks ago, nice bruise!! It's like a skating rink out there with us today, even the dog slipped today, hopefully it will disappear soon.
ReplyDeleteGrr ice. Have sent off to The Great South American River for some crampons to put over shoes. Rain today , getting ready to freeze later in week.
DeleteAlan Tradgardland
Sorry to hear of your accident and hope you're feeling no worse tomorrow. I enjoyed the photos. happy fourth day of Christmas!
ReplyDeleteStephen
Thanks! Perhaps we all need to celebrate Christmas up to the second of February as our forebears did. A good restful start to the calendar year…
DeleteAlan Tradgardland
Glad you are surviving the ice - at least you have a good haul of presents to keep you occupied indoors.
ReplyDeleteThe Home Guard portrait is a bit of a war artists / portrait painters genre in WW2, as I have seen several examples (the name Eric Kennington springs to mind
https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=2009-02-84-1)
alongside Dame Laura Knight’s paintings of ordinary people in armaments factories (Ruby Loftus etc) and female George Cross winners - memorialising the people, part of creating the feeling that we are all in this together, the People’s War, The Home Front being the heroic Blitzed battlefield.
Sergeant Bluett is a splendid painting. Always liked these-
Deletehttps://www.iwm.org.uk/history/curators-choice-eric-ravilious
Alan Tradgardland
Great set of pictures Alan. There's a touch of the Arnold Ridley as Private Godfrey about the first.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the second?
Glad you liked them. Quite agree re Arnold Ridley. The second picture is part of St Columba preaching. More here-
Deletehttps://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/artists/william-brassey-hole
Alan Tradgardland
Yes, nice variety of shots. Arnold Ridley came to my mind for the LDV chap too. I do love portrait galleries; on trips to London long ago the NPG was always one of my favourite places to visit. Sorry to hear about your accident; apparently falls are one of the number one hazards for those of us of, shall we say, mature years, and can too often be very serious. Take care!
ReplyDeleteCheers,
David.
I’m fine thanks, just confidence busted.
DeleteGalleries are such wonderful opportunities and we are blessed with many great ones. Thanks to Zoom I have attended conferences and study days where I could never get to in person.
Alan Tradgardland
Glad to hear your fall on the ice wasn't worse. I have known a few people who ended up with other injuries from falling on ice, from bloody broken noses to busted shoulders. Ice is no joke.
ReplyDeleteNo joke indeed! Grr!
ReplyDeleteAlan Tradgardland