Flowers, friends & forgeries

Look at me!

On Saturday, I had a wonderful day in London. First stop was the National Portrait Gallery for the BP Portrait Awards, well after a breakie stop in one of my favourite cafés, Café in the Crypt, which is below St Martins in the Field church. Although dark, the café is wonderfully atmospheric, although I must confess I hate walking on the gravestones. At the exhibition, I discovered there seems to be a trend for producing a portrait that looks like a photo, whilst I appreciate the technical brilliance I can't really see the point. The winner's portrait was painted in a style reminiscent of Lucian Freud, but I found the subject matter rather grim,her dead mother. Overall, I liked the entries this year.

One of the gravestones underfoot. Café in the Crypt

Next door in the National Gallery's Sainsbury Wing I went and saw the exhibition Close Examination: Fakes, Mistakes and Discoveries, which was interesting with x-rays of the paintings showing where/how they had been altered and paint samples proving they were fakes all next to the paintings. Moving into the main gallery, I had a quick stop by the Turners and saw an amazing Stubbs.

The reason for the trip was to go to a mini-reunion with some old-friends from art college. The 4 of us last met 25 years ago... I feel so old! We had a fabulous, albeit slight boozy afternoon, both catching up and talking about our distant past. It took place in a pub near Baker Street, so I headed over early and wandered into Regent's Park beforehand. I am totally flower obsessed this summer, so took lots of photos despite the showery day. 

Clarence Bridge 

 

 Finally, one last picture from the park:

Feeding geese under crazy umbrella