At the National Gallery. Interesting. I didn’t really know his work, but some nice stuff there. He seemed a bit uncertain as to what to do with the English light or lack thereof in the earlier ones, but the later Welsh seascapes are beautiful.
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Only had the morning really in Brussels before needing to get lunch and go and check-in for my train, so I went to the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium, which was absolutely fantastic and huuuge and worth a good deal more than the measly €5 they charge to get in. Had a last wander round the Grand Place with my lunch when I was done, then bought specaloos and some PIMs for John from the supermarché near the hostel before collecting my bag and heading to the station.
Knitted on the Eurostar on the way home and a French lady opposite told me my scarf was “très jolie” and that she’d always wanted to learn how to knit, so I told her it wasn’t very hard – only 2 types of stitches to be learnt. Nice to have a good exchange in French, however small.
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Went to S.M.A.K. (contemporary art gallery) and then the normal art gallery in Ghent. I wasn’t that taken with anything much in S.M.A.K. but it was marvellous to see a gallery devoted entirely to the work of living artists, and there was a very nice wonky stool made by some Italian chap which I rather liked. The other art gallery was fabulous, especially the modern section – mostly Belgian artists I’d never heard of, but some beautiful pieces there.
Had frites for lunch, then boarded a train back to Brussels and went and wandered around the Grand Place for a bit, visited the Manneken Pis to see what he was wearing (nothing at all, but apparently earlier in the month he’d been dressed as a dentist) and then went and indulged in a hearty and not too expensive spaghetti bolognaise for dinner. Yum! More knitting when I got back to the youth hostel.
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I’ve ordered in a hardcover copy of the Rothko exhibition catalogue cos there’s a couple of articles in there I want to read which sound like they might be relevant to the piece I want to write (and they were selling the hardcover version for the price of the paperback because they’ve sold out of both and are recalling some hardcover ones from the US and will post to me for free. Oh, and I got 10% off too for being a member 
), and bought some Rothko postcards too to stick up on my wall and remind me what I’m working from. And found The Dada Reader in the Tate book sale – £4 down from about £17, plus 10% off again. Yay! Goodness only knows where I’m going to put this immense library of visual art books I’m accumulating, but I’ll worry about that when I get to it.
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Because once definitely wasn’t enough. Twice even isn’t enough, but I doubt they’d let me take any of the Seagram murals home and they for-sure wouldn’t fit on my walls if I did!
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Finally got to see the Rothko exhibition, which I loved but Simone seemed a little underwhelmed by it. Then we went and had a look at the Cildo Mereiles, which she loved but I wasn’t that taken with it. Some nice bits, but not really my sort of thing. Had a stunning peppermint tea in the members’ room – I think I need to get a tea-strainer so I can make peppermint tea with proper loose-leaf peppermint leaves. SO much nicer than the bagged stuff.
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Faber-Castell Albrecht Durers. Mmmm. My treat to myself for getting my 2005 Australian tax done at last
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… to see “The Crack”, Shibboleth by Doris Salcedo, which was remarkably beautiful and exciting for being basically a crack in a cement floor. I loved the journey of travelling along its length, exploring the offshoot cracks and seeing it expand and contract. I loved that there were so many people there obviously enjoying it. I loved that for a piece about such serious topics as alienation and separation, it was so accessible to the public and that people were walking along it, straddling it, putting their feet in it and taking photographs of toys and each other interacting with it (I saw a little girl photographing her teddy bear, suspended by his arms over one of the larger parts and a young couple who had brought a Lego cowboy along to photograph at the edge of the abyss). Shame they’re filling it in on Monday, but I do like that you’ll always be able to see it – it’ll always be there, it can’t ever fully be taken away. Very, very cool. I took a ton of photos too, but as they’re all on film, it’s going to take a while for them to get to the shop and be processed.
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I’ve started reading a book called The encyclopaedia of watercolour landscape techniques. There’s some really interesting stuff in there and I’ve already started playing with wet-in-wet and spattering techniques.
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I know it looks like I’ve been slacking off big-time, but the truth is I’ve been being manically creative left, right and centre – drawing, walking, listening to music (my new composer/group for the month is Radiohead) and reading books. Not to mention accidentally getting myself employed again, which has been a big contributor to the silence.
So, a bit of a summary:
See? Not slack at all… really!
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