Go to the National Gallery

So this week was shamefully the first time I’d been to the NG. I can’t believe it took me this long. You must go here, even if you hate art, because the chance to get a look at paintings that are hundreds of years old is quite mindblowing. It’s in Trafalgar Square, near clubs etc, so if you’re more interested in less academic pursuits, you could simply stop off for a few minutes and go inspect a Van Gogh or Da Vinci, then head back to drunken debauchery. It’s free, so there’s really no excuse. Even the gallery can think of ten reasons to visit.

Trafalgar Square from the Gallery Entrance

The gallery itself consists of four seperate sections, all chronological, then each room seperated into different sections. It’s all shown in the gallery floor plan. If there is one painting you are interested in, there is an interactive catalogue you can use to find the painting and find out exactly what room to visit.

Mum and I were here for three hours, and we didn’t even look at two whole sections. We are both a bit knowledgeable about art (I won’t even pretend I know as much her though, she did study it) so we can both look at a painting and see things of significance. If you prefer to scan, though, there are some which you really must see. I couldn’t take photos, so my faves are listed:

The Ambassadors – this is amazing, Renaissance 3D. The white thing in the bottom makes a lot of sense if you stand at the right of the painting and look at it from there. I won’t say anymore.

Whistlejacket - I mainly liked this cos I’m crazy on horses, but it’s a life-size painting of a horse. When will you ever get to see that?!

Madonna of the Pinks – This is a Raphael, and no true fan of the Ninja Turtles will turn that down. It’s actually a tiny painting, and the detail is stunning.

The Fighting Temeraire – The size of this is amazing, it’s a Turner (he is well famous in the art world) and the sunset is mindblowing if you’ve ever tried to paint a sunset.

Samson and Delilah – The detail on the cloth is so cool. You can feel the velvet.

There were more, but I can’t remember what they were. There is a girl in the gallery with all the Titian pictures who seems to jump out of the painting, which I’m desperate to find out the name of so I can get a postcard of it or something. It’s seriously good.

National Gallery from Trafalgar Square.

I left wanting to pull my easel out of the cupboard, where it got relegated at the beginning of third year when I realised I had to work even harder this year. I still itch to paint. Seriously, go.

Just an added note, don’t be put off by the number of religious paintings in the earlier centuries. It was a bit much, cos there are a lot, and they all depict much the same thing (and I’m a Christian). There are some true gems in there, both religious and secular (see the Old Woman for example).

Transport

Get the tube to Charing Cross station, and go out of the Trafalgar Square exit. You can’t miss it.

Tom and I had a night-in last night, and we ate a mountain of food. We bought pizza and added extra cheese, then did potato croquettes, Southern Fried chips, green beans, broccoli and cauliflower. I managed to get my veg just right this time, with no under- or over-cooking. The trick is to do the cauliflower and beans for 10 minutes and the broccoli for 8. Did you know that broccoli is actually a tree?

We watched the Breakfast Club, a very 80′s film about some kids in Saturday detention. Tres hilarious (though I was drifting off to sleep at point…don’t tell Tom, he didn’t notice!) and really good for a bit of a laugh. Tom had bought Pringles for dessert, and I had to make do with a bowl of cereal, as I’m still off cakes and crisps for Lent. We then watched a couple of episodes of Skins while playing Pinball on Tom’s laptop. He beat me a stunning 5 million to 1 mill. Poor effort on my part.

This post has no purpose other than to demonstrate I should have been working – and also that when you think you can’t afford a TV and a TV license, DVDs seem a fine alternative, until you add up the amount you spent on the DVDs and realise you could probably have bought a 100 inch flexi-paper TV for the same amount. With satellite.

The weekend holds emptiness without Tom, until tomorrow morning which will find me jetting off up north a bit to visit my friend Tracy and her baby Callum, who is now quite old (about 8 months) and I haven’t met yet. I’m looking forward to it, and I suspect it might lead to offers of babysitting for the future…Not such a bad idea if you ask me!

Also, I added a Happy Birthday video to the blog about Luisa’s birthday, which can be found here.

My previous post left you, my eager readers, wondering what had happened to my camera, and wanting to know why my mum and I had booked into a hotel for two nights, seemingly randomly.

Mmmm cakes in the National Gallery...

It all goes back to the Christmas holidays, when my mum gave me her old Mac as the battery had died and it was too expensive to replace it for a four year old laptop. At the time, they’d decided the other three members of my immediate immediate family were going to Kenya for a fishing-come-business trip (where they inspect camps in Africa…sounds fun, but it’s really hard, I did it when I was 16 and never again). Following a laptop related incident of Ashton’s a few weeks ago, my MacBook ended up with a battery and I was happily mobile, coming to meet mum two days before she left to join dad and bro on the trip. Unfortunately, I got to the hotel, turned the Mac on…and to my concern, it was flashing a big question mark at me. The result? No photos. So it wasn’t strictly camera woes, but still.

Nelsons Column - view from the NG.

While mum waited to jet off, we were supposed to be going to see the Van Gogh exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts. She studied as an artist, so it was going to be awesome. Unfortunately, we couldn’t go, as there was a problem with the tickets – we are (hopefully) going next month instead. Sunday evening plans cancelled, I bought a load of facepacks/masks and we had a girly night in watching Jane Austen films and wishing we’d had the foresight to buy chocolate.

THE NATIONAL GALLERY.

On Monday, I came to college to do some work (which I would have done in the hotel had my Mac been working) while mum answered emails and caught up on some of her own. I got back to the hotel in the afternoon and we went off to the National Gallery to get a dose of art to ease the pain of missing VG. It was awesome. I will in fact be adding this to my list of “Thing to do in London” blogs to write, but I will leave you with some pictures to ease the wait. I was so enamoured with the art that I gave Tom a free ticket to claim me from my busy schedule for a day (shh, I know it’s free entry) and a card with my fave VG picture on it (the one about wheat that he painted in the crazy house). I definitely recommend this.

Design study woes are: deadline, two weeks. Number of words written: half the limit. Sleepless nights over it (so far): about a hundred. Number of reference programmes not working on Word: the one and only. Argh! To make it better, I went to see Wicked tonight. IT IS AMAZING. If you can get tickets, you should.

And below a few photos of Toby’s visit(s).

Tobes off to an interview.

Saturday pudding.