Words and pictures ........

   I had an enjoyable and educational weekend. I met up with Gallery Girl and we had a wander around our local Auction House, looking at all the lots coming up for Tuesday evenings Auction.
   We then moved on to Tate Britan and a walk through the galleries. There's one room, the 1810 that I really like. It contains paintings painted between 1810 and 1910. There are the paintings of the rich and famous of the day and the odd nude. Which you kind of expect to find but peppered in amongst these are the seedlings of change. Paintings of the everyday life of ordinary working people, paintings where artists are experimenting with the way they put the paint on the canvas or how everything doesn't have to be in focus or the right size and for the first time the emergence of Women artists. the 1910 room (Paintings from 1910) is a real explosion of colour and style but it's beginnings and what gave it it's chance lay in the previous room. I wonder if the reason I'm drawn towards Room 1810 is maybe I share that feeling or hope of change at this moment in time.

   After a coffee and debrief about what we had seen and which paintings we'd happily hang over the fireplace if the Tate needed extra wall space. Gallery Girl drove me home. On the way, we passed a place where I used to work. It was the worst job of my life and the boss was a real nasty piece of work. I was telling GG about this and how, after I'd left he got the sack for some misdemeanour or other and she said "Ever pig has his Sunday." I'd never heard that saying before. She said she picked it up in Venezuela when she lived there. It made me laugh. I can't wait to use it.
   On Sunday I got to talk, well "text talk" with a friend online. We spoke for ages and it made for a nice ending to the weekend. There is nothing better than a proper face to face talk with someone but that's not always possible when you're miles apart. You could speak on the phone which is almost the same but having to type it out, changes things. There is no um and ar-ing in type talk like you can with the phone or face to face. The big downside for me is the spelling and punctuation. Mine is sooo bad. I give Dyslexic's a bad name. I think I'm the only person Microsoft charge for using spell check.
   The picture at the top is by John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) it's called "Portrait of Madame X" it caused a scandal when it was first exhibited for both Sargent and the subject Virginie Gautreau. Why? here's the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_Madame_X

Onwards and upwards in the pursuit of fulfilment and happyness :-)