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Catalyst
2022 has been a strange year; my life pivoted in July when I hit an age I never imagined I could be; 70! Then I encountered a much younger man and became madly infatuated with him. He was beautiful, sensitive and so open emotionally. At 70 I never expected such an intense sexual relationship. Older…
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Art Nouveau in Riga
Today I set out early to follow the trail of the art nouveau architecture for which Riga is famous. It was awarded UNESCO status for its rich heritage of the genre. During the period 1860 to WW1 Riga experienced a period of unprecedented economic growth. This resulted in rapid expansion. New business were founded and…
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Vilnius … unexpected, charming and a delight
I only have one day here.I should have booked for longer. It’s beautiful here today on a crisp autumn morning with sun and blue skies. I arrived after a 12 hour journey and had difficulty getting into the hostel as there were no staff on duty but all worked out in the end. It was…
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Auschwitz-Birkenau.
How does one anticipate a visit here? Conditioned by Hollywood film, history texts from school, some testimony from survivors, writers like Primo Levi. We more often see this place through an almost mythical prism of drama; heroes vs villains rather than the nuance of humanity. For me walking under that gateway with its cynical lie…
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Kraków
Today I set off to explore the Old Town of Krakow. With it’s enormous town square, Cathedral, churches, town fortifications and museums it’s a fascinating city. It’s a joy to wander through the streets. As the ancient capital of Poland it has a real depth of history and a diversity of architectural styles from the…
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A visit to Nadodrze … Street art
A fascinating art project in this slightly decayed but really interesting area of Wroclaw
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Wrocław today
I arrived here last night from Berlin. Train fine and was on time. At first I couldn’t find the hostel as it had a tiny entrance but all was well. Good staff, nice dorm and my view is to the town hall on the main square. Wroclaw is pleasant enough but maybe doesn’t live up…
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Last Day in Berlin
Well today being a day for democracy in Serbia and Brazil I decided to celebrate freedom by walking to this beautiful fragment of the wall which was granted to artists in 1990 so they could express their feelings on the fall of the wall. A very inspirational walk with some wonderful art brightening the streets…
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Lubeck II . Sunshine in hidden corners
Old Town Lubeck is really pretty in the sunshine. I’ve discovered some really lovely hidden corners n alleys (called “gang” behind cobbled streets. often they contain small more domestic houses with tiny gardens. Green spaces hiding delights .
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In Lubeck
I arrived in Lubeck in grey drizzle. Even so I was charmed by my first wander around the old town. Steeped in history Lubeck really emerged as an important medieval city as the headquarters of the Hanseatic League, an important mercantile organisation radiating around the Baltic and beyond. Lubeck emerged as a wealthy and powerful…
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Rainy and cold in Trier
Overnight I developed a cold and sore throat.; my first in a year. Added to that it’s very cold and I don’t think I’ve brought the right clothes. I went in search of a scarf bur being a Sunday in Germany more or less everything was closed. Trier was a ghost town. Nevertheless I got…
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Luxembourg City… a pleasant surprise
A arrived at 7 last night unprepared for the hills and dark and steep passageways which took me to the hostel.Luxembourg is a city built on steep gorges with rivers running through them. The hostel is clean and fairly luxurious with a good bar and restaurant. It lies next to this viaduct. Today I took…
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Cezanne at the Grand Palais Paris
I was lucky enough to be in Paris for this outstanding and well curated exhibition. Exploring the artists seminal position in the crucible of modern art it took major themes which dominated Cezanne’s oeuvre; portraiture, bathers, still life, landscape among others. Each well presented item was linked to modern artists and his influence on their…
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Bayeux Tapestry
I’ve just visited this wonderful exhibition and I have to say it was quite an overwhelming experience. Firstly the show was well organised and there was plenty of time to walk slowly along viewing the embroidery. It took about 25 minutes to walk the 70m length. Displaying it horizontally was an excellent idea as you…
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Whistler at Tate Britain
This was an excellent exhibition which I can unequivocally recommend. Tracing his development from the 1850s to the years before his death. It explored his work in many media; oil, watercolour, pastel and etching and the developing influence of the Japanese aesthetic in his work. Beautiful use of colour, transparency and spaciousness as well as…
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Frida Kahlo at Tate Modern
I visited this exhibition with a friend today. I’ve long had a deep appreciation for this artist: her talent, resilience, integrity and intelligence. Facing immense difficulties in her health she showed an indomitable spirit surviving polio, a horrific accident in her teens and lifelong suffering. Spending many years immobile she painted from her bed. She…
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Royal Academy Summer 2026
Kate and I had our annual visit to the show which this year seemed to have a better layout… more spacious and easier to move around. As usual it was a great mix of the interesting, amusing, thoughtful and pedestrian. It always provokes but this year I felt there were fewer standout pieces. Even the…
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A day of wandering and Sunshine – Siena
A beautiful day in the exquisite city with it’s architectural marvels, back streets, fascinating history and good food. I tool a long wander just looking around. I’d been once before but this time I took my time exploring. While I was there it was the annual festival of the Drago contrada one of 17 “contrade”…
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Rothko in Florence
This was a wonderful exhibition focusing on the artist’s connection with Florence and the Renaissance fresco cycles. I’ve always felt an affinity with his work on a visceral and emotional level but I admit I have not explored his work deeply in a more intellectual way. This exhibition opened my eyes to how his work,…
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Seurat at the Courtauld
Seurat has always been a love of mine. Not because of his pointillism though his technique is wonderful but for his landscapes and his compositions of people in seeming isolation amidst crowds and the prism through which he views the disjointed qualities of modernity: La Grande Jatte, Bathers at Asnieres, Parade and many others. His…
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Tracey Emin: Tate Modern
This was a wonderful exhibition. I’ve always admired her work but I’ve never really engaged with a deeper and more expansive body of her art. This show certainly gave me the opportunity to explore and take a longer considered look. While I have always loved the fluency of her drawing today I was brought up…
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Lee Miller at Tate Britain
A moving and arresting exhibition covering her work from the 30s to the 50s. Her eye was phenomenal and her technique admirable. from her early work with Vogue through her Surrealist work with Man Ray, wartime photography in London and documentation of the devastating aftermath of the war at Dachau and Buchenwald and her harrowing…
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My month in Florence
This has been a wonderful month and what I have learned is how exceptional people, particularly the young on the threshold of the new, can be. My “classmates ” took me to their hearts and I have made so many chance encounters with random strangers who were open to friendship and discussion on every aspect…
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Orvieto, Lucca e Firenze … a catch up
Last Sunday I visited the charming hilltop town of Orvieto. It was pleasant to wander around the flea market and the shops. The Cathedral is really lovely and the town is quaint with many little backstreets. This week I enjoyed my classes and went out with my new friends most days. I also visited an…
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Bellissima Monteriggioni
Today I took a bus ride through the lovely Tuscan countryside to this perfect little hilltop town. Set amidst olive groves, vineyards and rolling green hills it is difficult to describe its qualities. The walls were constructed in the 1220s and the town was a defensive stronghold for the Republic of Siena against its perpetual…
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Stibbert Museum Florence
After completing an excellent week of classes this afternoon I took a long walk to the hills outside Florence and the Stibbert Museum. Beautiful views of the city and a lovely garden. The museum was created by a wealthy English man and donated to the city of Florence at his death. This is the fruit…
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Exploring the beauty of Nice in autumn
I arrived in a sunny and warm Nice … today is overcast but still pleasant. I took a walk to two museums epitomising French Post Impressionism… Musee Matisse and Musee Chagall. Both wonderful; Matisse exhibiting his joy and exuberant line and colour; Chagall his deep spirituality and symbolic engagement with his inner world. I enjoyed…
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RA Summer Show 2025
Kate and I took our usual annual visit to the RA. We usually have a great time and this year was no exception. We’re pretty sceptical and often play “zeitgeist bingo” which entails choosing a few themes we think will be well represented. This year it was “sheds”, “urban decay”, and “animals”. We were pretty…
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An afternoon with Bloomsbury
Charleston Farmhouse was, from 1916, the hub and retreat of the Bloomsbury Group where artists Vanessa and Clive Bell and Duncan Grant entertained a glittering array of artists and intellectuals: Roger Fry who championed Post Impressionism in the UK, Lytton Strachey, economist Maynard Keynes, E.M Forster, Dora Carrington and Vanessa’s sister Virginia Woolf in a…
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Back in Rome … speeding home
A pleasant train journey through Puglia to Rome and a hostel I stayed in a couple if years ago; it’s still great. Expensive (I could stay a week in Albania fir the same price) but it’s Rome and worth it. Of course it’s busy here, it’s a Jubilee year and a new pope too so…
Escape to myself
Travelling to reconnect
