Visiting The Courtauld Gallery, London

The Courtauld Gallery

Being Out and about in London I sometimes find I have a spear hour or two to spend visiting a show or gallery, although this dose not seam to happen anywhere often enough, that said a few weeks ago I found just an opportunity to do just this.

We were meeting some friends in town but got to spend a while in The Courtauld Gallery which I have to say is always worth the time. Situated in Somerset House just off the Strand which in-itself is well worth the time and trouble of visiting for the art and cafes that are housed there.

However I degrees, we popped into The Courtauld to see the temporary exhibition that was on at the time... PETER LELY: A LYRICAL VISION and  THE DRAUGHTSMAN AND HIS COLLECTION  Sir Peter Lely the often forgotten 17th century artist at the court of Charles II was brilliant and well worth the time.

Then a whistle stop tour of the collection of world famous art that spans from the early Renaissance to the 20th century with a particularly fantastic impressionist collection that includes some very famous paintings by Cezanne, Van Gogh but for me seeing some of Kadinsy early works was brilliant too.

So if you get the time and happen to be around the Strand area of London I can highly recommend taking the time to check out Courtauld Gallery find them on your iPhone with this address

The Courtauld Gallery

Somerset House, 

Strand, London

WC2R 0RN

www.courtauld.ac.uk/gallery 

one small thing and the world is changed

Its seam a funny thing, you change one small thing and the next thing you know a whole world has in some small way altered. Perhaps it just a perception but sooner or later that feels like a reality even if it dose not become one over night.

My profile image on Google+

Ok so why all the fuss, well, I changed my profile picture on Google +, in part as a protest over a couple of bills that where going before congress concerning as I saw it the freedom of information and what I believed was some kind of censorship that was being allowed through the back door. 

But you don't even live in the USA some said. True, but the internet don't know that, even if it gave a toss... The simple fact is as an artist my work is seen and interpreted by others based on their values and not mine, my reasons and ideals often mean nothing to someone else.

I knew at the time and had no doubt that my little protest would make any impact on the events of the time. I mean its just a small photo of me that I fiddled with, to almost black out my image. However as time has gone on I have looked again and again at the half seen image straining to see more... Which set me to wondering is that not how we normally see the world around us... 

Do we as individuals and artists alike really take the time to look and see, or is just a collection of half seen images and fleeting glimpses that we take for granted and where we allow our brains to fill in the blanks, assuming that is that we even care about what we see based on the thousands of images that are thrust upon us every day through the media, advertising and the internet.

The simple fact is that few of us have the time to really look at the world as it rushes by. For me Facebook and Google+ are just a collection of images that might catch my eye from time to time drawing me to the headline that might, if its really lucky get me to look a little deeper and even read a few words on a good day, assuming I have the time... and the inclination.

The more  that I have thought about the more that I have been playing with the images I see and have actually stated looking at the idea of painting those half seen images as though that are a reality...