I have been away and, while that is no excuse for my lack of blog posts, that is my excuse for my lack of blog posts! Also when I am tired / busy the written word seems to desert me and even my personal journal of 30 plus years stays mostly silent…
So to recap – earlier in October we went for a very relaxing short break to Edinburgh, because we love it and particularly to see the Peter Doig exhibition No Foreign Lands at the National Galleries of Scotland. His work has a great textural use of paint which made me think about the possibilities of layered / veiled embroideries. Watch this space…..
At the Musee d’Orsay
And then mid October the Scotsman and I took to Eurostar for a longer holiday. In Paris we stayed at a small hotel near the Stalingrad Metro which backed onto a big canal basin – a really interesting area, with two cinemas one on either side of the canal, people walking their dogs, playing Petanque and learning to walk the tightrope! We finally visited the Musee d’Orsay (they were on strike last time we tried), and went to the cinema (‘La Belle et La Bete’ in French), the Theatre (a three man Othello in English, by a Dutch Company with French surtitles!) and the Museum of Modern Art where we saw an exhibition about artists creating tapestries and carpets. My favourite was a ‘sheep’ carpet ‘Les Moutons’ by Francois-Xavier Lalanne, but as we weren’t allowed to take photos and there was no brochure or postcards showing it that’s the most I can tell you. There is a picture of a similar work here
Flying Dutchmen in the butterfly house
Then we went on by train to Amsterdam and to stay in an Air bnb apartment. Our absent ‘host’ Anya had left us lots of useful information, but apart from a visit to the Van Gogh museum we mostly chilled out and wandered around pointing and going ‘Ooh’. The sun shone on my birthday and we visited the Plantage which is a lovely quiet area of Amsterdam just behind where we were staying. We sat outside and had mint tea and cake at the Botanical Gardens and looked at the plants and the butterfly house.
And now here we are back in London….
flatsheep 