Tuesday 31 January 2012

Birmingham bonus

We needed a quick trip to Birmingham today to get fabric for Laura's steamer. Seemed a pity not to make the most of the day by fitting in a couple of exhibitions we had been longing to see!


How enticing is that poster? An unmistakable Leonardo face - one of ten drawings on loan from the Queen's collection in celebration of her Diamond Jubilee year.


And here she is for real in the gallery. I'm sorry for the reflections and the quality of the photo. We didn't think they'd allow photography and only had a phone with us. All of the drawings are on paper and it seems completely incredible that they have survived so perfectly for over five hundred years.


My favourite drawings in the exhibition were these of skeletal feet. Rather gruesomely Leonardo dissected around 30 cadavers in just over a year to record these observations. We weren't told where the bodies came from!


By way of total contrast this Anthony Gormley figure stands against the elements in the square outside the gallery. It was a bleak, cold day today - no wonder he looks a bit hunched!

We also visited the Lost in Lace exhibition but light levels were quite low and our photographs were disappointing. If you are interested to see the kind of ambitious new approaches to work inspired by lace being produced by UK and international artists visit www.lostinlace.org.uk The monumental scale of the work impressed me most!

Thanks for reading this - I hope you'll be back soon.
Linda

3 comments:

  1. Lucky you for both exhibitions but the Leonardo one is a real wow! Fabulous.

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  2. the DaVinci drawings are amazing!

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  3. Some brilliant examples of what I'm learning as I begin the Creative Sketchbooks course. Do you think at the end of it I'll be able to draw like Leonardo :-) The Gormley figure looks like a mummy doesn't it? And he/she seems to be growing out of the ground. I love his work and it's a complete contrast with the Leonardo drawings isn't it?

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