The husband and I abandoned our children yesterday and took the train to the big smoke.
(We didn’t really abandon them. My sister was in charge)
(Actually you could say we abandoned her with them… but everybody survived so it’s all good)
First stop in our whistle stop 24 hours of freedom was the Hockney exhibition at the Tate Britain. Highly recommended. Amazing. Inspiring.
It’s been years since I’d been at the Tate Modern and it was a real pleasure.
Really cool light installation by Ceryth Wyn Evans too. (you can read more about it here).
There’s something about art museum that I find strangely calming and restorative.
We had lunch – oh the joy of an unhurried lunch… – at Milos. Mouth-watering grilled octopus starter… mmmhhh…
… and perhaps a delicious glass of icy cold greek white… shhh…
We were staying at The Gore Hotel, near the Royal Albert Hall, and our room “The Judy Garland Suite”… was bonkers. Everything our house isn’t, which was fun. For a night.
In the evening we rendezvous with lovely friends and enjoyed a night of (more) delicious food (more) wine and lots and lots of music at the Royal Albert Hall.
Paul Weller is Mr M’s favourite artist (all the way back from the Jam days and then The Style Council… ) so he was in Paul heaven.
This morning…
… after a gorgeous breakfast of egg florentine (me) and full English (Mr M) …
we walked…
and ‘tubed’ it…
… and walked again to the Tate Modern… (don’t you love London? I mean… in the picture above there are so many different styles of buildings jammed together… so eclectic…)
(first time on the Millennium Bridge for me… I’m easily pleased)
We managed to catch the last day of the Rauschenberg exhibition… very cool.
Retrospectives on artists are always fascinating; it’s so interesting to see how an artist evolves throughout his life. More often than not we are familiar with one particular stage, don’t you think? Take Hockney, for example… I always thought about he swimming pool paintings… or his famous portraits of people like Ozzy Clark and Celia Birtwell.. but there is so much more.. his works with photographs are amazing and his latest paintings and works with videos is so interesting… With Rauschember … same thing… I always thought about his screen printed pictures (which I LOVE)… and didn’t know about his amazing collages and his foray into dance and scenography and sculptures…
Stupidly I ‘forgot’, for want of a better word, that art is not static, that artists always look at different ways to express themselves … The last two days were a good reminder.
Good times, folks. Most excellent 24 hours. We made it home tired but re-charged, do you know what I mean?
while you're ahead... 
Glad you had a good time! We went to the Hockney last month and it was interesting as you say to see how his work has changed, both Hubby and I prefer his later work to his earlier, but it was good to see the difference and where he has come from.
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