So, it has been a while since posting. There are a few reasons for this, but I will catch up on my posting before I let the news go on the journal.
On the weekend of the 26-28th March Jesse, Russell and I went to Canberra to the National Gallery to see the Masterpieces from Paris. There was a lot of media around the event and there were comments from other friends that had travelled up from Melbourne that the line up was 3-4hours long. The actual gallery extended it hours and the exhibition to take the load of people coming through and the three of us could not have let it slip buy Australia (cause we were not going to Paris any time soon!)
So we drove up on the Friday night after work. Arrived at Uncle John’s at 1am. Thank you so much for having us and seeing us for 5 mins before you went to bed.
Jesse getting car ready
Jesse driving
Russell in car
Me in the back seat
Saturday we went to the Portrait Gallery and to see how long these lines really were. Sure enough it was pretty long and the estimated wait time was about 2-3 hours. Our tickets were for the Sunday so we had plans to get there early and sit in the morning line to get in as best we could.
The Portrait Gallery was pretty interesting. Architecturally as well as the paintings and sculptures it contains. The building itself was light filled and the walls within floated as the exhibition hung from them. The architect is a Sydney based firm JPW - Johnson Pilton Walker. I particularly like some of their cultural and masterplanning.
We then had a quick stop in at Urban Food which was followed by some time in bed for me. I was exhausted!
Sunday was the day of the National Gallery visit. It was an amazing experience. We strolled across Canberra from our car park with hot-air-ballons over head. It was a beautiful morning. The line was not too bad and we were entertained by a lovely lady and man playing French tunes as the line built up. We were in the first group let in and I should say that the true experience was dappled by the amount of people in the room at anyone time. There was not enough room to fully appreciate, or step back from the painting and see the entirety. I surprised myself with a clear draw towards the pointillism work, but was still amazed by Starry Night. One other area that I liked was the bold colours that impressionists started to take from Japanese influence. This was something that I did not know previously.
Morning balloons
Gallery front, we sat in the line at the end of this tent entrance
French music
After the gallery we visited Parliament House.
We ended the weekend with a visit to my cousin Mags - and her dog! Thank you so much Mags for the goodies for the trip home. A great weekend. Sorry it took me so long to write about it.
Kim: I love seeing pictures of you guys … I miss you!!!! Glas you had a great trip :)