Early Spring Outings

I.  St. Mary's Hospital

My school goes on a lot of field trips to interesting places.  In late March, our class visited St. Mary's Hospital near Paddington Station.  We got real finger casts, which you could put on and pull off; and I used mine to fool my parents by pretending that I had broken my finger (it worked)!  We also watched a video on accidents that can happen if you are not careful:  burns, cuts, choking, car crashes and electric shock.  Lastly, we learned CPR on a dummy and the "respiratory position."  I learned a whole lot.

II.  Watercolor at Late Tate

On the first Friday evening in April, we went to Late Tate Britain.  Dad and I went to an exhibition called "Watercolour"on different artists' use of watercolor as a way of painting.  In the first room, we saw some old books, one from 1200 CE!  They had beautiful letters.  The next room was full of detailed and colored plant and animal prints, which were part of old science books.  The animals included an osprey (hawk), lion-haired macaw (monkey), blue grosbeak (perching bird), European grass snake, and the drinker moth caterpillar.  There was also an engraved copper plate along with the print that was made from it, illustrating an exotic plant.  Another watercolor I liked was a painting of a "spray" (bunch) of withered oak leaves, so very detailed, with a bright blue background.  It was painted by John Ruskin, one of the most famous Victorians, my Dad explained.  Also, there was a small painting of figs, all plump and green; and there was a funny painting covered with hundreds of beans and seeds, which Dad said must have been really hard to arrange.  The last thing we saw was a book on hummingbirds, with pictures of the birds painted in.

John Ruskin, Withered Oak Leaves (1879), Sheffield Museum:  wow, can he paint!

Rachel Pedder-Smith, Bean Painting: Specimens from the Leguminosae family (2004):  that's a whole lotta beans!

The next room had a detailed picture of a "sultan's" wife with her maid; it was filled with beautiful patterns covering the walls and the ladies' lovely dresses.  We also saw Turner's sketchbook that he traveled with; and they also had some early watercolor kits and paints:  cool!  

The exhibition was so excellent that I didn't have a favorite painting; I loved every one!

John Frederick Lewis, Hareem Life in Constantinople, 1857 (Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne)

III:  V & A Work Day

On the first Saturday of April, I rode on the back of Dad's bike, our favorite mode of travel—smart, environmental, and fun!—to the V & A, where we planned to work on our various projects.  At the museum, I worked steadily on the different books that I am writing, which always keep me occupied; and we had a minced pie, chocolate biscuits, and a whole bunch of cups of peppermint tea!  An hour and half before closing time, we went down to the galleries to see the "Cult of Beauty" show, which is a big new exhibition.  It tells the story of how they thought about art in Britain during the period 1860-1900.  The motto was "Art for Art's Sake":  by this they meant art should just be for beauty and nothing else.  There was a room that you could peek into, designed to look like (and with things from) the home of the famous painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti.  After this, we went to see some things in the Japanese galleries.  Dad explained that lacquer, an art practiced in China and Japan, is a kind of varnish they use to decorate wood, which can be painted red, green, or gold, but it is usually black.  We also saw the most valued thing in the Japanese collection—and one of the most valuable thing in the whole museum—a lacquered chest with mother of pearl and gold, very rare, richly done, and owned by an important French man [Dad says:  Cardinal Mazarin of France].  On the bike-ride home, we picked up some baklava (a Middle Eastern cake with nuts and lots of honey) for Mom, since it was British Mother's Day that Sunday—and this capped a lovely Saturday.

The Mazarin Chest (ca. 1640), made from wood covered in black lacquer with gold and silver hiramakie and takamakie lacquer; inlaid with gold, silver and shibuichi alloy; and mother-of-pearl shell; with gilded copper fittings:  Phew!

When the Aunts Go Marching to London ...

The Aunts Arrive!

It was a bright Saturday when my Aunt Sylvia first came.  Though jet-lagged (she's from California) we all went out to Portobello Market to give her a little feel of the neighborhood.  After going in and out of the busy shops, including All Saints Spitalfields with its hundreds of old-fashioned sewing machines in the windows for decoration, we journeyed homeward and had a delicious Spanish dish we sometimes make, Chorizo Stew, loved by everyone. The next day my Aunt Erica came from New Jersey.  We went for an outing to the Tate Modern museum with both aunts, walking through Hyde Park and seeing, of course, the big touristed sights:  Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, and the London Eye.

Trip to the Tate Modern

At the Tate Modern we walked through the collection, seeing a set of paintings called Adam and Eve by the artist Barnett Newman, with combinations of brown and red sections of what makes up men and women.  Then we went and sat for a while at what turned out to be Mom and Aunt Erica's favorite room, which contained a set of Rothko paintings in deep reds, grays, and browns.  Dad and I went around the room with Aunt Sylvia talking about how each painting made us feel and what it looked like to us.  They made me feel very warm, like there was a fire crackling.

Rothko, Red on Maroon (1959), what an interesting colour combination!

We ended the glorious visit with a Cezanne painting (he is famous for his apples and his smokers and has a very distinct style) of a farmer colored yellow, orange, and gray who, I felt, looked very humble. Cezanne paints people with a lot of feeling, depth, and story behind them.

Hampton Court Palace

On Wednesday I took the day off from school and went with Aunt Sylvia and Aunt Erica to Hampton Court Palace, which was first owned by Cardinal Wolsey.  The palace had different parts to it, and first we went to the quarters of the young Henry VIII.  The rooms told the story of his relationship with Catherine of Aragon and included chairs which had written on the back some of the feelings that the couple and Cardinal Wolsey might have had at the time.  Next we explored William III's quarters with a room decorated with knives, drums, swords, and other weapons, which hung on the walls made into patterns of circles and lines.

This was the room that William III decorated in weapons and drums.
It had a very war-like feel. But it was a whole lot of weapons for nothing.

After that we saw Henry VIII's kitchens, which contained gigantic fireplaces and fake food.  Soon afterward, we went out to the gardens for a bit and saw trees shaped like Hershey's kisses.  Then we visited Henry VIII's quarters from when he was older.  The rooms contained many paintings.  Finally we went out to the famous Hampton Court maze, which is made out of hedges.  On the way there, we saw a performance of Henry getting changed for bed.  It was funny.  He asked us if we thought God liked him and if history would remember him.  I got a little lost in the maze and we were forced to dodge mobs of French schoolchildren.

Afterwards, we went back inside to look at the Georgian rooms and the Duke of Cumberland Suite of rooms, which used to be Henry's dressing rooms.  There was a battlefield bed made up of sixty parts.  A lady told us some stories about how the Duke of Cumberland was the second son and his parents hated his brother who was the oldest.  She also showed us a really old staircase.  It was the staircase that Henry had walked up to visit Jane Seymour when she was giving birth.  It had a spiral shape to it.  Jane's ghost is said to be spotted here; her organs, including her heart, are buried on the grounds of the Hampton Court chapel.  Overall, it was a fantastic trip, and I learned a lot more about Tudor history.

Aunts Sylvia and Erica at Hampton Court Palace (otherwise known as the Hershey's Kiss Gardens!)

At Hampton Court Palace I took some notes:

-  Boy looking through casement window (1550 to 1560) is a painting of a servant boy grinning through a window
-  I learned from Aunt Erica that, for her execution, Anne Boleyn ordered, instead of an axe, a sword specially from France to be used to chop her head off.
-  Original Tudor doors on the entrance to the Palace!

National Portrait Gallery

We went to the National Portrait Gallery with Erica and Sylvia.  After a coffee/baked-goods break, we went upstairs to the see the Tudor portraits.  Aunt Erica really likes them.  I really like the one of Henry VII, and the pictures were so realistic!  Richard III is painted with a vein showing on his hand and Edward VI's shoe position in his portrait was painted over and changed.  Then Sylvia and I went off to the see the 1900 to 1950 portraits.  There were many of famous people, including one of the Beatle Paul McCartney, which was titled, as a joke, “Mike's Brother.”  It had lots of colors to make black and brown on his clothes and skin color.  There was also a nice painting of Princess Diana where a pattern on her pants is mimicked on the wall.  And lastly one painting Aunt Sylvia and I looked at for a long time and liked was of a meeting with people writing, thinking, walking, and putting their hands in a number of different positions.  Lastly we went to the Victorian Galleries where we saw a painting of Florence Nightingale helping the sick.  In paintings like that one I like finding interesting details.

The V&A  Museum

Mom and Aunt Erica in the V&A courtyard. Lovely Victorian architecture, don't you think?

After school as usual on Friday we went to the V&A, but this time it was special because it was a new experience for Aunt Erica and Aunt Sylvia.  First, we stopped in the lovely cafe for high tea with scones, "Millionaire's Shortbread," other cakes, and a BIG meringue!  They were lovely and I savoured them.  Next we went to see the modern ceramics.  We visited a room filled with works by Richard Slee (whom we later spent the day with, since Dad is friend's with his partner, Linda Sandino, at the V&A).  We looked at his broom with ceramic bristles, all bent, and a bag of ceramic carrots.

Richard Slee, Carrots

On this visit to the V&A, as usual, I  learned new and interesting things about ceramics – that there are different types of clay which made different kinds of pottery: fritware, stoneware, earthenware, porcelain, boneware, and delftware.  Then we went to the theater area where Mom and I tried on outfits.  We also went into a room with beautiful tapestries of hunting, falconing, and romantic scenes, and one of a unicorn (representing the Virgin Mary) in a million (not really) flowers.  After that we went to the medieval rooms, which contained the most precious glass vase from the 7th century which hadn't cracked.  Finally, we went off to Hereford Road Restaurant for a late dinner of razor clams, potted crab, pickled herring, roast lamb rump, lemon sole, wood pigeon, braised roe shoulder, and sticky date pudding--delicious!  That night was a feast of new, creative, and spectacular things.

British Museum

On Saturday we went to the British Museum.  Dad and I were going to an exhibition on Afghanistan but first we went to the Enlightenment rooms.   This period in Western history comes right after the Renaissance.  We looked at many different pieces, one by Joseph Wedgwood that was a circular medallion in relief which showed a kneeling black man with chains coming down from his hands to his ankles.  Written on the top were the words “Am I not a man and a brother?”

Anti-slavery medallion by Josiah Wedgwood (England, 1787):  'Am I not a man and a brother?' Poor guy

Then Dad and I went to a special exhibition focused on the rise and fall of Afghanistan and how the people carefully protected and saved the ancient treasures when war was going on.  There were little earrings, necklaces, and hairpins, made mostly of gold and found in tombs; but other materials used were turquoise, ivory, precious stones, glass, and alabaster.  Some of the treasures included ivory carved pieces of women which decorated the frame of a couch, beautiful and valuable glass bowls and fish, a golden mouflon (a type of goat), and a jingling gold five-part crown.  Another material was lapis lazuli, a blue rock, which, when polished and carved made lovely jewelry (and was used in paintings for the color blue).  That day I learned a lot about a period I never knew about and Afghanistan.

St. Paul's!  Monument!  Museum!

The next morning Aunt Sylvia left (boohoo!).  Erica, Mom and I went to the great, grand St. Paul's Cathedral.  Inside we admired the large grave of the Duke of Wellington, with all his battles written on the side, and of General Gordon.  There was a wooden cross, and many candles lit all around.  They were like people sitting and walking.  The decorated dome was closed off but that didn't really matter.   Then we went to the 311 step Monument to the Fire of London.  We climbed up and at the top we looked at views of the London skyline which included the Gherkin, London Bridge, the Tower of London, and the London Eye.  The stairs going up and down seemed like a never-ending spiral and there was a little golden design at the top.

The Monument to the fire of London:  Don't venture up there if you are afraid of heights!

Then we went to the Museum of London where I went to a mini-exhibition about London Past and Future.  I saw paintings of colorful market scenes and some people bringing food to houses.  Other scenes included a woman gathering watercress and a man fixing a chair.  There was also a moving display of things having to do with London and you could learn about their past, present, and future by hitting the image on the giant river, for example, the London telephone box.  There was also a book commemorating all of the 52 people who died in a terrorist bombing on the Tube.  The next day, Aunt Erica left (boohoo!).