London again – Van Gogh, Forsyte Saga and Tirzah Garwood.

Aargh, busy busy… At the beginning of this week we spent two days in London. Spent the night in the Premier Inn in Borough High Street. On the first day we met old friend Shaun McKenna for lunch, went to the Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers exhibition at the National Gallery and then on to the Park Theatre in Finsbury Park, to see Shaun’s adaptation (co-written with Lin Coughlan) of the Forsyte Saga. It has been brilliantly well-reviewed – Shaun is, understandably, delighted.  Next day we headed to the Dulwich Picture Gallery to see the Tirzah Garwood: Beyond Ravilious exhibition. Then home, exhausted, to more busyness… Here’s the Shard at night. I like the Christmas look.

I’ll start with the play. Sadly, its run has finished, so however much I praise it, you can’t go. It is in two parts – we only saw Part One. We very much enjoyed it. Have never been to the Park Theatre before – it is a well set-out modern space, with the audience on three sides. Here’s Shaun, standing on the stage, looking tired but delighted – his work really seems to be taking off at the moment.

The set was, to put it mildly, minimalist. The stage was empty except for a few chairs and much was left to the imagination, but the action moved along at a cracking and completely comprehensible pace. The cast were outstanding – particularly Joseph Millson as Soames. We were sitting right next to one of the walkways leading off the stage, where members of the cast stood when they were out of the action. Even when he wasn’t ‘on’, you could see Millson’s hands knotted together behind his back, and his little finger twitching with tension. Soames is a difficult part to get right but Millson did manage to generate my sympathy for the character, even though he did bad things….

So, let’s rush straight over to the National Gallery for Van Gogh. Here’s a photo of a painting I liked, to prove we actually went – in the garden at the Asylum at Arles.

We were a bit anxious about getting into the exhibition because when we were in London a few weeks ago, the queues stretched all round the block. Just Stop Oil protesters seem to enjoy throwing soup over Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ and they had done it again.., leading to extra security.  In addition, the exhibition has received rave reviews (here is an example) is incredibly popular and is hyped to sonic boom level.  It has sorted itself out now, thank goodness, we got in easily and although it was busy, it was not uncomfortably crowded. What did Battleaxe think? Not as much as the hyperbolic reviews might suggest.

Although the gallery had amassed a fantastic collection of paintings, including the classic and well-known chairs, beds etc, (see above) some of my favourites were missing, for example the Cafe Terrace At Night and the Night Cafe. Of course the paintings were lovely, colourful and eminently viewable, but somehow they didn’t wow me… but it was a worthwhile experience.

I preferred the Tirzah Garwood. Again, I was a bit anxious because our last experience at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, the Berthe Morisot exhibition, infuriated me so much I scarcely wanted to go to the gallery again. Why? The captions on the paintings were so patronisingly sexist – implying that Morisot’s work was derived from the work of various male artists. I never even blogged about it. Anyway, I feared that Tirzah’s work would be constantly compared – unfavourably – with that of her first husband, Eric Ravilious. In fact, that wasn’t the case. Garwood’s talent was allowed to show itself as excellent it its own right. She did some wonderful collages and woodcuts – here are some, plus one of her oil paintings – ‘Erskine returning at dawn’. Battleaxe would recommend the exhibition.

And, the gallery was wonderfully quiet – here is Battleaxe in an almost empty room.

Tirzah’s story is sad – a great talent, but firstly put on hold while caring for her family, and then her life cut short by breast cancer.

We always enjoy an outing to Dulwich. Train from London Bridge to North Dulwich, and a lovely walk through Dulwich Village marvelling at the posh houses and fancy little shops. Good thing there are plenty of eateries – the cafe at the gallery is, quite literally, inaccessible. Every time we have been – and that’s quite a lot, we are nabbed by some staff member as we try and walk in the door to be told that there is no space and there is a waiting line! Then, every time we say no, we can’t be bothered to wait and get something down the village…

So, home, knackered. Then, busy putting up Christmas decs, writing cards, wrapping pressies… here are our house decs…

Saw  ‘Conclave’ at Rye – what a great movie – absolute trash but so very well done. Thursday was our Christmas Poetry Stanza do at the White Rock Hotel, then yesterday a shopping trip to Rye. I was accosted by a lady in Rye Art Gallery who recognised me and said how much she enjoyed Hastings Battleaxe. I was very pleased, and vowed to myself to give her a mention in this post, but sadly, her name has gone out of my head… but hello anyway! Today we are in the middle of some storm or another – Darragh? Rain and wind hooleying around all day. Even so we were up at the big ‘ouse (Fairlight Hall) for the Piano Competition Volunteers Christmas drinkies do and recital, then tonight we go to the Messiah…. arrgh indeed.