David Hockney at the Walker Art Gallery

We popped into the Walker Art Gallery on our way home from work. 

It's a great place to stop for coffee and cake after a busy day, as we literally have to pass by the gallery as we head into the Mersey Tunnel.

We came to see the Hockney: Early Reflections exhibition which shows works from his early years.

  

Recurring themes are his fascination with painting water, from swimming pools to showers .... and his obsession with Cliff Richard! Who knew? 

To be honest it's quite a small exhibition based around the gallery's own painting "Peter getting out of Nick's Pool" and there's a lot of sketches rather than paintings, but it's worth a look if you like Hockney and you're passing by. 

Curiouser and Curiouser ....

On Saturday we went to visit the Alice in Wonderland exhibition at Tate Liverpool.

Come and take a peek!

Alice by Peter Blake (who did the Sgt Pepper album cover)

This is Humpty Dumpty

A neon installation with lots of word play

and the original Alice herself.

If you want to see this Alice .... she's not here. It's all weird and wonderful nonsense, in the best traditions of the Tate gallery. 

As always, we found more sense in the shop ....

with lots of lovely little treasures to  admire

We loved this china teaset

 
and of course, when encouraged to eat and drink, we did just as we were told ....

The whole of Liverpool seems to have caught Alice fever, and there are echoes of the exhibition in lots of the main shopping areas ....

Best of all were these balancing tea cups in the lovely Met Quarter.

I had a lovely 'touristy' day in my own home town, and we didn't do any Christmas shopping at all!

A Postcard from the North East ~ Part Two

Sunday was a grey grizzly day .... a day where you need to be indoors. The Baltic beckoned.... especially as it's hosting the Turner Prize this year, which is usually only seen in London.

On our way there we noticed that something was happening on the Gateshead Millennium Bridge .... it was moving!

 Slowly the whole bridge tilted.... and crowds gathered round to watch.

A little blue boat sailed through ..... a pleasure cruiser .... a bit wet today though, I would have thought!

We wandered round the Turner Prize exhibition with other confused people ... to quote Andrew Searle (more of him later) .... "It's the Turner Prize.... it's meant to be confusing!" No photographs allowed, as usual, but I've got a video clip at the end of this post if you're desperate to see the entries!

Back to normality .... the Baltic has the best museum shop I know ... full of stylish delights .... 

We both fancied these lunch boxes, but they were very pricey, so we resisted temptation.

After a tasty lunch in the bistro, we nipped across the car park to The Sage, 

which is a wonderful music venue ... the interior of the building is stunning ....

 with great views across to the iconic Tyne Bridge.

We noted that they do a very reasonably priced Sunday Roast Dinner, so we need to go back another time. to test it out!!!

What do you make of the Turner prize entries?

If you click the link above you can see a video from the Guardian of the four entries for this year's Turner prize..... it starts after an advert.

It's quite long, but if you stick with it, it'll save you a journey to Gateshead!!!!

Comments please .... on this evidence, who do you think will win?

Could this be a new obsession?

I always keep a holiday diary, but this year I decided to have fun with water colours and collage, and make it more like an art journal. I've was inspired by some wonderful boards on Pinterest and packed up a whole box of pretty papers and other goodies to take with me.

And then I sat in the sun and played ....

I painted the pages, and added all sorts of bits and pieces ..... leaves, pressed flowers, pictures from leaflets, paper bags, birthday cards .... and then added some journaling.

Every page reminds me of some aspect of our time in France.

I think I'm hooked ... I can't wait till I've got some time to do some more!

What shall we do on Wednesday?

This week we headed down to Tate Liverpool to see the new Magritte exhibition.

Rene Magritte, the Belgian Surrealist painter is, according to the guide booklet, 'most renowned for his mysterious imagery which combines the banal with the strange and erotic for disturbing effect'.

Some of the paintings were familiar, all bowler hats and pipes ....

This made me smile. I always tell my class that all teachers have eyes in the back of their heads. Being 7 years old, they usually believe me!

Things got stranger ... and some pictures were so erotic I couldn't possibly show you.

Some works were hidden behind a curtain for good reason .... we didn't linger!

I found that I couldn't relate to the work at all ... I found it all terribly flat, and just a tad boring! 

I've come to the conclusion, though, that you don't have to like every piece of art, even if everyone else praises it from the rooftops.

I did quite like the blue sky pictures  ... we have backing paper for school displays just like this.

I'll be totally honest, the only thing that got me excited in the whole show was this lovely umbrella in the shop .... wouldn't you just love to have blue skies above your head as you walk in the rain?

Sadly, at £55 it won't be me!

( All images from Google, as photography was not allowed in the exhibition)