Last weekend the Barbican hosted the Darbar Festival, which is always a delight to visit for its colour and vibrancy …
Some of my images …
Quite a contrast exists upstairs in the third floor gallery with Robert Ryman’s exhibition entitled The Real Thing.
Introduction at the entrance:
To my slight surprise, I really enjoyed it. Here’s a quote from the Arts Desk reviewer: To the casual eye, Robert Ryman’s paintings look white; but when I once asked him why he chose not to use colour, he got really annoyed and insisted that I look more carefully. Looking carefully – or, rather, careful looking – is what his paintings are all about. And boy, do they repay close attention!
When you “look more carefully”, you start to notice the nuances that make his pictures such a delight. You begin, for instance, to spot the coloured grounds that sometimes lend a hint of warmth or cold to the white upper layers. In Untitled Study 1963, nthe blue ground is really obvious; usually, though, things are more subtle …
Here are some of my images.
I also found myself drawn to taking images of figures moving or standing in the white space of the gallery …
One of the great bonuses of having to produce a blog every week is that I find myself visiting exhibitions that I wouldn’t normally consider and then coming away pleased and enlightened. This was one of those occasions.
You can read all about the event here. Highly recommended.
In other news.
Sitting having a coffee one afternoon on the Barbican Terrace I noticed this lady …
Wrapped up in the towel in her arms was a pigeon whose legs had been trapped in some kind of cotton or string which she was delicately cutting and disentangling. After doing a bit of research I came across these lovely people …
You can read more about them here. Needless to say I have made a donation!
I walked past these offices recently …
… and a thought occurred to me regarding branding. So many big firms have chosen to be known by initials only (e.g. PwC, EY, KPMG, BDO, CMS etc) I wondered why this firm hadn’t. It could be S & M.
On second thoughts, maybe not.
What a nice idea, candles outside St Giles church for All Souls Day …
And finally, when sorting out a drawer, I came across our Christmas card from 2009, the year we visited the Galapagos Islands. It’s a Blue Footed Booby …
No telephoto lens was needed, you really can get this close to the birds as they have no fear of humans.
If you would like to follow me on Instagram here is the link …