British surrealist

Today Mirinda had book group so, after having a session at the gym, I headed off for London. I was planning to go to the Foundling Museum but, on discovering it isn’t open on a Monday, decided to go to Tate Britain instead.

The main reasons for going to the Tate were that I haven’t been for so long I’ve forgotten that I went and they are presently hosting a few pieces by Rachel McLean. I saw one of her video pieces in Edinburgh last year. Her work is, to put it mildly, seriously bizarre. It is also a lovely take on the world of social media and general acceptance.

As well as Rachel’s latest pieces, there is also a retrospective of the work of British artist Paul Nash (1889-1946).

Nash is held up as a leading light of British surrealism and his later paintings (and other art forms) attest to this but he’s probably best known for his WWI paintings. These, it turns out, are the only paintings of his I’ve seen before.

He started off as an illustrator and then moved onto painting, mostly the three big trees at the end of his garden. These first examples of arbour ardour reveal a lifelong love affair with nature…and trees in particular. And this is the beauty of the exhibition. Starting with the early paintings we follow his progress, viewing his own development as an artist.

It is a beautifully curated exhibition and one which brought to life an artist I didn’t know. Emma Chambers, the curator responsible, should be well pleased with it. I thoroughly enjoyed it as did the other people wandering around with me.

After learning all about Mr Nash, I headed upstairs to have a bit of a wander around the permanent collection. I took a couple of pannos, including this one of the Tudor gallery.

All round, a very enjoyable trip with an exceptionally easy bus ride on the 507 from and then to Waterloo.

Back at home, Mirinda had vanished. I thought she’d taken the dogs for an ill advised walk but no, they were in the laundry. Eventually she returned home – she’d been to the dentist.