Art and Inspiration

So the beginning of January this year has not been like a winter wonderland, more like a dull grey wet splat. But I feel so sorry for the people living in the south and west of the country where they are having terrible storms and floods.

Rain or not we had to get out on January the first.
To our surprise the Yorkshire Sculpture Park was open and we wanted to catch the Angie Lewin exhibition before it finished in February......so off we went.

I recommend it if you are anywhere near as it is an excellent exhibition with lots of new work influenced by the time she spent at the park. It was a different day to the last visit we made last February. But it is interesting to compare the two.

Straight up the stairs to eat a delicious lunch....you just can't take in the creativity on an empty stomach!

I loved her new watercolours and her work on drift wood but I really, really liked the glass case that shows her sketchbooks, wood blocks and natural inspiration.

 I loved the work but.......
Time to walk off that lunch.

It was still raining so we went along the walled garden to the underground gallery.

Amar Kanwar, Interesting but a bit disturbing too.
Despite the rain we headed down to the Camellia house.

Way to early for the flowers.

Then we headed back to the main building and one last drool at the Angie Lewin goods in the shop window.

Then it was time to make a dash to the car.

We managed a few walks this holiday too, but I will do a separate post about them and I want to tell you about our second cultural visit this holiday.

 This time after reading this post at Down by the Dougie we hopped on the train to Leeds.

Walked through the new shopping centre, The Trinity Centre.

Andy Scott's Packhorse

It has some great public art.

Then through the arcades.

 To Leeds City Art Gallery.

 To see this Exhibition. Art and Life.

In side there is a beautiful tiled cafe...but we had already eaten so I just took a quick photo. No Photography is allowed in the Gallery but DO Go and read Down by the Dougie post about the exhibition here, as it has lots of lovely pictures. I came out loving Winifred Nicholson's paintings even more than before.

And when we did emerge from the gallery it was going dark...and still raining!

So the decorations are down but not yet put away.
The resolutions are down on paper.
The chocolate is nearly finished.
The new year has begun!