The Fascination of 'Victorian Giants' at NPG and a Japanese Giant too

Small but well put together.

An art  Photography lesson

Yesterday after my weekly battle with (the study of) Ethics (more about that later) I took a walk to the National Portrait Gallery to see what the story was around.


Worryingly (in some respects) I'm familiar with Julia Cameron having seen her work in exhibitions separately  at the Science Museum's Mediaspace and also at Tate Britain, and of course the involvement of Charles Dodgson/Lewis Carroll in photography is well known (as is the idea perhaps unfairly that he behaved inappropriately).



The exhibition  at the NPG is about the border of Photography and Art and what was great for me was to be introduced to and see the work from Clementina Hawarden and Oscar Rejlander.

What was worthy of note was the limited number of photographs these important figures took, even compared with now old analogue film rolls the cameras were  enormous and each picture used a painstakingly prepared glass to capture the image - success then was far from assured.

One Ticket Please

Many of the pictures were to the modern eye pedestrian but where the ambitions were great something amazing can be seen.

What fascinated me most was Rejlander's 'The Two Ways of Life' a vastly complex (for the time) undertaking  - it sought to usurp perhaps what had been done by painters and even included Oscar himself .

I'd love to see a modern colour version of this.

Also on show were examples where the same subject had been taken from different angles - these suggested a feel for how film editing would develop.

I liked seeing connections too - one picture 'Sadness' (1864) of the famous actress  Ellen Terry taken by Julia Cameron  informed (as I didn't know) me that GF Watts (Artist and Sculptor)  had been here husband (only for a year though).

Clementina Hawarden took some great pictures too - a smashing one cleverly uses a mirror to capture two angles of  'Clementina Maude' - technically not easy but a great way to show the subject.

I'll be sitting there on Monday - ahead of session 3 of CityLit NPG course 

And Street Photography from Japan

I saw a very interesting TV programme about three of Japan's cities Kyoto, Edo and Tokyo and was introduced to Daido Moriyama - I think his style of photography is very engaging.



Coffee Cups

Guilty me

- Good to see one of my own my personal irritations in the News - come on let's stop throwing so many cups away

Coffee and preserving the planet (and loyalty)

Come on guys - get a dishwasher!

Now I (like nearly everyone else) like to frequent the Coffee Shops that are now such a part of High Street life.

I'm getting irritated that most places don't offer a 'proper' cup - I can accept McDonalds are not in the game of saving the planet but some of the other chains are portraying themselves as 'ethical'- so where are real pots?

From the main chains coffee-wise  my choice would be Nero, I like the cappuccino they serve and they have a reasonable offer on the loyalty system, they do  use for customers sitting in fairly universally a 'proper' cup and this is a strong preference I have -so well done to them.

Nero  used to sell The Times (and give a loyalty stamp on this too) - When I worked in Chiswick I was close to being a 'regular' in their shops on the High Street.


Starbucks I'm less sure of they certainly were targeted as being Tax avoid-ers (I see Nero aren't great on this either) but then this is not too much of a surprise, I'm not a regular customer so am not too sure on their loyalty offer - I think they're the dominant chain and I've certainly had a pottery cup when I've sat in.

Another offending  Pret near NPG

Costa is not the best coffee for me and they tend to have a confused queuing system (for what reason I don't know) - they were early to electronic loyalty cards (not sure if they still have these) - they have some food but none which I've fallen in love with and it seems pricey for what it is.


[They do though as part of bigger business pay their taxes)

So now we come to crux of the matter - I've begun to like Pret a Manger, they're very well run and staff are nice -I like the charitable stuff they do and really like the Cheese Ploughman's Baguette, there's no loyalty card (but at least their not capturing data about me) - great I could ghave a coffee at somewhere I was broadly in line with and the coffee is in my top 2 - Problem is most of the shops do not provide a pot cup for the customers who sit -The Ealing one does but most others (certainly inner London) don't and the disposable cups it seems  are going to landfill - they're not bio-degradable- so until things improve I will (when I remember) ask for coffee to be in a proper cup and if it's not possible I'll go elsewhere.

Some of the branches I've been in are bigger enough I'm sure to accommodate a dishwasher.

[I have tweeted about this and the company responded that they have this as a goal - my view is that they need to start making it happen -it's worth bearing in mind what an important part 'Loyalty' is of the Coffee chains business plan is - 5+ visits a week over 10 years or so is quite a revenue stream.]

See it is possible

The Ealing Branch

So perhaps what I need to do is be a more active 'consumer' and check out the best independents?

Week 2 at the NPG - Charles I, Cromwell and back to Royalty

Today another visit to The National Gallery - the paintings are improving as we move forward in time - the influence of artists on one another means that naturally those  innovative techniques that  are successful are absorbed into the tools in the artists armoury (to mix metaphors).

Delights are in abundance beyond the entrance 

No ‘hangers on’ this week but one of the group who wasn't there last week is another Art tour recidivist and remembers me from another ‘course’(also headed up by Leslie).

Thomas Howard by Peter Paul Rubens

Extra benefit (for me) on looking at these portraits is the history lesson that comes free and the perspective on ‘foreign’ workers (Denizens as the Artists from Europe were termed)  is difficult to ignore. (Much like Football teams of today Charles brought in 'Foreign talent' and homegrown talent was not given the resources needed)

. The works we looked at included work from Van Dyck and Rubens and an English Painter who is new to me -William Dobson (1611- 1646) who I thought very good (does the hand remind you of the style of Caravaggio?)

Cromwell by Robert Walker

A Portrait that goes beyond a likeness - this by the  English artist William Dobson

 it was interesting to see a self portrait by a woman (it seems this was rare), the artist was Mary Beale.

This portrait was an example of Mary Beale's Skills for prospective customers 

but my favourite picture today was the portrait of Charles II (possibly) by Thomas Hawker it is very colourful.

Charles II was far from a puritan - but he looked like he lived life with a big L

I managed to get my phone to make a nice 'Panorama' of Trafalgar Square view of the National Gallery.

Canada House to St Martin's Church

Another Picture of the week and more Kant

Well my latest project is a sort of virtual Calendar and fitting in well with it is an idea to try and have a monthly picture in the Ealing Gazette - this (February) sort of sneaked in under the wire as although it was in this weeks' paper it was taken and submitted on the 27th.

2 of twelve - perhaps

It does still give a thrill to see a photo of mine in the local paper.

And time passes

Getting over it

I suppose (begrudgingly) I welcome Theresa May's statement on Brexit - there seems to  be an admission that things are not just about the EU being difficult, we'll lose some things and (hopefully) gain some other  - it all feels like a terrible divorce though - have we gone so far that the 2 parties are irreconcilable - can we be 'friends'? 

A friend who has attached himself perhaps to firmly to the Re-moaners seems unable to move on (although he has moved on to live in Europe) - in fact there is not an absolute on this and time will tell it how it all pans out, a Cousin too (who has property in Spain) equally focused on the mess (as he sees it) that has been made - the idea that IDS, Jacob or Boris care about anything as deeply as themselves was always going to be  a fantasy - John Major again identifies as a 'decent' man - any surprises?

But at least there does seem to be some honesty abroad - those who are for what's termed a Hard Brexit can hopefully accept that there is a cost associated with it 

We had a snack lunch today and youngish couple had a falling out seemingly about something trivial - it ended with them both leaving without eating their food (which they'd paid for) - no winners in the short term, I hope they made it up , but the food was taken away uneaten.

More Kant 

A Please would be nice... but ..

Again more was revealed by Ariel in CityLit Philosophy class - Kant's main thing was intent we should have good intent - but we're not allowed to lie (even if it's for good intent it seems ?)

This would undermine and be self defeating.

Philosophy is undoubtedly a tough one - Stoics may have won me over - it is all fleeting and time passes (?)

Bear this in mind -from dailystoic.com

Stoicism has just a few central teachings. It sets out to remind us of how unpredictable the world can be. How brief our moment of life is. How to be steadfast, and strong, and in control of yourself. And finally, that the source of our dissatisfaction lies in our impulsive dependency on our reflexive senses rather than logic.

Remember the snow - it was cold and the worst thing that could happen - it's nearly gone now...

All around us there are lessons in how to be Stoic