Musical and Arty London

There's always something to see and do in London. Frequently there are new shows and exhibitions to view, keeping people at the centre of an ever growing art culture. In the last week I was lucky enough to view two big shows and exhibitions that are open for a limited amount of time. I have attached links to each website on the images.

Painting the Modern Garden - The Royal Academy

Impressionism has always been an art  have been interested in with the bold use of colour an technique that drastically changed the art scene. This exhibition provides an incredible range of works that has proven to be a hugely popular spectacle that has to be seen to be believed. For me the highlight of the show was the collection of Monet's water lilies featured in the showcase, especially with the reunited finale canvases that draw together three canvases to form the iconic scene of Monet's oriental inspired water garden.

Vogue 100: A Century of Style - National Portrait Gallery

This exhibition was a true visual spectacle. The exhibition contained some of the most striking images the last century has seen, beginning with the 1920s and progressing towards the 00s, with today's generation of style being displayed on a video installation at the exhibition entrance. The iconic photographs of well known faces stem across the generations, capturing the hyper glamourised fashion industry with its bold and sometimes questionable outfit choices, to the more modest images that capture their models in a more natural light, with a sense of ease as they've been caught off guard. The images that I personally found the most memorable were those of comedy legends Charlie Chaplin and Morecombe and Wise, and most prominently Naomi Campbell's cover which was used in the advertising campaign for the exhibition. I cannot truly describe it but the photograph evoked a feeling of freedom as she appears to be finding joy in the moment that must have been felt like her big break, opening her to a world of endless possibilities. I guess I related to the youthful outlook of life deeming the world to be your oyster. I would highly recommend this exhibition as it is accessible to most audiences. Even my Dad, who is not an avid art goer, enjoyed being dragged around this exhibition.

Funny Girl - Savoy Theatre

This hit show may be well known for the 1968 film featuring Barbara Streisand which is seen by many to be a tough act to follow. I am yet to see the film but was nonetheless blown away by the show, particularly by lead actress Sheridan Smith who captured the humour element of the show perfectly through her physical comedy, as well as having a powerful voice to match. I must say a beautiful moment to end the show on was Sheridan's standing ovation from the entire audience, where her tears of joy showed her true surprise and gratitude. The colourful set and well chosen cast prove an uplifting and fun atmosphere that fully immerses you into the stage world and would be a night out that you would not want to miss.

Sunset Boulevard - English National Opera

The hype around this Andrew Lloyd-Webber production was seen to be actress Glenn Close's reprisal of her role as Norma Desmond, a silent-screen film star who seeks a return to Hollywood from her secluded yet still luxurious lifestyle. Glenn Close gave a fantastic performance but I found the true attraction of the show laid within the staging and music. The orchestra were centrally placed on the stage with steel framework stairs scattered around the stage to provide height and separate spaces for the narrative. Another staging element that captured the essence of the period the show is set through the black and white images projected on to the stage from old film reels of the 1920s which plays during the orchestral musical interludes of both acts.

London Baby

Last week I went on an industry study trip to London for my university course. It's fair to say that this trip made me realise that I am on the right course. The walking tours around London and art journal studies provided a great insight into museology, where I was able to reflect on the art industry within the public and private commercial sectors. I enjoyed being able to visit new sights and areas within a city I love and have been lucky enough to visit often. This ranged from the auction houses and galleries, to the street art that adorn the side of buildings.

I guess this trip made me want to aspire more to my dream of living in the 'London lifestyle'. The lifestyle that has been portrayed on TV with people living in the gorgeous apartments with their dream jobs, admist the hustle and bustle of a busy city, while managing to maintain a thriving social life. This is the lifestyle I would like to see myself living in one day and this trip made living the 'London lifestyle' seem possible.

Summer Update

As you can see August has been low on posts. I have been busy over the last three weeks and have had little time to blog. I can assure you that I have made more posts for this month. But for now I will give you a brief update on my Summer holiday.

Family and Friends
After months of revision and exams I have been spending more social time with family and friends. It has been nice to take breaks from school work. It could be anything from going bowling with friends to going to the supermarket with family.

London
Over the last week I have spent time in London visiting family. It' great to meet up with family and have a proper catch up. The weather was not as good as we've been used to over the last month. However there were some brilliant cloud formations which meant I was constantly walking outside to take photographs.

My Birthday
On Monday I went to London with my Mum to see Phantom of the Opera for my birthday. I can't begin to say how amazing this show is. I have wanted to see the show for months and I can say that it didn't disappoint. I couldn't believe the staging and the talent of the actors. What I find incredible is the foreshadowing within the characters and the storyline. Also it was good to see the show with my Mum as she hadn't seen the show before. Therefore I was able to see her reactions as she discovered the storylines. Since then Mum and I are still singing the songs.



A-Level work
Finally I have been dong school work. Even though it is the summer holidays I still have to complete work for my second year of A-Levels. Although I haven't been stressing about the work as I want to enjoy the summer. Knowing me I will leave the work to the last day of summer.

Hope you are having a good Summer x

Friday Favourites - A day in London

Yesterday I went on a history trip to London with friends from Sixth Form. The weather was really warm and the sun was shining, which is a nice change for the British weather. We had a walking tour of London which started at St. Pauls Cathedral. We walked to some beautiful and peaceful areas that I had not visited before. I took a few photographs below, but I decided not to take many and just enjoy walking in the sunshine.

We then walked back over the Millennium Bridge, which was a good stop for group photographs. We spent some time sitting on the grass in front of the Tate Modern, then walked to Embankment to get the tube to travel to the Victoria and Albert Museum. It was entertaining watching my friends who had never been on the tube come to terms with the ticket machine and the rush to get on the train.

As I've said before the V&A is one of my favourite places in London, so I was happy to spend two hours wandering around the exhibitions and sitting outside. After that it was back on the tube to Oxford Circus to meet the other group and get the coach home. We waited at a café in Oxford Street which was surprisingly quite. We all liked talking and watching the world go by.

The day was full of laughs, good company and sunshine. We all did well considering we were awake at 5am, got stuck in traffic and reached school at about 11pm. The journeys are usually a highlight with music, photographs and laughter. It's fair to say our group enjoyed the day. But we were tired today after our busy day.

Vintage London Railway Posters

This is a development from two previous blog posts where I talked about East Anglian Railway posters and my favourite places in London.

These posters prove that even though London has modernised over the decades, it is still recognisable. This shows how iconic London is. I like to look at the different styles of artwork on these posters. The bright colours make London look bold and an exciting place to visit. They represent some of London's main tourist sights such as, St. Paul's Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, the Tower of London and the London Underground.
The posters also show that there has always been an interest for people from abroad to travel to London, particularly within Europe. The bottom two posters refer to the travel links from Paris.



Favourite places in London

I have been lucky enough to visit London each year with my family. I have visited many of the tourist places and spend most of my trips taking photos on my camera. There is so much to see in London and I like to capture what I have seen though my photos. I thought I would share with you some of my favourite places to visit in London.

1. V&A Museum - Without a doubt one of my favourite places is the V&A museum. I like to look at the exhibitions, which inspire me with my art coursework. When I'm at the V&A I usually take photographs and sketch in my book.
2. The Royal Palaces - I find it interesting looking at history and learning about the past. I enjoy visiting all of the Royal palaces which include, Hampton Court, Kensington and the Tower of London.
3. Walking down the mall on a Sunday - On a Sunday no cars, taxis, buses, etc, are allowed on the mall in front of Buckingham Palace. This means that people are allowed to walk down the road. It is quiet if you walk there in the morning and provides a great view of the palace. Also you can walk through St James' Park on the way back.
You may not know that through the arches leading from Trafalgar Square towards Buckingham Palace there is a gold nose. This was left over from a statue and just stuck on the archway. I have found it and have included a picture below.
4. Covent Garden - I like to look at the shops and market stalls in Covent Garden. Also there are often musicians and performers for people to watch while they are there.
5. Trafalgar square - In Trafalgar Square I can visit the National Gallery and the National Portrait gallery. I also like to sit in Trafalgar Square and watch the world go by. It's nice to have a quiet sit down in a busy place such as London.

I would like to find new places to visit in London. I would like to discover more museums, quaint cafes that not many people know about and good restaurants, as my family's favourite restaurant in London recently closed.
Where are your favourite places to visit in London? I would like to know, so that I can visit some new places.

 Really like looking at all the Christmas decorations around December time.

These are all photographs I had taken on past trips to London.

2014 Bucket List

I thought that this year I would make a bucket list of five things that I want to do in 2014. Everything on my list is something that I have never done before and that I think I can realistically achieve. Hopefully when I look back at this list in December I will have completed everything on my bucket list.

My 2014 Bucket List:



1. Go on a day trip to London with friends

2. Read every book on my book shelf

3. See Phantom of the Opera at the theatre in London

4. Run the race for life

5. Go to the Harry Potter Studio tour

What would you put on your own 2014 bucket list?

2013 in pictures

I know I'm a bit late but I want to wish you a happy new year. I can't believe it's now 2014. For me 2013 was a year full of changes and new experiences. The year had it's good and bad moments, so I thought to summarise 2013 I would share some of my favourite memories.

In March I went on a school trip to London to go to the Churchill War rooms and watch Warhorse at the theatre. This was just before I left High school and started exams. I had an amazing time with my friends and was the last school trip that all of us went on together. It had it's funny moments that we still laugh about.

The second photo is from my trip to London to see an exhibition of Roy Lichtenstein's artwork at the Tate. It is still one of my favourite places I have been to in London. I wrote a post about my trip here.

The bottom left photo represents leaving High School. It was strange leaving High School as I was used to seeing the same people each day of school for five years. I had been at school with some people every year since I was four years old. The idea of us all going our own way and finishing High School was sad, but also exciting as it was the start of a new chapter.

My High School prom was great. I was part of prom committee and I think all the planning was worth it. The bottom right photo is one of my favourite photos from prom. It is a photo of me and two of my friends in the car, travelling to prom. I think we all look really happy. I wrote about my prom here.

In the summer I celebrated my sixteenth birthday. I didn't want a big party so I spent my sixteenth birthday at a caravan site by the beach with my family. It was brilliant.

There are plenty of good memories from the summer, and far too many photos to include in this post. After I finished my exams I had a longer summer holiday than past years. It was a good way to relax after a stressful, but fun six months. I spent time with friends and family which was important. Also thanks to the amazing change in British weather I was able to make a few trips to the beach.

In September I started sixth form. Even though there is a lot of work, I can say that I am really enjoying sixth form. I am with old and new friends and studying subjects I enjoy. Although thanks to school work I don't have much of a social life. The bottom left photo is of me and my friends taking part in sixth from Halloween fancy dress. It is the only photo I have of most of my sixth form friends.

The last photo represents NCS (National Citizenship Service) which is a scheme I took part in from October to December. I enjoyed taking part in NCS as it gave me the opportunity to meet new people, try new things and improve my confidence. I met people from different schools and had the chance to take part in various activities, including climbing, quad biking, raft building, rifle shooting and many more. We even had to cope with a power cut for over 24 hours. Also I was able to take part in organising a charity fundraiser at a local football club.

These are just some of my highlights from 2013. I hope that 2014 brings it's own good memories which I can write about next January.

I hope 2013 was a good year for you. Let's make 2014 an even better year.

Lichtenstein A Retrospective

Back in April this year Mum and I went to London. While we there we visited an exhibition at the Tate Modern which had an extensive collection of work by the artist Roy Lichtenstein. I was studying Lichtenstein for my GCSE art project and wanted to see his work.

I can honestly say that it was one of my favourite places I have been to in London. It is a shame that it was only a temporary exhibition. I enjoyed walking around the exhibition, listening to the audio guide and being able to have a proper look at the artwork. Looking at the artwork in front of you is completely different to looking at a photograph of the piece.

You could clearly see every detail of the artwork, from the bright, bold colours to the sharpness of the lines and shapes.  On his famous painting, 'Look Mickey' you could see Lichtenstein's original pencil marks.

Also there was a programme on BBC Four, presented by Alistair Sooke, which looked at the exhibition. It was a fantastic programme. The programme offered an in-depth look at Lichtenstein's work where Alistair Sooke and guests talked about the appeal of Lichtenstein's work, his influence on artists today and the controversy surrounding his work.

This exhibition gave me a better understanding of Lichtenstein and his artwork. It contained work from every decade of his career. Not only did it show some of his most famous work but also showed his less well known artwork. There were pieces in the artwork that I would not have thought was Lichtenstein's style.

I wanted to share this with you because I am really interested in art and this was the best exhibition I have seen. I hadn't started a blog when I went in April so I thought I would share my thoughts now. There is so much more I could say, but I'm sure you wouldn't want to hear me rambling on for ages.

'Look Mickey' 1961

My Summer trip to London

I'm now back from my trip to London. I had a great time and saw a lot while I was there. During my trip I went to the London Cable Cars, Tower Bridge, Tate Britain and Matilda the Musical. Both The London Cable Cars and Tower Bridge museum provided amazing views of London. I was constantly taking photographs on my camera. Another place I  went to was the Tate Britain to look at the artwork there for my school work. It gave me some ideas for work that I need to do during the summer holiday. Also I went to see Matilda the Musical at the theatre. I can't begin to say how much I enjoyed watching Matilda the Musical. A week after watching it and I'm still singing the songs. Definitely a musical I would go see again.

The best part of my time in London was that I got to spend time with my family. I spent the weekend with my Dad and travelled around London with him. Also I was able to see my Grandparents, which was important to me. I don't get the chance to see them very often. So it was great that we were able to sit outside in the sunshine and listen to all of my Nanny's stories. I think my Nanny is an amazing story teller.

Overall I had a good time in London and hope to go back there soon.

I have included photographs I had taken during my trip to London, below.

Packing my suitcase

Today I'm travelling to spend the weekend in London with my Dad. I'm lucky enough to visit London two or three times a year for weekend visits. I like going on holidays and trips but it does involve packing a suitcase. I will usually leave packing my suitcase until the night before I'm travelling. For me packing usually involves making a list of what I need to pack, trying to get everything to fit in the case and in the rush of packing I will usually forget something.

I am sure I will write about my weekend in London when I return. I hope you have a good weekend.

Unfortunately this is not my suitcase. I didn't think you'd want to see my boring suitcase