Thursday, October 19, 2006
Thurs 12/10 There are so many museums and galleries in Paris you just have to choose a few you really want to see...
An absolute highlight for me...Musee D' Orsay...I felt immediately at home. The art was real and I didn't have to look at a guide book, tag or sign all day. Heaven for my eyes. I played with Degas, Gauguin, Matisse, Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, and others...and I knew who I was looking at as I entered each gallery. It's a funny feeling when something is auto-pilot when for days I've been concentrating as I discover everything. Here I didn't need to think or remember or concentrate I just walked into a room and thought- 'hello Monet, so pleased to see you in the flesh'. The colours, the form, the composition, the feeling, emotion and subject...not a religious subject in sight, either. And they painted where I had been and was going next. Really, really peaceful, contemplative day. And the venue - an old massive railway station was perfect for light and space.
Gallery number 2 was Musee Rodin. More challenging as I didn't know his work well. Only the famous ones. But I stood below 'The Thinker' and he really is thinking...Rodin's understanding of human form, particularly feet and hands, I found inspiring. And to not just sculpt but then cast in Bronze. What a master craftsman!...The Bergers of Callais, The Gates of Hell, and all the others. Sometimes it would be good to be visually impaired - then you are allowed to touch the forms and explore them tactiley. These works ached to be touched.
And you know what?....I had to book a bed in Avignon for tomorrow night and I couldn't...and I didn't care!...oh my God...have I come a long way or what?...see what happens when I get there, sure to be something...But...I successfully booked my fast train to Avignon and back to London including Eurostar all by myself in French!! Well with help from the nice man at the train station who muddled along with his little English too.
Had a farewell dinner with my roomies tonight. Pretty average fare but so nice to actually be sitting on the pavement cafe eating and drinking and talking and not being the watcher from outside. Felt very 'part' of the scene. Even though we are daggy backpackers....Our class is just hidden behind our practical coverings.
An absolute highlight for me...Musee D' Orsay...I felt immediately at home. The art was real and I didn't have to look at a guide book, tag or sign all day. Heaven for my eyes. I played with Degas, Gauguin, Matisse, Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, and others...and I knew who I was looking at as I entered each gallery. It's a funny feeling when something is auto-pilot when for days I've been concentrating as I discover everything. Here I didn't need to think or remember or concentrate I just walked into a room and thought- 'hello Monet, so pleased to see you in the flesh'. The colours, the form, the composition, the feeling, emotion and subject...not a religious subject in sight, either. And they painted where I had been and was going next. Really, really peaceful, contemplative day. And the venue - an old massive railway station was perfect for light and space.
Gallery number 2 was Musee Rodin. More challenging as I didn't know his work well. Only the famous ones. But I stood below 'The Thinker' and he really is thinking...Rodin's understanding of human form, particularly feet and hands, I found inspiring. And to not just sculpt but then cast in Bronze. What a master craftsman!...The Bergers of Callais, The Gates of Hell, and all the others. Sometimes it would be good to be visually impaired - then you are allowed to touch the forms and explore them tactiley. These works ached to be touched.
And you know what?....I had to book a bed in Avignon for tomorrow night and I couldn't...and I didn't care!...oh my God...have I come a long way or what?...see what happens when I get there, sure to be something...But...I successfully booked my fast train to Avignon and back to London including Eurostar all by myself in French!! Well with help from the nice man at the train station who muddled along with his little English too.
Had a farewell dinner with my roomies tonight. Pretty average fare but so nice to actually be sitting on the pavement cafe eating and drinking and talking and not being the watcher from outside. Felt very 'part' of the scene. Even though we are daggy backpackers....Our class is just hidden behind our practical coverings.
# posted by The Essence of Good Taste @ 5:23 AM 
