London Walk

Our Thursday outing in London (galleries, Dr. Johnson's house, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese) required a lot of walking, but fortunately we'd planned the day so that everything was within a reasonable distance.

The walk gave us a chance to see some street sights that we would miss in the Underground.

On the walk from the Saatchi Gallery to the National Portrait Gallery we passed Buckingham Palace. It's going to be long time before anyone here forgets Queen Victoria (above).

We walked for a while down Fleet Street, a historic area for newspapers and publishers. Love the mosaic message on the side of this building.

Kids at Trafalgar Square, where the National Gallery is located (and the National Portrait Gallery).

No idea what this building is, but I'm impressed, even if it is one of the smaller ancient buildings we've passed.

Not many adobe buildings here. Stone seems more popular. Probably a good idea.

Intriguing poster, but we didn't have time to see the exhibit at The National Gallery. There's way too much to see here.

Looks kinda windy in that store. 

More photos in the next article, London Walk 2.

Saatchi Gallery

Most of yesterday's plans ended up on the "done" list, but not all. When we arrived at the National Portrait Gallery for the Lucian Freud painting exhibit, around 3:00 pm, we discovered they were selling tickets for a 5:00 entrance time. Because we had plans to go to Samuel Johnson's house at 3:30, then meet friend Lynn at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese at 5:30, we had to postpone the Freud visit. But we've already bought online tickets for 10:30 am on January 20th.

After spending time today going through yesterday's photos, I've divided them into several different articles: Saatchi Gallery, London Walk, Samuel Johnson's House, and Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese.

The Saatchi Gallery is on the cutting edge of modern art. Also the cutting edge of crappy art, but I'm not referring to the piece here, which is one of the more beautiful pieces currently being exhibited.

An unidentified woman is mesmerized by the greatness of the art, or maybe just by the size of it. Even though I sound cynical, I actually like this piece. Just needs to be a tiny bit larger.

This exhibit is part of their permanent collection. A room half full of oil. In the museum's previous location, the room's windows were lower and the oil covered the bottom half of the windows. I guess they spilled too much oil when they moved to their new location.

This looks like I'm standing in front of a painting, but Robin just happened to take my picture as I was having a brilliant idea.

A bored man or art? At the Saatchi it's difficult to know.

High praise to Zhivago for art-name honesty.  

What Michelangelo's nightmares must have been like.

Plumbing project or art? Art.

This is why I never work this large.

Some paintings just don't work well in a small room.

Could be just a teeny bit larger. Otherwise, very nice.

When possible, put larger and smaller paintings in the same room.

Yes, lady, it's weird.

One of the Saatchi exhibits was a collection of covers and photos from the past 50 years of The Sunday Times Magazine. Lots of stunning photos in large format, backlit frames. Above, Boy George.  

Powerful photos.

One of the featured photos is a bingo game in Roswell, New Mexico. I've been there and this is just an ordinary everyday Roswell scene. Come on guys, just use the special stuff.

Another piece of art I like. 

Who knew? Some of the best artists at the Saatchi are working in the gallery cafe. Artsy and tasty.