Monday 12 October 2015

Yesterday I took the kiddos up to the National Gallery on the Mound in the morning.  Simon was working with Pete, so we had some time to kill.  It was the first time I've been on a bus in honestly, I don't know when!  I took the double stroller, whch *just* fit in the stroller designated area.  Fortunately, it was quiet and we were able to have the stroller spot first time each way.  Felicity was really excited about going up to town.  She kept asking, 'where are we going?!'  The double stroller was great for getting on and off the bus as I was able to keep both kids contained, even when there were a lot of other people around.  Felicity didn't like riding in the stroller on and off the bus, but I felt like it was a precedent worth setting!

We got there as soon as the gallery opened at 10am.  There is a magical 2-3 minutes when no other visitors are there and the place feels like it is breathing open.  It gets busy quickly.  I noticed a new dutch painting I'd never seen before in the stillness, at the back of the main floor.  It was a cold winter's day with such a beautiful, luminous sky.  Most of the canvas had undertones of gray and white - not your typically most exciting colors - but it was enchanting.  Felicity liked it because she had been looking for pictures of horses and this painting had both a horse drawn cart and a puppy dog.  I liked it because when you gazed at it, you started to actually feel cold.

Titus woke up just as we were finishing our fairly quick round of the main hall.  I hadn't thought to bring the sling, so I was resigned to not being able to go upstairs to the early medieval art or the impressionist gallery.  Then, a very helpful guide told me there was actually a lift to get up to the impressionist hall.  I was so excited and made the dash down to the back of the main floor again - because, sure enough!  There's still a couch in the room where they have the degas, monet, van goth and cezanne.  So, Felicity was parked in the stroller, I settled down on the couch and we discussed one of the Degas ballerina painting for 15-20 minutes while I fed Titus.  I had thought of taking that stop in the lower cafe area, but soo much better to be in the gallery!  Felicity was drawn to the ballerina pictures, I think.  She kept getting agitated and waving her hands when someone walked up to it, obscuring her view!  I was like, 'it's OK, it's OK - the pictures are for everyone to see.'  I was enjoying seeing the way the painters used opposing vertical lines and colors and light/dark to create movement.  It's an easy enough thing to copy and see when you have it in front of you, but amazing to see the mastery and creativity to bring it all together so subtly so that it's hardly noticeable, entrenched in the picture.  Your eyes are sucked in a manipulated by it before you realize that it's happening.  For example, if you analyzed it,  the ballerinas we were watching yesterday - half the canvas was practically empty!  And yet, even Felicity (who is 3) could hardly keep her eyes off of it.

The Gallery in Edinburgh is quite small, comparatively speaking.  I think there are more pictures in the Portrait Gallery even.  Yet, it's wonderful to have time to invest in the pictures and not have to rush.  The other picture that grabbed Felicity's attention was the Benjamin West, wall-sized, larger than life portrayal of Alexander III's rescue 'from the fury of the stag.'  He's painted the 'reindeer' (as Felicity called him) with an expression of sorrow, almost vulnerability, so it's easy to be on the 'side' of the 'reindeer' rather than the men and dogs about it kill it.  Felicity wanted to know what it was all about, so I told her that the stag was going to kill the king and the other men were trying to save him, but I don't think she believed me.  Somehow, I feel that West wanted you to sympathize with the deer.

It was a beautiful clear day and just gorgeous 'sweater-weather',  I could hardly believe when we arrived that Felicity remembered being in the square last Christmas.  She kept talking about the 'ponies' and 'the dragons' (two rides that we rode/saw last year at the market.)  There is nothing set up there now, but she knew exactly where things had been last year and kept pointing and talking about it.  What a memory - she'd only been 2yo then!  There were squirrels down in the gardens and I had to tell her repeatedly not to run down the very steep slope in her slippery shoes after them.  She dressed herself yesterday in a white sundress (I added leggings and a sweater!) and I could just imagine her falling and making a sticky, muddy, mess all over her nice clothes.

On the bus on the way home, I asked her what we could tell daddy that we'd seen.  I expected her to say, 'ballerinas!' or at least 'reindeer'.  'What did we see?'  'Squirrels!!'  

Figures.  Nevermind the priceless works of art (Rembrant, Monet, Titian....)  Life is too exciting.

Yey!  We made it!

Felicity figuring out that we'd been here before.  'The dragons in the garden?'

I didn't take any pictures in the gallery, not knowing what the policy on photography was.  This is on the way home.  Probably pointing out the squirrels.

Chilling baby man.  Colors changing in the trees.

This is on my doorstep!  Who wants to come visit?  (and we'll get out of the house next time, I promise, Mom!)