Toledo is a city about an hour south of Madrid. It has a wonderful cultural heritage and was declared a UNESCO site in 1986 for its extensive array of monuments. We visited the city and were rewarded with trips to its magnificent cathedral and El Greco’s fourteenth century house. Todays post – my first in a…
Category: Architecture
Jenny Holzer – September Painting of the Month
Jenny Holzer, born in New York in 1950, is a challenging artist who uses words as her medium. We have seen her work in the Guggenheim in Bilbao, and more recently at MACA, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Alicante. Hence my second painting of the month for September. inflammatory Essays, typical of Holzer’s public…
The Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid
The Golden Triangle in Madrid, a UNESCO World Heritage site, comprises the Prado, and the nearby Thyssen-Bornemisza – Bornemisza Museum, and the Museo Reina Sofia, containing Picasso’s Guernica. We spent most of our visit in the Prado, which has, reputably, the finest collection of European art in the world. It is a huge collection which…
Architecture, Turner & Salisbury Cathedral
Daniel, my friend’s son, recently graduated with a degree in Architecture at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. I chatted with him last week about the experience and the conversation reminded me just how complex architecture can be and how I admire those who master the profession. I always stand in awe when I look…
Stanley Spencer and The Sandham Memorial Chapel
The Oratory of All Souls, Sandham Memorial Chapel, to give the building its full title reflects the spirit of our great twentieth century painter, Sir Stanley Spencer. It is unique in Britain, being a chapel whose interior walls are completely covered in paintings. Undoubted inspired by the Arena Chapel, in Padua, which was frescoed by…