Culchur Vulchur

Things to not like about today –

Sleet on the way in – neither Snow nor not Snow. No use to anyone!
Having to listen to a long discussion about Sarah Kennedy in the site kitchen.

Things to like about today –

Possibility of real snow later – though hopefully after I get home.
The thought that I will probably never get to meet Sarah Kennedy.

Half-term seems to have been used as an excuse to visit some arty-type places and we have been no exception – nice new look by the way Ed. Apparently our gallery of choice was on TV last week though I cannot find any reference to it but my dad saw it. ‘Twas the Lady Lever Art Gallery in Port Sunlight which you may think has lots of soap adverts. You would be right but most of it is devoted to less commercial things such as one of the finest collections of Pre-Raphaelite paintings in the country and a lot of Pre-Raph drawings which are the current subject of a display. Daughter was happy with the quiz-book style sheets displaying details from various pictures which had to be located and noted. Son was just quiet and inscrutable. Not sure if that is in the armoury of the art critic but he didn’t shout so we were happy. The walls of the main room are chock full of huge paintings including one of my favourite Pre-Raphs – The Scapegoat – I am not sure why I like it so much – a manky old goat in the middle of a very blasted landscape does not sound particularly arty but it is, so there!

There is a strange corner of the main hall with two paintings which seem to have wormholes from the gallery to the places they depict. The first is 'The shortening winter's day is near a close’ by Joseph Farquharson. The copy at the link does not convey this but I felt like putting gloves on. The other one does not seem to be on the LL website; I think it was called A Breezy Day and was simply a beautifully-painted, deep-blue sea with a few yachts in the middle distance. The wind came out of the frame and the sea moved just like the picture of The Dawn Treader that Lucy, Edmund and Eustace (The abominable little prig) fell into. The fact that it is missing from the website makes me wonder if I didn’t dream it.

And one final topical drawing to be found here.

Day was not spoiled by the young man attempting to eat some berries that helpfully dangled into his reach as we walked along the side of the gallery.