Friends and Art

This week I met up with my college friends at the Harley Gallery in Welbeck. It is nearly 50 years since we first met and we still get on as well as we did all those years ago. The range of subjects extends from family matters, holiday experiences, my dating experiences, through to the state of politics in the world (Trump, May, Corbyn and Brexit) and the current books on respective bedside tables.

The cafe across the courtyard from the gallery is superb, not necessarily because of the food, but because of the attentive manager. He treats every customer as an old friend and you always feel very welcome. We were lucky with really sunny weather so we sat outside for an hour drinking and talking before eventually ordering lunch. Once satiated we went for a walk around Creswell Crags and on our return did a tour of the gallery.

The woven wicker work was superb and it had this feeling of cocooning something. I wanted to slip inside and be surrounded by it. If I thought it would survive outside I’d consider purchasing one to place under the trees. I didn’t enquire about the cost so I wasn’t that sure.

I was impressed by the work of Jill Ray. She did have some oil paintings but the work I really liked were photographs that she had developed using Photoshop. In the blurb she says she can “knock off” an oil painting in a day but her Photoshop work can take several weeks. I will certainly be ordering something from her in the not too distant future.

And I finished the visit by purchasing some pansies and violas from the garden centre next door to the gallery. I bought something similar from them a year ago and was told at the time they would last until December – they are still flowering.  The old ones were looking a little tired so I’ve moved them into the back bed and replaced them with these.

A great day was completed by a drive home in the MX5 with the roof down.