A day in London before returning home. Lunch with my American friends living here, at a pub in Notting Hill near their home. A departure from all the pasta I've been consuming: English asparagus (just in season) with goat cheese, and roasted hake over garlic-mashed potatoes with baked tomatoes and spinach--lovely. A visit to the Tate Britian museum, which was showing the life work of the modernist painter Prunella Clough. I really like her work; the earlier works are quasi-abstract paintings of workmen and work scenes; then they become increasingly abstract and urban inspired. (PHOTO above, "Electrical Landscape") For review of the show, and a commentary on British women painters generally, see LINK, left. I also loved the work of Arthur Wallis (1855-1942), described as a "seaman, ice-cream seller and rag-and-bone man" before becoming a painter late in life. His paintings convey his sense of the sea as he remembered it, though they not at all nostalgic. (PHOTO below)
My friends had a small dinner party; the other guests were two women from the neighborhood who jointly own a shop in London (actually, three branches). They specialize in home decor and furnishings; all bought directly from artisans and companies abroad (Europe, India, etc). See their website, BRISSI, left. Dinner was a home-cooked Indian meal, with lamb kebabs eaten with lettuce leaves (the lamb marinated overnight) and served with Bollinger; chicken sauteed in Indian spices; and rice. I cannot do it justice because I do not understand the spicing system. (My next project??) Dessert: vanilla clotted-cream ice cream with See's peanut brittle. Dare I say: it rivals gelato!
More immediately--to the airport, home, and diet!
No comments:
Post a Comment