Saturday 19th October - Escape to another place

Having synchronised our diaries last night, we discovered that neither of us had anything scheduled for today.

That is, assuming we paid no notice to the laundry, the shopping list, the state of the floors in this house, the piles of filing, the dining room table, the emptiness of the bread bin and cake tin blah blah blah.

So, after a breakfast of real coffee and real toast with some of the marmalade we brought back from our stay in Dover Castle back in May, we legged it...

...as far as the front doorstep.....where we were delayed by sight of a vicious attack on my defenceless violas....

...having stopped and counter-attacked with extreme prejudice, we legged it again, as far as the car, whereupon we got in and drove and drove and drove until we got to Chichester.

I have been wanting to visit Pallant House Gallery since - since - since a long time ago, when we went round the gallery on a wet and grey day like today - just the two of us - and it was when they were planning and raising money to build the extension. I vividly remember the little model of a gallery of modern art, with miniature works by Real Artists like Patrick Caulfield and Andrew Gormley and others (this pictute below is possibly life size!)



pipe on a table
Patrick Caulfield
http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/pipe-on-a-table-70677

So we went in, and saw;
a strange and intriguing exhibition of pictures and poems called knitting-time by Colin Hambrook (www.knitting-time.com), you can see his pictures at the gallery on his site, and there are some poems here and there.

and an exhibition of prints by Erik Ravilious. The more I see of his work, the more I like it - atmospheric war pictures, and flowing wood cuts full of character and a strange dreaminess.

this print, the front cover of a book of his prints, was in the exhibition 

another front cover of a book with lots of his little black-and-white woodcuts

followed by a jolly good lunch at the restaurant, called Field and Fork.



ultra cool décor... beats the old bendy gerbera stuck into a vase.

The bad news is that it is moving to the Chichester Theatre next week so we were lucky we went today. He had Venison Pudding with red cabbage and carrot and jus and little round potatoes, and I had a whole roast plaice with lobster butter and saffron potatoes and spinach, and then He had chocolate and pistachio strudel with honey something and I had a trio of desserts which turned out to be a lime and basil pannacotta with passion fruit, a mango and pistachio tart, and a white chocolate mousse with raspberries and a short bread biscuit. I mention the food, because next week it will be someone else serving baked potatoes and sandwiches. You have been warned.

The museum is now in two halves, with no real, or false, attempt to amalgamate them. In the old house, built early in 1700 and something, is the most beautiful antique furniture and a selection of 20th century art - a couple of John Nash pictures, and a "typical" Lowry were two of my highlights, also Plums on a Dish by Henry Lamb

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/plums-on-a-dish-70493

the way he caught the bloom on the plums was amazing. There was also an exhibition of painting y the Nicholson family - more a dynasty. John Craxton was not a name I knew before, but I do now. Lovely. lovely.

In the modern half of the gallery we found the little model gallery, as I remembered it, and also a lot of maquettes for the giant sculptures in the Cass Foundation sculpture park. And other paintings, large and small. Mostly Large.

We were pretty much "looked" out by now - so we ambled back through the streets - it had stopped raining, the sun had come out, and it was getting warm and brightly Autumnal - and made our way back home.

It's dark now. Suppertime. I'm still full of plaice and lobster and the rest. A Light Meal, I think.