Tag: Glasgow

A familiar gallery and paintings: some new art and ideas

On By Carol HenshawIn Art & Architecture, Music, Scotland1 Comment

I have known Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum since childhood. My parents used to take us there on wet winter Sundays. Not too far away was the relatively new Habitat store, situated on a street as steep as those in San Francisco and also open on Sundays. I was introduced to good design at an early age. It was not far from our hotel and we arrived just before it opened so enjoyed a coffee from the Grill in the car park. Inside was the familiar wonderful ceiling:

Kelvingrove 1 (1 of 1)

and an interesting installation based on white human heads with various facial expressions, suspended from the roof and illuminated with different coloured lights in sequence. When I took this shot, they were blue.

Kelvingrove 2 (1 of 1)

We wandered round the galleries devoted to the Glasgow Boys, The Scottish Colourists and Charles Rennie Mackintosh. This painting,’Moonrise’ by Macaulay Stevenson who was one of the Glasgow Boys, reminded me that I have been thinking of a painting based on our silver birches (we have 21 in the garden) for a while and need to decide what I am going to do. Another painting of an Edinburgh tenement by JD Fergusson prompted the thought that a painting of the Edinburgh tenement that we started our married life in and one of each of our homes since, might be a project.

Moonrise Macaulay Stevenson (1 of 1)

Afterwards, I had hoped to ferret in the Oxfam bookshop in Byres Road but it was closed for refurbishment. Happily, the music shop was open and we expanded our collection further. All too soon it was time to head home after a coffee stop with a friend in South Lanarkshire and join everyone else heading south. The traffic jams and diversions were enlivened nearer home with spotting interesting cars coming in the opposite direction. They had been at CarFest North and were now heading home. We might be heading there next year as James and my friend will love the cars and we will all enjoy the music.

Fashion bargains, books and a fabulous sunset in Glasgow

On By Carol HenshawIn Books, bookshops and libraries, ScotlandLeave a comment

Saturday morning saw us driving along the M8 towards Glasgow. We had not been to the city for some time so a revisit was long overdue. The motorway corridor seems to have become one long chain of business parks and new housing including communities that we have never heard of. In the city, we had a few attempts at finding our hotel before being successful. The motorway junction was not numbered so we overshot it, the road we were to have left on had changed its number and there was a considerable discrepancy between what Google Maps said we could do and what was on the ground. We are now well acquainted with the one-way system in this part of Glasgow. After leaving our bags at the hotel, it was time to walk into the city centre and get some shopping done. There was the usual assortment of buskers and hellfire and damnation preachers on Argyle Street and shoppers were streaming out of the stations. A coffee stop in Waterstones added to the book collection – Robert McFarlane’s ‘Landmarks’ and Jen Campbell’s ‘The Bookshop Book’ for me and a North Island of New Zealand Guidebook for James (he wants to follow the British and Irish Lions Rugby Tour there in 2017). Unfortunately this will be during their winter when most of the fantastic hiking trails there are closed. My fashion bargain was a Missoni tunic in TK Maxx. I have always admired their colourful knits in Liberty but they are usually out of my price range so this was a great find at a huge discount. My signature look is rapidly becoming tunic plus leggings, trousers or jeans. We had a late lunch at an Italian restaurant and then, as it was raining again, ensconced ourselves in our 15th floor room to relax and read. It has a great view over the west of the city, ideal for sunset photography.

Glasgow sunset 1 (1 of 1)Glasgow sunset 2 (1 of 1)