At the Art Gallery : Paintings, Pop Art and Piano

When a promotional email from the AGO, announcing an upcoming exhibit by Danish painter Vilhelm Hammershoi, hit my inbox last month, I knew his paintings were something I very much wanted to see in person. While I'd never heard of this Copenhagen based artist, who lived between the years 1864 to 1916 -- sadly dying of cancer at only 52 -- the glimpses of his work included on their site confirmed that his paintings were a must-see for me. So, when my friend Meghan invited me to join her at the gallery members' preview of the show, I was happy to accept.To familiarize myself with what I was about to see, I watched this hour-long BBC Documentary program called The Mystery of Hammershoi with Michael Palin, who had a so-called obsession with this artist (described here).In the program, Palin went about discovering all that he could about this elusive artist. The search was a somewhat challenging one, in that very little is known about the man, who seemed to have little desire to reveal anything about himself, other than what one could glean by looking at his paintings. He never kept a journal and burned all his personal letters and papers before he died.(In addition to filling me in on the work of Hammershoi, with looks at the very rooms and places depicted in his paintings, the documentary left me with a great desire to visit Copenhagen. It really looks like a beautiful and interesting city.)The repeated subject matter of the artist's work, which include images of his wife Ida, oftentimes seen from the back, and the interiors of the two homes he lived in as an adult, (which happened to be located directly across the street from one another), seem to indicate he was a shy introvert who didn't venture far from home. However he did, in fact, travel fair distances within Europe, and is said to have particularly liked London for its foggy weather and the smoggy atmosphere, that would have been the result of the extensive burning of coal for heat at the time.

Birthday Celebrations – Part Two

In my previous post (here) I wrote about going out for drinks on Saturday night, to mark my birthday which fell in the middle of the week. So, this post is about what we did on the actual day.

I awoke to the declaration from Nick that today was the most important day of the whole year. He's a very loving person and I feel blessed that he still feels this way after so many years of marriage.

I kind of guessed what my gift from him would be this year, since I had told him exactly what I'd like, including a link as to where to get it. So, seeing the long striped cushion for our outside bench, leaning against the wall with a bow stuck on it, wasn't much of a surprise. (It's not much to look at on its own so I'll show it to you in action in an upcoming post, once we get our outdoor patio space all set up. If you're curious, it is this one from Home Depot.

Also, sitting on the table was a small craft-paper shopping bag with some black tissue paper sticking out of the top.

Birthday Celebrations – Part One

It was my birthday mid-week just past, so we began celebrating on the preceding Saturday evening, with cupcakes and champagne with Andrea at our place. Of course, Nick and boy-cat Eddie were there too!

A Date With Julie and James in the Oldest Brick House in the City

In my last post, after introducing you to my friend Julie's cute baby James, I mentioned that the three of us were set to go out together the following afternoon. This post is about what we did.

I was treated to a great afternoon, that included lunch inside a building that I've always wanted to see the inside of -- The Grange.

A Baby Boy and the Blanket I Made for Him

You may recall that my friend Julie was pregnant in the fall. Here's a post with her, her husband Guy and their precious "bump" at the art gallery, and here's one when she only had a few weeks left before welcoming their son.

Well, James is here now, and he's wonderful. I've had the pleasure of spending quite a lot of one-on-one time with this wee fellow so far, as I have babysat him at our place three times since he was born. Not having had much opportunity to be with young babies very often in my life, these have certainly been memorable and treasured hours.

Such a nice experience occurred the fourth time we met, when he was merely 13 weeks old, while his mother was dropping him off. They'd just arrived and following the flurry of getting him out of his carrier and removing his cold-weather outerwear, he was sitting on his mom's lap, while she was having a little chat with Nick. Unbeknownst to the two of them, James and I made eye contact and I was gifted with the most charming series of baby smiles ever. My heart might have melted on the spot. I know everyone thinks "their" baby is the cutest, and I am joining those ranks.

Here are some pictures I took of him when he was 11 weeks old, to back-up my opinion ...