Royal Academy of Arts

The winner of the new alternative olympic sport of short fencing wears his winner's flower garland with pride! Ok this is actually Sir Joshua Reynolds - don't know why he's acquired a flower garland.

I had lovely day at the Royal Academy of Arts in London with my friend L, visiting two exhibitions.   

The Summer Exhibition was........interesting. I lost count of how many times my friend and I said that an artwork was either 'interesting' or 'clever'. I really enjoyed looking round, but I have to say there were only about a half dozen pieces that I would like in my home!!!

Much more to my taste was the David Hockney Exhibition - 82 Portraits and 1 Still Life. These were all painted since 2013, all have the same dimensions, all feature the subject seated on the same chair and each was painted in acrylic on canvas over a three day period . So not surprisingly, the artist sees them as a single body of work. You view them in chronological order, so can see how his style / composition changes slightly. I particularly liked the painting of Barry Humphries https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/david-hockney-portraits