Four members of CCC visited the Sainsbury Centre for Arts at Norwich UEA yesterday to view the Exhibition of Bill Brandt and Henry Moore's work. A very interesting exhibition showing the friendship and mutual inspiration of the two artists through the war years and beyond. The exhibition and the surrounding are very monochromatic so I spent a little time at the end injecting colour into the surrounding with multiple exposure and then continued this in the afternoon around the campus.

A Photowalk Round Cambridge

 We went into Cambridge yesterday to complete the Phototrail that Mark had set. Here are some images taken during the morning that aren't included in the set of 15 locations. The City has come out in a rash of Cows. Just three here but there are 90 cows located round Cambridge and will be there to visit until 4th September.

 

Visit to Petworth House, National Trust

 As yesterday was rain fron dawn to dusk, we decided a visit to Petworth House was the best option. A remarkable collection of artwork and treasures including the world's oldest globe from 1598 when Sir Walter Raleigh collaborated in its design. The carved room with the portrait of Henry VIIIth by Holbein studio and wood carvings by Gibbons is remarkable in its state of preservation.

Petworth House was owned during the Middle Ages by the Percy family, Earls of Northumberland. In 1682 the 10th Earl’s only child, Elizabeth, married Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset; her inherited wealth allowed the couple to set about remodelling the house in a French baroque style.  Some of the foremost craftsmen of the day decorated the house, including the wood-carver Grinling Gibbons and the plasterer Edward Goudge.  The park, with its serpentine lake, is the work of ‘Capability’ Brown and is arguably his finest remaining landscape. It houses one of the greatest picture collections in the Trust - includes works by Titian, Bosch, Claude, Ruisdael, Teniers, Van Dyck, Lely, Kneller, Reynolds, Gainsborough, Blake - and a magnificent collection of landscapes by Turner (a friend of the 3rd Earl of Egremont, whose collection of early 19th century British paintings is displayed in the North Gallery). 

A Sculptor's Garden

John McGill is exhibiting his work in his garden in Toft as part of Open Studios for all the weekends in July. A wonderful treasure trove of bronze, stone and wood sculptures set in a wild garden where pigs fly and trees have ears. Enfolding Seasons (Book sculpture) and the Rooted Hand are my favourites. Well worth a visit 

Edinburgh 9. National Galleries

I completed my last day  doing the sights in Edinburgh with a visit to the 
Royal Scottish Academy Building and the National Gallery of Scotland - interesting buildings and interiors plus some great art.

Details from the Cambridge Mosque

I took fewer pictures than  I might have done on Wednesday if I hadn't got intrigued by geometric art, much of it, as with other features of the mosque, based on 4. Sometimes this was 'simple' as with the third and fourth images with two squares, one inverted to form a star. The door decoration was more complex with an 8-star in the first and a 12-star in the second, each multiples of 4. These complex geometric designs create the impression of unending repetition, demonstrating that, in the small, you can find the infinite, reminding Muslims that Allah is infinite. Circles have no end and so are also present. Calligraphy is a major art form in Islam and the Mosque walls in many places, including the exterior, are decorated with calligraphy portrayed with bricks.

This ancient use of geometry and repeating patterns as the language of the universe is reflected in scientific studies on the crystalline structure of matter.