February 2026 – A Few Quirkes

Mum and Dad

A trip to say hello, tidy up and give some flowers

😊

Climate Change

An afternoon at Kew by the Thames. Sunny and warm. Apparently 18C today. Worrying as it is not the end of February yet. Hmmmm.

Turner v Constable

On Friday I used the membership card to see the works of two well known artists of whom I know not very much.

An enjoyable trip in the company of Mark H. with pub lunch after with the Winter Olympic Games running on the tv in the background.

So before seeing the exhibition I had no idea that these two artists were contemporaries and rivals. Their styles and trajectory of success were quite different.

I appreciate Constable’s work particularly when he moved onto large canvases. This was when he gained more success and obtained membership of the Royal Society-I think.

The details in these large paintings is remarkable.

Turner’s works are different use of light. Some images struck me, more so his practice pieces! Later he incorporated the effect industrialisation on landscape and gave a greater reality to the scenes. Something Constable was slower to do.

The comparison of views of the new Waterloo bridge-one of celebrations of the opening with ships and flags and the other of a bridge difficult to see in the smog.

Overall nice time and good experience.

Reading

Another Christmas book and present completed.

A good read. A French author. I have read one of her of books before.

Currently a trendy book and style it seems. It is a style of autobiography with the historical events presented along with the personal impacts and relevance.

Written as we or she rather than as the I subject. An interesting comment on consumerism and the negative impact of technology. She seems angry at times and maybe disappointed with the lack of social reaction to change. The flattening of action to social change- not like her generation of May ‘68.