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The Millais exhibition was excellent, but we found a lot of his highly detailed, pin-sharp early paintings a little overwhelming. A room full of paintings each of which you can spend hours looking at can be very tiring. There was what I found to be a less interesting section towards the end, of society portraits and fancy pictures of curly-headed tots in fancy dress (all beautifully painted), which we enlivened by concentrating on the frames. The frame Mona did in the summer surrounds a rather blah portrait of some plutocrat's wife in a cod 18th century dress (what looked like real period Spitalfields silk), with a bustle, and had some interesting toning over the gilding. It picked up at the end, with a room of his Scottish landscapes, including my favourite, Dew-Drenched Furze, although this had been hung rather low and lit badly, losing the sparkling effect I first saw in it. At their best, these landscapes, of bleak, not very pretty Scottish country, often in the late evening, and usually in autumn or winter, have a wonderful chill calm that is amazingly peaceful. Look at "Christmas Eve" or "Lingering Autumn" here. Naturally, in accordance with Alex's Law of Exhibitions, they don't have any reproductions of "Dew-Drenched Furze", on the interweb or in the gallery shop, so that I had to buy a copy of the catalogue, with the feeble excuse that I can give it to my nephew as a Christmas present.
Mona is full of schemes for a business selling small pieces of painted/reproduction furniture and restoring antiques. I've checked out some businesses selling blank furniture, and the three of us, Mona, Lauren and I, are hoping to get some stock together and start selling about this time next year. I'm not sure how realistic this is, but it sounds fun, and even if I do get a paid job in a museum I will need some extra income, since the money is so dreadful. At the very least, it might give me some impetus to actually start working on the blank pieces I've accumulated over the last few years.
The real way to make a fortune, I'm thinking, would be to set up a decent, reasonably priced cafe within easy reach of Tate Britain. There is nothing for miles, and the gallery cafe is overpriced and oppressive.
Mona is full of schemes for a business selling small pieces of painted/reproduction furniture and restoring antiques. I've checked out some businesses selling blank furniture, and the three of us, Mona, Lauren and I, are hoping to get some stock together and start selling about this time next year. I'm not sure how realistic this is, but it sounds fun, and even if I do get a paid job in a museum I will need some extra income, since the money is so dreadful. At the very least, it might give me some impetus to actually start working on the blank pieces I've accumulated over the last few years.
The real way to make a fortune, I'm thinking, would be to set up a decent, reasonably priced cafe within easy reach of Tate Britain. There is nothing for miles, and the gallery cafe is overpriced and oppressive.