Scenes From Within The Museum
Details – Acrylics on 60 x 40 x 0.8cms Board
Price – £350
Description
This was an idea from a visit to the Tate Modern. The building and its exhibits were extraordinary. As I toured through the gallery I caught sight of the beautiful St Pauls Cathedral across the Thames along with the Millennium Bridge and South Bank thronging with people. It struck me how the panes segregated the view into distinct scenes that together made a whole scene of London. I decided it was worth a photograph. The view provided that day was vivid and sort of unexpected. In a small way, it was a bit like Apollo’s astronauts catching sight of our beautiful blue orb behind them.
The thought of painting this came much later. It was a bit frustrating to complete mainly because of the reference quality. I intended to add a plain black frame to represent the window itself rather than paint it and/or the wall reveals. Meanwhile I have given it a virtual frame to complete the sense of looking out. Like all my paintings, I’m not happy I achieved all that I set out to with it but then, do we ever really? I will let it rest in the corner a while for now.
Note:- The title is a play on the title of a novel – Behind The Scenes At The Museum – by Kate Atkinson – highly recommended!
Recently I saw a truly stunning version of this view in the BBC’s “Fleabag” where mother-law-law is hosting her sexibition (you need to see it) and I’m sure it must have been filmed from high up in the Tate Modern. What a venue!
I could have painted this as a triptych but I decided to emphasise the physical sense of the window even though In reality the window consisted of more panes. Was I right to do so or what do you think?
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