Looking good for 2012

New Year's day and I've still kept my resolutions.

I got up early and managed to make it to the New Year's day Parade. It's been years so it was a nice reminder. As usual the event was dominated by American teenage highschoolers. There were cheerleaders, tumblers, acrobats, floats and marching bands. Of course because this is England the floats are relatively small. Nothing to compare to the floats of gargantuan proportions of our American cousins.

The one thing I found disappointing is that though this is England, the British representatives in the parade were a poor showing. They were nowhere as sharply dressed, or enthusiastic as the Americans. The difference in American and British culture stood out sharply and it was a pity. We looked like the poorer cousins. I suppose we Brits no our strong points. We great at thinking and working out the finer details, but what the Americans excel at is he old razzle dazzle. All show no substance.

After the show I went to the portrait gallery and wandered around for an hour or two. Great portraiture pieces spanning the last three centuries from the 18th to 21st centuries. It's interesting to see how the subjuect changes over time from images of the royal and ariscocratic models to our modern day celebrities. I think I was more inteested in the art as an artictic endevour rather than the sudjects. I like going up close to see if i could see the brush strokes and how the paints themslves are mixed on the canvas. Funny how when near to the canvas or board you see sploshes of paint mixing, swirling, and frozen in mid movement and from a distance this crash of colour produces something remarkably beautiful.

I've been reinspired to take up my brush and dabble again or perhaps look for an art course to register on and learn the finer details of paiting.  Click on my paint on the left of the screen to see my dabbles on Flickr.

Be good. Stay positive.