Catch-Up: Masterpieces from Paris

So I haven't actually written about our brief foray to Canberra during January to see the Masterpieces from Paris exhibition at the National Art Gallery. I went with my siblings (including an 'honorary sibling ^_^) in a small car. It was a little cramped even though none of us are particularly large people.

Having not been to our nation's capital city since I was about three years old and therefore with no memory of the visit, I was interested to know why people who come to Sydney will often decide to go there for a day trip. I am still slightly puzzled over that. Personally I find all the cultural attractions very interesting, but I can readily see why they would not be to some people's tastes.

The first afternoon, we went to the War Memorial, a place where I could easily spend more time than one afternoon. As it was, I spent almost the entire time there checking out the temporary exhibition "Of Love and War" which looked at the way that the wars over Australian history have impacted on the lives of the people. Some of it was sad, some really touching, with lots of interesting paraphernalia to inspect.

Well, we repaired to our accommodation afterwards. Then had a really tasty dinner at the nearby Greek restaurant that did some lovely seafood. Later that evening we took advantage of the sauna in the hotel, which was pretty fun, but HOT!

The following day we went early to the art exhibition, but it seemed as though everyone else had the same idea because there were queues and when we exited there were none...

As to the exhibiton itself: although I was in Paris last year we didn't have the time to go to the Musée D'Orsay and admittedly at that point last year I was totally galleried out. So it was really nice to have the opportunity to see some of what I had missed. Post-Impressionist art is interesting in its own way and as always, it always amazes me to see the original works after only having seen them printed in books, etc. For example, I had always been mystified over the fuss made over Van Gogh's 'Starry Night' as it is pretty ordinary in prints. The original however was gorgeous. The colours are brighter, the paint glistens in the lights of the gallery and the brush strokes and dimension create an added depth no print can replicate.

There were many other well-known artists of that period of modern art there, too numerous for me to name, though there were all of six rooms in the entire exhibition. I wasn't disappointed in the experience.

We lunched afterwards at a Moroccan place, before deciding that nice as Canberra is sometimes, the circular roads can be downright confusing and stress-inducing and it was time to head back home.

Incidentally, I was very interested in Lake George just outside of Canberra, as I have read a lot about it in reports about its sedimentary history...probably not so exciting for other people though. -_-'