Getting a bit of Kulcha!

I dragged Nathan off to the Nation Gallery of Australia today to experience a bit of culture! Because I felt he could extend himself just a little bit beyond the V8's and VB! I have to give him a polite round of applause for his attempt at enthusiasm! He did try hard and in the end I think he rather enjoyed it. The last exhibition I went to was Turner to Monet in 2008 and I took my arty friend Margie. There was lots of discussion about juxtaposition of this and brush strokes and texture. (And nodding appropriately on my behalf!) This time at the Masterpieces from Paris there was talk about whether it was pretty or not! Nathan and I both came to the conclusion that Claude Monet is our favourite artist. (I rather like his work as some of it was on display at the Turner to Monet as well. The NGA also owns three pieces that are on permant display.) I was a huge fan of Waterlilies until I saw.......

Waterlily pond, green harmony! I love this painting. There is so much to see. The different depths in the painting are amazing. The colours are amazing, it almost glows! The postcard sooooo does not do it justice. I have asked Nathan to buy me the original as I am quite unsatisfied by my reproduction. He laughed at me!

One big draw card of the exhibition is Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Nights. Amazing to think this was painted in 1888!

Another favourite painting was one by Gustave Moreau called Orpheus painted in 1865. I haven't been able to find an image but I loved this painting. There are turtles in the bottom corner in the foreground! The detail on the dress is spectacular and her face is absolutely beautiful with a film like quality to it.

However, the best part of the day was when Nathan gave me free rein in the gift shop! We found this amazing set of books. The ABC's, 1,2,3's and colour books. Every page has a painting from the exhibition on it. My personal favourite is the 1,2,3 book.

I love the words and it included our second favourite painting, The man at the tiller by Theo van Rysselburghe.

I will get some kulcha into my boys if it kills me! I hope to have them recognise each painting by name and artist by the time school goes back! I have also decided to bite the bullet and take the boys to the gallery. The thought of three rambunctious boys anywhere near priceless art gives me heart palpitations but I think they will get a lot out of it. So next week we are hitting the NGA (hopefully not literally!) I don't think I will take them into the Paris exhibition (there are some serious art lovers there and I don't want to be responsible for ruining their visit!) But we will give the general gallery a go for a short period of time and see how they go!

On our return I plan on getting them to paint me a new Blue poles and use it as a tax payment, as so many of the Paris exhibition paintings were obtained as payment in lieu of tax! I could just imagine ringing up the ATO saying "I'm sorry sir, I believe I will repay my tax debt with this beautiful painting my three year old son painted. Don't you know he is genius!"

So after we filled up on all this culture (I mean kulcha!) Nathan took me to Macca's for a quick frozen coke and we began ending all of our sentences with maaate and things got back to normal!