Tuesday: Canberra

Tuesday, Anne-Nicole and I had breakfast while Uncle Sean went for a long run. It was a pretty nice spread, for a continental breakfast. I got brave and tried some Vegemite on my toast. Never. Again. It ranks right up there with sauerkraut.

Anne-Nicole and I hit another museum that morning. We went to the National Gallery at 9;00. We didn't realize that it didn't actually open until 10:00, so we ended up walking around outside for a while, waiting for the doors to open.

Eventually, we did get in. There is an exhibition of the works of John Constable going on right now, and I was thrilled to get to see that. His skies are some of my favorite bits of art- but then, I love sky-scapes anyway. Having finished looking at the Constable works, we moved on to the International gallery, featuring mostly post-impressionist through modern & post modern pieces. There was a Duchamp readymade, the Hat rack. (I wasn't quite sure I believed he actually existed until yesterday- the whole "urinal as a fountain" thing seemed too much like some artistic prank to be true.) We saw Jackson Pollack's Blue Poles, which is a million times cooler in person than on a screen or in a book. I thought I detested Pollack, but that painting was great.
After we finished up in the International gallery, we made our way to the Asian gallery, and from there to lunch. It was a very nice lunch (curried chickpea and couscous casserole-HOT) and the settingof the cafe, overlooking the gardens, was quite nice. We sat in there chatting for a while after we had finished eating, just talking about our "normal" daily lives, and what we'd be doing on an average Tuesday afternoon.
Eventually we went upstairs to check out the Australian gallery. There were lots of of really great pastoral scenes, but once it got into more modern works, the collection wasn't so great.

Uncle Sean picked us up that afternoon, and we made a quick stop at the Australian War Memorial before heading back to Sydney.

There were showers threatening as we drove back, and the sky looked like something straight out of the museum. In fact, everywhere I looked the landscape created pictures for me. Most bore a remarkable resemblence to the style and composition of Constable's works, especially after some lovely rainbows made their appearance. Some had a more native Australian look, especially where the gum trees were more prominent. This was the first time I'd experienced what I saw as paintings. Normally, I just see photographs wherever I look- this time it was full-fledged oil paintings. (And no, that isn't an indicator of any mental problem.)

I wasn't seeing paintings when we visited the Big Merino in Goulbern. I was doubled over laughing with tears streaming down my face. How can an art museum compare to that?!