Castle Ward and lots of art

I’m catching up the blog well in the future and forgetting what I did when. Despite the dates below, I now recall that on Jan. 20, a Saturday, I attempted to rejoin the human race by going for a long walk with David at Castle Ward, where a lot of filming is done for Game of Thrones. It was damp and cold and a lot of coughing went on as we walked along Strangford Lough. Once we turned inland, the sun came out and it warmed up and I stopped coughing. We walked along a lake that had swans floating on it. Internet photo:

We walked through parts of the park I hadn’t been in before and it was lovely. Here’s a map: Audley’s Castle is an important part of GOT, but I don’t know what part. The Farmyard would also be a recognisable group of buildings. Lots of Japanese tourists there as we walked by--selfies galore.

On the 21st, I had a nice long visit to the Ulster Museum, where there was a very good exhibit of Belfast portrait artist John Lavery’s work. I’m not sure about putting in exhibit links because they may expire, but here it is anyway. Bottom right there are arrows that let you look at some of his lovely paintings. If anyone is really into Irish art, look for a painting of a woman looking out of a very tall window. This is Lavery’s wife in his studio in London looking at German warplanes bombing the city. The planes look like a murder of crows, appropriately enough.

A week later, on the 27th, David and I took the train down to Dublin for the day to see an exhibit of watercolours by Turner. Worth the trip, as was the exhibit of the Hennessy Portrait Prize entries. One “portrait” was a printout tape (think of a CVS receipt that’s 50 metres long) listing a person’s DNA. Also In the exhibit were portraits of famous people commissioned from previous competition winners. These included a fabulous portrait of Graham Norton and one by Belfast painter Colin Davidson of poet Michael Longley. That alone was worth the trip. Also a good portrait of writer Maeve Binchy. I’ve been to two Longley readings and I have the utmost respect for him.

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