My big day out.

Today I went up to London to visit the Tate Modern for my art summer homework. I pretty much decided to go today on my own at the last minute as I wanted to get the whole Tate thing over and done with, so I could start on the research and numerous paintings I had to do as soon as possible. So armed with money, camera and a notepad I headed off to my local train station. I caught the 11:08 train to London Waterloo and arrived roughly forty minutes later. Dad had shown me a shortcut so I could reach the Tate quicker, but I didn't understand this route and naturally headed towards the London Eye, cut across the green and then turned right. It was the first time I had been to London on my own and I didn't get lost! (Well it was pretty hard to get lost, from London Waterloo to the Tate Modern). Also along the way there were spotty trees! Red with white spots. It had turned out some guy named Yayoi Kusuma had wrapped them up in this fabric and named it "Ascension of Polkadots on the Trees".





















It was also a nice sunny day so it was a good choice to visit London today.

At the Tate I had to visit the Per Kirkeby and Futurism exhibitions, and it was lucky I bought extra money (which is a habit of mine) as it cost £13 in all to get into both. I bought my tickets and headed up the escalator.

I decided to visit Per Kirkeby first. I didn't really like his work; it just looks like he is full of angst and to release his sorrows/rage he just gets a load of paint and scribbles it all over the masonite or canvas. After that he would add many more layers of angst-filled brush strokes, making it a very confusing angsty angst piece full of angst. I mean, just look at this piece, Nikopeja I:






















Then it was on to the Futurism exhibition. By this point I was slightly impatient due to my dislike of Kirkeby's work and the fact that my feet had started to ache very slightly. The Futurism exhibition I enjoyed much better, seeing as there are loads of different artists in this exhibition and so not all are angsty. I saw some Braque; I had researched him for some homework last year. I also saw a piece by Boccioni; the Unique Forms Of Continuity In Space sculpture which has a place in one of my year 7 art homeworks. (One of the reasons I went on my own today is because I hate going round art exhibits with other people when I am doing research because I always feel I am making them wait. Also I can go where I want to go and do what I want to do, which I like).

I exited the Futurism exhibition and went to the Tate cafe to see if I could get a bite to eat. After looking at all the sandwiches and not seeing any normal fillings (seriously, they were all weird posh fillings) I decided to head over to St. Paul's Cathedral because there is a place nearby that does good breadcrumbed chicken, mozzarella and sundried tomatoes ciabattas, so I crossed the Millenium Bridge, taking a few pictures as I also need to take photos for my art. After eating I headed back over the bridge and walked along the river up to Tower Bridge, taking photos as I went along. I saw a man with an owl on his head near the pirate ship asking if anyone had seen an owl fly "that way".






















Heading further on, where was a new sculpture that I hadn't seen before ; a kangaroo in lingerie. I'm also pretty sure I saw Matt Berry (the guy who plays Douglas on the IT Crowd) which is cool because I don't really see famous people unlike some (well he isn't really famous, but nyeh). The only other "famous" person I have seen is Jacqueline Wilson in her car when were waiting for the bus to go on some year 6 trip. I didn't go all the way to Tower Bridge, just close enough to get a picture. I slowly headed back to Waterloo station, buying an ice cream (mint cornetto) and drink (apple juice) on the way.

As I headed back there were many many street performers. They included a blue guy playing a guitar, gold and silver king and wizard people, some guy teaching kids to dance, another guy playing with a crystal ball to music, a policeman in drag (a tutu) with white face paint taking photos with people, a couple more guys pretending to be Zorro and Captain Jack Sparrow and cycling chameleon people:



















I walked on until I got to the London Eye:

















I haven't been on it in years. It would be nice to go again. I will persuade my parents to let me go on it the next time we all go to London.

Also today I noticed that there were a large number of people wearing AC/DC shirts, but I have a feeling that they may have a concert on tonight, which would explain this.

I then headed back to London Waterloo with achey feet and feeling quite thirsty and caught the 16:27 train home. But I'm glad because I have been to the Tate and selected the images I will use in my book, as well as taking photos of the city, it's people and the environment. (I'm sorry for the silly number of photos in this blog but I like using photos in my blog so you're just going to have to live with it). And that, everyone, was the story of my big day out.