Tate Britain- The Romantics

This April Fools day was not foolish at all. Together with a friend, we decided to take a 20 minute sunny walk along the Thames and go to Tate Britain.

She decided to go for the Picasso exhibition while I decided to stroll along the gallery of the Romantics. She surprised me with a postcard of her favourite painting in the exhibition. So fascinating.

I spent the afternoon exploring the likes of Constable and JMW Turner. I only managed to go to 4-5 rooms in the end. With soothing music in my ears, I had one of the most enjoyable afternoons reading and delving into the paintings. I especially love paintings capturing nature and I lapped in Constable's Sketching from Nature. I was thoroughly fascinated by his depiction of the sea and the light hitting the waves. My favourite painting of all in that room was this. It looks much better in real life. The computer blurs the effect. I wish I could bring it home with me. I had the Narnia- Voyage of the Dawn Treader feeling of the sea flowing towards me. Ahhhhhhhh....

The ultimate work I fell in love with today was Constable's Cloud Study. He scribbled a beautiful, magnificent verse from The Farmer's Boy- A Rural Poem written by Robert Bloomfield which took my breath away.

Here it is:

With saunt'ring step he climbs the distant stile,

Whilst all around him wears a placid smile;

There views the white-rob'd clouds in clusters driven,

And all the glorious pageantry of Heaven.

Low, on the utmost bound'ry of the sight,

The rising vapours catch the silver light;

Thence Fancy measures, as they parting fly,

Which first will throw its shadow on the eye,

Passing the source of light; and thence away,

Succeeded quick by brighter still than they.

Far yet above these wafted clouds are seen

(In a remoter sky, still more serene,)

Others, detach'd in ranges through the air,

Spotless as snow, and countless as they're fair;

Scatter'd immensely wide from east to west,

The beauteous 'semblance of a Flock at rest.

These, to the raptur'd mind, aloud proclaim

Their MIGHTY SHEPHERD'S everlasting Name.

What a brilliant reminder this Palm Sunday of how amazing our Creator God is! 

DIY Room Decoration using Recyclables

Since we are leaving for London in September, I felt that I should commemorate the efforts I took to make this place cozy and fun. Lots of good DIY memories here. We had lovely friends who showered us with chocolates. ♥ I needed a board to stick things on because post-its are a failure. They are supposed to stick but they constantly fly off everything. Also, this is a rented house so you can't really nail anything into the wall. Necessity is the mother of invention! I took the layer above a packet of Lindt chocolates and used some blu-tack to stick it on the wall. It works perfectly with thumbtacks. 

I had a collection of lovely postcards, some of which were given to me by my sister and others collected during my visit to Australia. I decided to put them up on a giant piece of paper and stuck the paper to the wall.

I bought a cheap corkboard to hang on an existing wall hook. I used it to organise my accessories. :) Really loving the versatile use of thumbtacks. Hey, work with what you got right?

The paper crowns from Christmas crackers made for a very whimsical frame for my mirror.

  

Plastic trays from dry groceries made for great makeup organisers.

On an unrelated note, for a while now, we have been part of an online bookswap community. You can get rid of books you're tired off or don't want and exchange them for other books. We decided to choose this as a swap. We could tell from the other books listed by the other owner that he was interested in art. We were pleasantly surprised when this came with the book in the mail. A handpainted card of horses with an envelope! How nice!

Mug-Painting

Decided to paint a mug to celebrate the end of exams! Thought to self: What's cute? Toadstool popped into my head, so here :)

The question mark was such a pain to make!

For those of you who were as blur as Ying over this orange, round thingies, it's the spinning fire line Mario has to jump over :)

❥The Mario theme is playing in my head... ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬

Happy Birthday Ying!

I painted this Snoopy and Friends mug for the darling.

❤Happy Birthday Sweetheart!❤

2- 5 candles/5 faces for 25 years 

The boy hacked into Berbie's face first.

 The happy boy