Tourist in London

 I had a pleasure to have a worktrip to London in November. I had my own art workshop as an invited artist in The College of Psychic Studies. I saw their exhibition plus I had the most wonderful meeting with the curator of the collection, Vivienne Roberts, and The College's principal Gill Matini. I had also some time to be a real tourist, so I visited some lovely and interesting places - some old and some new for me.

Streets of London, on the way to British Museum.

Three friends joined the trip, we had lots of fun! Some of the sights we explored together and some I did by myself. This was my fifth time in London - but the last trip was many, many years ago, in 2006. Ryanair has direct (and cheap) flights from my home city Tampere to London Stansted, so traveling was easy.

One must-to-do was of course to visit the pub! We had a great dinner in a local pub close to our hotel in Paddington area. And naturally I ate fish and chips - oh boy it was a huge portion! It was delicious.

Having good time with friends in London pub.

Delicious fish and chips in pub.

I just love to wonder around the streets and feel the athmosphere, see the red buses and London cabs, British flags and the old architecture. During the second day we had a walk together through Hyde Park to South Kensington.

Me in Hyde Park.

Beautiful old buildings next to Hyde Park, London.

Old piano on the street.

One of my favourite places is British Museum's bookstore. There are always inspiring books and lovely gifts. I'm very interested of old cultures and the origins of human being - the latter being one of the subjects of my art. I also enjoy of archeology. Some of my drawings have features like fossils from the sea. The fractal form that appear almost in every artwork is the same than the form of nautilus. I actually wished for finding a book about fossils in the sea but sadly there wasn't any.

The root of my art is in the beginning of human and the birth of our planet. It must be the reason why I'm more keen for visiting historical museums than seeing contemporary art in galleries.

Among other things I bought two books of cats in British Museum's collections. (The other book I gave to my neighbor who took care of my cat during the trip.) I spent also a while next to my favourite artwork in their collection, the Egyptian cat sculpture. I have almost similar looking stone cat at home, I bought it from Luxor, Egypt many years ago.

I feel an artistic connection with Egyptian art, there are magical symbols, hieroglyphs and statues that are trying to explain the unknown, touching the other levels of existence and eternity.

Egyptian cat sculpture in British Museum, London.

We used London underground for getting from place to place. Having a hotel near Paddington station was practical, it was easy to get everywhere. Plus I met Paddington Bear. We had also this charming cartoon in Finland's TV when I was a kid and I loved Paddington Bear. Here info about this cute and friendly bear.

With Paddington Bear.

London underground and its' endless escalators.

Even though I have visited earlier all the important museums in London, I had somehow missed The Wallace Collection. It is situated in an old beautiful mansion, next to a small cute town park. There is a vast and amazing collection of old art. I was delighted to see those cream cake -like rooms and especially Rococo period's famous paintings. It was wonderful to see paintings like Fragonard's Swing and Boucher's Madame Pompadour that are familiar to me from art history books. There is also a nice café in the ground floor, so you can spend long time in this museum.

One of the Rococo rooms in The Wallace Collection.

Swing by Fragonard in The Wallace Collection.

Madame de Pompadour by Boucher in The Wallace Collection.

Little Venice is a beautiful district in London with canal and boats and lovely buildings. It was a pity that it was already dark before I got there. I have walked around there years ago and I wanted to see the place again. There was charm also during the evening but with my old and poor mobile I couldn't take much pictures. Next time I will surely visit there again.

Bye London! I had lovely time, see you again!

Phone booth in Little Venice, London.