Wolverhampton Art Gallery

Saturday started well, bright, sunny and mild. Clare and I walked into Solihull where I collected my winnings at the bookies.  A 50 pence each way bet netted me 11 pounds! Thanks to Boston's Angel that came in at 16-1 at Cheltenham the other day.

After the bookies we jumped on the train to Wolverhampton.  Clare wanted to have a look at the 60s exhibition.  Before we had a wander around the gallery we stopped at the cafe and had a coffee.  I like this place.  The cafe is on two levels with the bulk of the seating up in the roof space.  We sat and looked out the window at the daffodils in St Peter's churchyard next door.

Whilst upstairs we popped into a gallery which had an exhibition called Animals.  Most of the exhibition was by Robert Davies and consisted of pencil drawings on large pieces of paper.  The animals he has drawn are a combination of rescued farm animals and famous racehorses.  The idea behind the drawings is to explore our relationship with the animals, the personalities we project on the racehorses and the anonymity of the farm animals. 

The drawings are stunning and the detail is amazing.  Even up close they could be mistaken for photographs. To me it felt like the artist had even managed to capture some of the personality of the farm animals. In contrast, the racehorses seemed to have less of a personality.  I wondered how much of that was deliberate.

In a side room there was a film showing Robert at work as he drew a racehorse.  The film, sped up, shows him in his studio with a blank piece of paper and a picture of a racehorse.  It is fantastic to watch as the horse takes shape.  There is also a black cat that makes a cameo appearance which seemed to go down well with all who watched.

Apparently his main profession was as a photographer but there is no doubt that this man has a true talent.  You really should see this exhibition!  I have put links to the gallery and to Robert's website below.

Having spent ten minutes chatting to the curator we left the gallery and took a look at the other exhibitions.  The Pop Art exhibition was quite enjoyable and I particularly liked Cinema No 6 by Colin Self.  A study of art deco cinemas.  King Kong and Martians by Nicholas Monro were other highlights.

The Bostin 60s exhibition wasn't what I imagined and although it was nice to look at the period bits it didn't really do much for me.

Leaving the gallery we hit the shops and then headed for City Bar on King Street. We'd eaten there last time we were in Wolverhampton and enjoyed both the food and the atmosphere.  We had a drink and some food and listened to the bloke at the end of the bar.  He seemed to have an opinion on everything. Having no interest in anyone else he was quite happy to talk, loudly, at anyone unfortunate to end up at his end of the bar.  It made for great entertainment.

We headed home and as it was such a nice evening took a detour through the park where we watched the rabbits feeding in the fading sunshine. It was a really nice way to end the day.

Later we watched the Supemoon rising.  If you don't know what that is, here is a quote from NASA's website.

'On March 19th, a full Moon of rare size and beauty will rise in the east at sunset. It's a super "perigee moon"--the biggest in almost 20 years.'

It was a clear evening and the moon did seem bigger and brighter than usual, casting it's lights across the sky and illuminating the odd cloud that happened to pass.  A nice way to end the day.
http://www.wolverhamptonart.org.uk/wolves/exhibitions/004564.html

http://www.robertdavies.uk.com/index.html