Painting and Paintings

I had my last couple of classes. I had painting. Thomas is great. He says that I have great facial expressions and hair and I think he liked that I tried to think about what he would say even though it was more often than not way beyond me. The last painting class was tough for me because when I thought I was done he told me to keep painting and I was confused. I hope it turned out ok. I will miss that class! I'll just have to continue painting.

 I had a meeting with Dr. Kant about travel writing. She told me that I have good thoughts and that she likes my thought process. She says that I have a distinct voice and readers can be absorbed in my writing. My problem is that I don't have great organization and that sometimes I actually don't write about what I say I'm going to write about. It was really helpful and positive. I'm glad because I heard that she tore a couple of the other students apart on their grammar and such which she didn't do too much with me. I told her after that that the class after that was my last class as an undergraduate! She was all "you should have told me! I would have brought you a rose!" and she hugged me. So nice! After class that day she announced that it was my last class and everybody clapped. So cute.

Outside our painting room window

 The morning before my last writing class, Kailey told me that Carson Bennet, the boy who taught our prep class for PKP was in town visiting and we should go punting. It was fun to catch up with him! he also brought his friend, Andy and Heeje joined us. We all ended up being late for our classes at two. When I went to the CUS after, the cute bartender made me a drink and when I complained of being too hot, he gave me a bag of ice. What a winner. 

Also, one night Sydnie, Richard and I went to the King's garden to watch the falling stars that night. We cuddled up in the grass and I was being goofy and seeing things. There was a cat. It was a good night. I love those two.

That night, Kailey told me that you could check out human bones from the library. I went with her and Spencer to check it out. It turns out that you can also check out sculls and if you go around one corner and open a door, there is a friendly little skeleton there to say hi... I saw Marissa leaving and I told her to come around the corner and her gasp was soooo cute and funny! Good times.

Groping Skeleton 

Grabbing T&A

Spencer

After that, I went back home and saw that a bunch of people, including Peter, Theresa, and Tommy were chilling on Tommy's picnic blanket so I grabbed my sweater and joined in. Theresa taught the boys how to Irish dance and it was really fun. We stayed up way too late talking and having fun.

The next day, Kailey and I hit up the Fitzwilliam museum. First we checked out their armory. There were some giant intense swords.

Negroli Helmet from Italy C.1540-45. "This spectacular steel burgonet with lion visor was likely made by the Negroli family in Milan for parade use by the Emperor Charles V. A fabulous example of mid-16th century workmanship, it entered the Museum's collection in 1938, having come to light at an auction of "theatrical junk" a few years earlier.

Szyszak Poland, c 1680. "This very unusual helmet was worn by the heavily armored and armed horse soldiers in Poland known as the hussars. Hussars wore armor and would have been armed with a sword (usually a saber) and lance. They had a formidable reputation as they were highly disciplined and would make a rapid charge in compact formation against enemy infantry or cavalry units. If the first attack failed, they would retire to supporting troops who would re-equip them with fresh lances, and then they would charge again.

Chinese, Tang Dynasty (618-906)

Marble torso from a staue of Dionysos. Roman, 2nd Century AD from the gymnasium at Salamis, Cyprus

We then saw Greek, Roman, and Egyptian artifacts. Afterwards, we made our way to the main part of the museum where I asked about George Romney paintings (no one knew, but it turns out there is one on display and one in storage). I also ran across these really famous Pre-Raphaelite paintings. 

John Everett Millais "The Bridesmaid" 

Dante Gabriel Rossetti "Joan of Arc" 1882

The red hair.

 Off to the impressionists and French painters. It was cool to see paintings by painters that I learned about in my art class in the Louvre three years ago. 

Pierre-Auguste Renoir "La Place Clichy" 1880

Henri Matisse "Boats on the Beach, Etretat" 1920. Thomas said that I was very Matisse like.

Claude Monet "Springtime" 1886. I hope that someday I can paint like this...

Kailey imitating August Rodin's "Large Clenched Hand"  

Georges-Pierre Seurat "Study for a Sunday on the island of La Grand Jatte: Couple Walking" 1884-1886 and Seurat's "the rue Saint-Vincent, Paris, in Spring, 1884"

Paul Cezanne "Still life with apples"
I need to learn how to paint fruit better clearly.

Camille Pissarro "Snowy Landscape at Eragny, with an apple tree, 1895"

redheads! Narcisse Virgile Diax de la Pena "Nymphs and Satyrs"

Titian! "Tarquin and Lucetia

 Kailey showed me the paintings that Thomas showed in the class that I missed. This painting has the same set up where a messenger is coming in from the left but there isn't any depth in the back so it was really jarring and also controversial. We compared to other paintings. for some reason I didn't take pictures of them but just their names. I guess you'll have to look them up yourselves. 

Looking at those paintings, I got incredibly tired like I always do when I'm in an art museum and I actually fell asleep for a few minutes on the couch. The nap totally revitalized me and I was able to keep going and really analyzed the art work. While there, the guy who played Benedict from Much Ado about Nothing totally was there! He kept looking at me and I would look at him bashfully. At one point we looked right into each other's eyes and smiled. He never came to talk to me though. I should have just said hi to him. Oh well...

Also, I saw this painting, Carlo Dolci's "The Penitent Magdalene" there. I keep seeing all these paintings that totally would have helped me out when I wrote my research paper on the perceptions of redheads. Mary Magdalene was one of the examples I used as a redhead but I could never find paintings that showed it until now. Better too late than never though..? Oh well.

 That night, I ran into Tommy who was out on his blanket again. He was with Thomas and we watched "Curb your Enthusiasm" which was hilarious. We watched one about a Palestinian chicken place and one about midriffs. Thomas left and then we were joined by Darcy, Joe, Theresa, Peter and Darcy's friend. We talked and had fun and played Turkey. Tommy and I were left out of the blanket crowd but we piled back on. At one point everyone got too cold so I was assigned to lay across them all. It was a ton of fun. We saw lots of shooting stars. It was one of the funnest nights of the trip. I stayed up way too late and I was leaving for Cardiff, Wales the next day! Eep! Worth it...

Wales was a super last minute idea. I decided I wanted to go a while ago and Chelsey and I planned it out last minute. Seriously we bought the tickets the night before. I'm sooo glad that we were able to do that though! Finally I had a weekend trip to look forward to!

Also, a random story... At one point, I went dancing. I danced with two boys while there and they both tried to make out with me... But I didn't let it happen! One of them is so drunk that I meet him all the time at the club (he always forgets the last time we meet). He told me that I was his new favorite but I didn't let him kiss me so I think that killed it. After that, I went outside and ran into Liam, Christian (one of the PhD student TAs from Spooks and Spies) and another gal. We went to the Trailer of life for food and Christian offered me his coat. He wouldn't give it to the other girl though even though he asked. Liam also gave me his. Christian bought us all dinner too. It was fun.