Degas at the RA

Its been a busy few days. On Saturday I attended a Mountain Bike training course organised by SusSAR and three of us learnt how to maintain, repair and ride these bikes. We spent four hours in a hilly wood in Sussex and all managed to avoid any tumbles, though probably more by luck than judgement! Gary, a former SusSAR member who now lives in the West Country, gave up his day to conduct the course which was first class. We managed to find John, our gallant Misper (missing person) who hid from us in the Dark Wood at night and was no doubt pleased that we found him in good time. A highlight was cycling past a badger who looked up then bounded down 'his' hole. My derrière will take a few days to recover.

Col about to descend a steep slope

On Sunday my club had a dig but nothing of interest was found. I had a few buttons, a musket ball and bits of rolled up lead. I did see a Red Admiral, albiet in a tatty condition.

torn Red Admiral 

This morning the light was interesting over the channel

Today Jackie joined us on a visit to the Edgar Degas exhibition at the Royal Academy. This was excellent, and we understood the artist's work for the first time and learnt how the changing photographic technology of the time influenced him. This RA video gives an idea of the exhibition's content: http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/degas/

The wonderful pastels in the final room were my favourite and the Dancers in Blue (above) was my top choice. He used layers of tracing paper to build up the colours, fixing each colour to achieve the luminescent effect as described in this link.  I liked 'The Dance Lesson' 1879. This is in the panoramic format popular with photographers at the time. Interesting that this is a popular TV format today. The statue 'Little Fourteen Year Old Dancer' was amazing. Click here to view a blog that adds further information about the exhibition.