#ArtIHeart 3 - From London, Love Implied

Art I Heart

Share the art you love from your walls, a birthday card, what your child drew at school, that you saw in The National Gallery in London...

1. Choose one piece of art that has a short personal story behind it. It could be something on your wall, something you've seen in a gallery and love, homedrawn, on a postcard, on a birthday card, something by Degas or something by your DS.

2. Take a photograph, scan or download a picture of your picture and post it along with the short story about why you are drawn to it, have it on your wall, bought it, or hate it. Don't forget to link back to the linky so your readers can see the other entries.

3. Link up (it's open till next Thursday, 4pm GMT), leave a comment, et voila!

Here's mine:

As you can see, it's a print of a water colour (although printed on crinkly card so it looks remarkably like an original water colour) of the River Thames with London Bridge, and Westminster and The London Eye in the background. I love the soft colours of grey, pale yellow and orange depicting a realistic wintery dawn over London. And the whispy quality of the painting gives it an old-fashioned, romantic air. If not for The Eye, it could be from yesterday or from Victorian times.

Would you believe it was a birthday card? Every year about a week before my birthday, with business efficiency, I get an envelope in the post with my Father's beautiful penmanship indicating that my birthday card has arrived. Inside is a card - sometimes birthday specific sometimes not. I know before even opening it that it will say: To Rachel, from Mum and Dad. That's it apart from any printed message from hallmark themselves. Every year the same. My friend kills herself laughing as it reminds her of the formality of 84 Charring Cross Road - except fewer words. And in many ways my Father is from that era, a bit younger maybe  but he had older parents. (Btw, my mother phones - or these days Skypes). The birthday that fell only a few weeks after I'd had a late miscarriage, he added: Thinking of you.

Anyway, I loved the picture so much I had it mounted and framed. I love London and I'm not there. A picture on the wall is the nearest I can get for most of the year. Below you can see it in situ above my dining table. My only regret (naughtily) is that I could have signed it in pencil in the bottom R-H corner and in the L-H corner written: A/P :)