Gadding About

Isn't 'gadding about' a wonderful phrase? I can hear the echo of several elderly female relatives, all sadly now long gone, every time I use it.

I have been 'gadding about' for the last two days.

Yesterday Kevin and I went to the Royal Show for the first time in probably ten years. You can read all about it here.

Today I went into Perth to visit an exhibition at the Town Hall - The City of Perth Black Swan Prize for Portraiture. It closes tomorrow. I have been intending to visit it since it opened and I am so glad that I made it before it closed.

While I didn't like every painting of course, I was really impressed by the technical skills of the artists (with one exception. I cannot believe that one amateurish painting was selected as a finalist).

I was in total agreement with the Viewer's Choice Award: Love Me Tender. It is a moving portrait of the artist's elderly parents.

Others I liked were Penelope Bladen's Spanish Fan - a portrait of Emma Bladen with the shadow of a lace fan falling over her face, Linda van der Merwe's portrait of Nalda Searles, Lucy Keeler's Mick Mundine and Peteris Ciemitis' Black and Blue, a portrait of musician Matt Taylor.

Most of the portraits were enormous - definitely not suited to the average dwelling. Photo realism reigned, perhaps not surprisingly.

I really enjoyed the exhibition and will watch out for next year.

NOTE: I didn't take photos, even though I had my camera and there were no no signs forbidding it. I have the catalogue and was going to scan the cover, but the scanner is playing up.

'Playing up' almost matches 'gadding about' in the memories it evokes.