Oh dear - not much of a day today. Lois and I are feeling jaded after an action-packed weekend, finding our way with our daughter and granddaughters through mazes shaped like a classic steam locomotive on Saturday, and seeing a young Iranian woman being dipped in a hot-tub for her baptism on Sunday, bless her.
Be honest - exactly how many times have you had a wild and crazy weekend like that?!!!!
Lois and I want a day off today - Monday, even though statistically we've been retired for 17 and a half years haha!!!!
To cap it all, it's been raining non-stop since lunchtime and it's going to carry on till Lois and I go to bed at 10 pm. We've managed a few things - I collected my repeat NHS medication from our doctor's surgery, and we put in a groceries order online, things like you - you know, I expect you do things like that occasionally, don't you! Be honest haha!!!!
Oh dear!
21:00 We wind down for bed with an interesting documentary about Leonora Carrington, "the lost surrealist".
Poor Leonora! A British surrealist painter that most people in the UK have never heard of. And Lois and I didn't know that Leonora was actually a significant figure in the world of the Paris surrealists in the 1930's. Like others in the group, she fled France during the German occupation, and eventually made a life for herself in Mexico, marrying a Hungarian photographer, Chiki Weisz.
As a child growing up in England, Leonora had been drawing and painting what her family called her "weird" pictures from an early age.
one of Leonora's early story books
And later, as a young woman, she "discovered" surrealism at her London art school and for the first time in her life, knew that the world of surrealist artists was where she was meant to be.
The public in the UK weren't really ready for surrealism, however, and during the great Surrealist Exhibition in London in 1936, there were calls for surrealists to be "locked up", "to protect the public". Oh dear!
And when Leonora met the surrealist artist Max Ernst, and the pair quickly became lovers, Leonora's father was "incandescent with rage", and tried to get the police involved.
Leonora with Max Ernst's head on her shoulder
Oh dear, well, that's Britain for you, isn't it!
Tipped off by a friend that the London police were looking for them, the pair decided to leave London and move to Cornwall.
Leonora with Max Ernst at Lambe Creek, Cornwall
And before long, they left Britain altogether and moved to Paris, where Leonora was quickly accepted by Max Ernst's friends, the group of surrealist painters that were setting the art world alight.
However, and "This is just typical!", Lois says. Like any other female painter in that little world, Leonora was expected to be just a "muse" for the male painters, somebody to inspire them by being beautiful and having sex with them, and generally giving them a good time. The fact that she was a surrealist painter in her own right didn't seem to weigh with the men too much. Oh dear!
Women were not really considered to be contributors in terms of art. Leonora, however, according to her family, just scoffed at all that. She refused to fit in with the men's ideas, and refused to be their muse.
Sometimes it's' hard to be a woman!
But fascinating stuff !!!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz!!!!
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