London 10th November

We went on a trip to London as a way of concluding the Exploratory Stage. I found this quite an adventure having to explore London by ourselves, keeping a close eye on the time to ensure we could fill our day visiting places. I travelled around London with three of my friends, Luke, Olivia and Danielle. 

Although our main reason for visiting London was to look at art galleries, we made it priority to go and see the remembrance poppies at the Tower of London. This was a beautiful and I feel very fortunate to have been able to see it in real life. The amount of poppies was rather overwhelming and I felt very proud that the person who made them is from Derby, my local area. The time and effort that must have gone into the design and production of these was incredible.

 Next was Tate Modern. Below are a range of pieces which appealed to me.

Picasso's work was a piece which stood out to me straight away and I could recognise. I love the randomness of the shapes and lines which all congregate to form a portraiture piece. The bright colour draws in your attention and looks really effective. 

This Hip Hip Hoorah piece by Karel Appel also struck my attention. I really like the child-like/animal features of all the creatures that have been painted onto this piece. I think they all have quirky connotations which gives the whole piece a fun character. 

These Russian Revolutionary posters are another part of the gallery which really appealed to me. I love the archaic style to them and the old fashioned sense as I automatically compared these to posters we see in every day life. I thought the colours were really interesting as they were quite neutral with a bulk of red or black. They all stuck to the same sort of theme with their house styles and in some cases their design. 

Louise Bourgeious is another artist who I was attracted to at Tate Modern. This is because I really like her simple, illustrative style of black line and limited colour. This work shows that less is more in some cases. Her drawings are very intricate and precise and I really like how they work together as set pieces too. It shows her style is consistent. This is an artist I would like to look into further. 

After doing this we took a walk through central London to see the London eye, Big Ben, Itv studios and more. Something that caught my eye walking down this promenade was the skate park which had been manipulated with graffiti. I think this looked awesome. 

In Leicester Square we had something to eat and it took us by surprise that the world premier for The Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 1 was in preperation for that night! We managed to see the set for the red carpet being displayed and crowds were gathering ready for later on. It was really good to be able to see this as it is one of my favourite series of films. 

After this we decided to take a look at Oxford street. After having the stress of losing each other in the underground and reuniting again, it was quite relaxing to walk down a high street with busy shoppers!

As we made our way back to the train station to return home, we noticed there were Beano comics exhibiting in St Pancras train station. This was really good to look at, especially comparing the designs from the 50's up until now. 

Me and Liv also got a bit over excited...

I found this trip really beneficial as it challenged us to organise ourselves for an entire day, ensuring we didn't have too much or too little to do. Although we only went to see one art gallery I still feel this day was successful as our main ambition was to see the remembrance poppies and we made sure we did that. The additional Beano exhibition in the train station was a bonus too! 

We also managed to take a selfie in an exhibiting mirror piece in Tate Modern.

This was a really good day!