shewhomust: (bibendum)
shewhomust ([personal profile] shewhomust) wrote2025-06-14 02:56 pm

Magpie city

On Thursday I went into Newcastle for my Reading Group, and as I had promised myself, I took my camera with me.

Magpie


The town was heaving - the station was heaving, the train was heaving, and Durham station was pretty busy, too - mostly with people in black-and-white football strip. At first I thought there must be a home game, and muttered to myself about there being no closed season these days, but it turned out to be in honour of Sam Fender, local lad and superstar, who was playing that night, the first of three concerts at St James' Park. Much of this I learned from a lady who accosted me as I was sitting on a bench in the town centre: she told me I was the image of her sister-in-law, and wanted to take my photograph. It wasn't yet five o' clock, but the party had already started.

Even in Forth Lane there had been people (it's usually very quiet) but not enough to deter me from photographing the murals. I've started at the end, because that magpie is a detail of a mural which spreads across the wall at one end (the far end, if like me, you started at the Central Station): the lane is too narrow, and the light and shade were too extreme, for more than this detail of the picture, but it's an appropriate detail.

This is where I came in:

Welcome to the gallery


It was the diva in drag who caught my eye, first time round, but I suspect she isn't an official part of the Gallery - well, that's not inappropriate either. The office next door is available, if you're tempted:

All this could be yours


The artists were given the theme 'pleasure garden' (this article explains why) and some responses were more obvious than others. I liked Rebecca Purnell's people melting into trees:

Among the Trees


and Laura Sheldon's patch of green:

Pleasure Garden


Then I went to the Library and had fun talking about comics.
cmcmck: (Default)

[personal profile] cmcmck 2025-06-14 03:12 pm (UTC)(link)
We were down in Lunnon for galleries yesterday!