Review: Sin at The Arc, Winchester

Is sin even a thing in today’s mad, mad world? Where the word ‘sorry’ is flung about with thoughtless abandon and the sense that it grants instant absolution, does a speck of pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, or sloth still keep us awake at night?

A new exhibition opened this week exploring depictions of ‘sinful’ behaviour through religious and secular art. The small but beautifully curated show features eight historic works from the National Gallery, and two contemporary works on loan from artists Tracey Emin and Ron Mueck. The exhibition offers the chance to get up and close and personal with iconic works in an intimate setting.

hashtagtravellingFebruary 26, 2023February 26, 2023Leave a comment

Art and culture, Travel

Review: Spain and the Hispanic World

Starting off the year as I mean to go on, I visited the first major exhibition of 2023 which opened in London this weekend. Over 150 items arranged chronologically, from antiquity to early 20th Century, provide a visual narrative of the history of Spanish culture. On display at Spain and the Hispanic World: Treasures from the Hispanic Society Museum & Library at the Royal Academy, are pieces from the New York museum presented for the first time in the UK.

Favourite pieces included a Map of the Ucayali River, which brought to mind the Bayeaux Tapestry, with its delightful borders featuring fishermen, flora and fauna; the rather gruesome The Four Fates of Man; and the life-sized Duchess of Alba, in all her magnificent glory.

hashtagtravellingJanuary 22, 2023January 22, 2023Leave a comment

Art and culture

Review. Extraordinary Everyday: The Art & Design of Eric Ravilious and Turn and Return by Dierdre Wood

Maybe it’s the non-stop disturbing news from around the world, or the long dark winter and the recent wild storms (including Storm Eunice which carried a Red Alert warning) but I just haven’t been feeling the love. The year has felt slow in getting started.

This week I visited a new exhibition at The Arc in the historic city of Winchester, to explore the work of Eric Ravilious. It is the first time I have experienced Ravilious’ work up close. A display of stunning woven textiles by weaver, Deirdre Wood outside The Gallery was an added bonus. The intensity of colourful art proved inspirational and I’m back at my laptop with the first blog in a few weeks.

hashtagtravellingFebruary 27, 2022August 23, 2022Leave a comment

Food & wine

Review: Cooking With Heroes

The Royal British Legion is marking 100 years (1921-2021) with a new cookbook featuring recipes by personnel with contributions from, celebrity cooks and chefs.

The first thing to say about Cooking With Heroes is that it’s a very ambitious book at 470 pages. A tome both in terms of content and weight, it requires both hands to hold it up to read. The recipes appear by regions from Armagh to Zimbabwe, Essex to The Gambia, and Hampshire to New Zealand. There are favourites (Hello, Welsh rarebit!) and posh fish ‘n’ chips and other recipes, for instance, potato and apple bread, contributed by Chief Petty Officer John Potts, Royal Navy (Retired). Add to the mix personal stories, snippets of history and stunning photography and the wide appeal of this book will solve many Christmas gift shopping dilemmas. Or add it to your own Letter to Santa.

hashtagtravellingOctober 17, 2021July 4, 20221 Comment

Food & wine, Interviews

Interview: Tom Savano

Are you sitting comfortably? It’s story-telling time.

Tom Savano had time on his hands. As a business entrepreneur, he enjoyed the good things in life that he had worked hard to achieve. But, in time, Savano tended to avoid places where the affluent set gathered to party in summer, or rendezvous in winter.

Travelling for its own sake wasn’t part of his natural character. Living for experiences rather than to accumulate trappings he began to seek out new and authentic cultures.

hashtagtravellingAugust 19, 2020July 28, 20224 Comments

Art and culture

Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh

A new blockbuster exhibition opened last week at the Saatchi Gallery, London. 150 treasures are on display at Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh as part of a world tour before returning forever to Egypt. Over 60 pieces are on loan outside their home country for the first time. London is the third stop in a ten-city world tour, which broke records in Los Angeles before becoming France’s most attended exhibition ever attracting over 1.4 million attendees. The hottest ticket in town this winter!

hashtagtravellingNovember 12, 2019July 11, 2022Leave a comment

This week

World Travel Show London

Where else can you travel the world in a day? The World Travel Show (or WTM for short) London provides a glimpse into different cultures. It’s colourful, exotic, noisy, fast and a lot of fun. Here’s a quick round-up…

hashtagtravellingNovember 6, 2019July 11, 2022Leave a comment

This week

Review: Queen Victoria’s Palace, Buckingham Palace summer opening

Today sees the annual summer opening of Buckingham Palace. The palace doors will be thrown wide from today for just a few weeks. There is nothing I like more than taking a peek inside beautiful homes and this one also features a new exhibition every year. This year Queen Victoria’s Palace marks the bicentenary. It is 200 years since Victoria’s (and coincidentally Prince Albert’s) birth. The young Queen moved into the Palace within three weeks of her coronation and transformed it from a private house into a working royal residence, a family home and a space where the public could be invited. A tradition that continues to this day.

hashtagtravellingJuly 20, 2019July 11, 20221 Comment

Art and culture

A fine romance with The Moon

Incredibly, it is 50 years since Apollo 1 and astronaut Neil Armstrong (1930 to 2012) took ‘one small step for man’ on the moon. By way of celebration a new exhibition called simply ‘The Moon’ will open tomorrow at The National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, London.

Human beings’ external romance with all things lunar dates way back and is nothing less than a love affair. The exhibition explores how throughout time civilisations have observed the moon and interpreted its many facets in some surprising and intriguing ways.

hashtagtravellingJuly 18, 2019July 11, 20221 Comment