"Tower Bridge Sunset" (oil on stretched canvas; 11" x 14") sold

sold

The Tower Bridge, one of the iconic images of London and the United Kingdom, looks even more glorious against the sunset sky.

"Big Ben Sunset" (oil on stretched canvas; 12" x 12")

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The Big Ben and British Parliamentary Buildings are the iconic image of the United Kingdom. The sunset sky makes the view of the Big Ben across the green Westminster Bridge incredibly romantic!

"Tower Bridge Magic" (oil on linen; 9" x 12") sold

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The Tower Bridge is one of the icons of the United Kingdom.  It always looks impressive in its ornate grandeur.  Against a colorful sunset sky, well, it turns into a gigantic jewel!  Below is another version of the same fabulous bridge.  Which painting do you like better!

"Tower Bridge Nocturne" (oil, 9" x 12"; sold)

"London South Bank" (oil on linen; 9" x 12")

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This breathtaking view of London South Bank with its ultra modern glass towers against the dark evening sky is worth the visit to the United Kingdom!  When I lived in London in 1990 for my doctoral dissertation research, it didn't look like this at all.  South London, south of the Thames River, was generally dowdy and, in some places, run down.  If you wanted excitement and elegant city life, you went to Chelsea or Kensington, and that's exactly what I did by moving from Southwark in South London to Chelsea on the other side of the river.

Through the massive redevelopment over the past three decades, London has become ultra modern and chic, without forsaking its old, world-famous grandeur.  It's a city that wears age and modernity with an equal panache.  I love London!

The glass "Shard" (which you can see in my painting) and the medieval Southwark Cathedral side by side!

"Big Ben Night" (oil on linen; 9" x 12") sold

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Last year during the family vacation to the United Kingdom, I wanted to see the Parliament Buildings and Big Ben on the Thames River at night, although it was cold and we were tired. Boy, I was glad.  These iconic buildings truly glowed like jewels at night!

"Big Ben Nocturne" (oil on linen; 8" x 12") sold

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I thought that the nighttime view of the Big Ben and Parliament Buildings would make the perfect piece as the finale of my April Challenge series.  It was a fine thought; executing the idea into a decent painting was, well, another matter.  In the end, I managed to create a painting that would make Vincent van Gogh proud!  It must be the outstanding subject that inspired me to rise to the occasion.

What a trip it was!  I am grateful to my husband for insisting that we should take the trip.  Above all, I am grateful to our gracious hosts in Sidlesham, West Sussex, for putting us up for eight wonderful days.  There are many memories I will treasure forever.  I would also like to thank my readers for following my pictorial journey down the memory lane.

I am going to take a couple of days off to get ready for the next week's five-day workshop with Gregory Packard in Richmond, VA.  When I return on Friday, I will share the collage of the nine paintings I did for the "I Love England" series.  If you are on Facebook, please like my page, because this month I am going to give away a print of the collage to my Facebook fan!

I met my graduate school buddy, Steve, who happened to be teaching at Canterbury this semester.  We haven't seen each other for almost 20 years!  He gave us an excellent tour of the cathedral.  

At the Novium, a Roman museum in Chichester; my daughter as a Roman centurion.

We almost got blown away by a strong gale at the Lifeboat Station in Selsey, West Sussex; the sea behind my daughter is the English Channel.

Ev and Hans, our hosts, with my daughter

Yes, we did go to the British Museum while in London.  Seeing the Parthenon sculptures again was one of the highlights  of the trip.

Myself with my husband at the Parthenon Galleries.

"Tower Bridge Nocturne" (oil on linen; 9" x 12") sold

sold

It has been over twenty years since I visited London.  It has changed much, especially in the Docklands--an area in east and southeast London.  It's not just its physical appearance that has become in some parts ultra modern.  We saw many Europeans working in the city.  Food has improved vastly as well!  The British have embraced the 21th century wholeheartedly and I am happy for them.

Of course, the iconic Tower Bridge didn't need any improvement.  I wanted to see the bridge at night.  On last Saturday of our English trip, we walked along the Victoria Embankment, crossed the new Millennium Bridge, which, if you are a Harry Potter fan, you would remember well, and went all the way to the Tower Bridge.  And we saw it in its full glory.  There was sort of a sunset with pale pink clouds against a gray sky.  The bridge glowed like a big jewel.

The egg-shaped, glass structure is the new London City Hall!

A fantastic view from the Millennium Bridge; from this vantage point, all the buildings on the South Bank of the Thames River seem brand new!

The  ultra-chic "Shard", which you can see in the above photo, is here juxtaposed with the medieval Southwark Cathedral.  I love London! 

We ate two breakfasts at this small cafe in South Kensington.  The young woman server on the far left was French; the woman in the center was from Spain.

We ate a nice lunch at the Cafe in the Crypt of the famous St. Martin in the Fields at Trafalgar Square.  Yes, it is a real crypt with burial plaques!

For the last dinner in the UK, at a pub at Covent Garden, I ate the traditional British meal of roast beef with Yorkshire pudding and vegetables.  It was delicious!

"Victoria Embankment, London" (oil on linen; 10" x 8") sold

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If you ask me what I remember most about London during my recent trip to England, I would say "the crowds"!  True, you don't visit big cities like London for peace and quiet, but the city was completely mobbed with the tourists from the UK, Europe, and elsewhere. If we had been astute travelers, we would have checked the calendar ahead and noticed that it was the Easter weekend and the beginning of the Easter holiday.

There were lines everywhere.  London had become Epcot at Disney world on a bad day.  Look at the inside of the beautiful, but packed Natural History Museum on Friday afternoon.  Or Parliament Square on Saturday morning.  Or Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square on Saturday afternoon.

The mob scene at the Natural History Museum

Parliament Square; do you see the statue of Winston Churchill?

Piccadilly Circus is ALWAYS crowded!

But who knew that Leicester Square, one of the theater districts, was this  popular among tourists?

Don't get me wrong.  I love London.  Back in my youth, I lived there for six, happy months.  The stop at the  National Gallery, which was, needless to say, mobbed, was one of the highlights of the entire trip.  I got to see in person the 17th-century Spanish artist Velasquez's "Rokeby Venus"!

This was the only picture I took at the museum until I learned that photography was not allowed.  Oops!

We finally found peace on the Victoria Embankment, a river walk along the north bank of the Thames River. Boy, we walked gazillion miles that day, which wasn't over yet. We would continue the walk for a few more hours until our legs gave out.  By the way, if you think that I painted the river with the famous, ancient Egyptian, Cleopatra's Needle too romantically, you are wrong.  Paris is not the only romantic city in the world!

I have a suspicion that the British kept these iconic telephone booths for the amusement of the foreign tourists.  The girl in a serious winter gear is my daughter.  It was cold!