total timepass...

Last fall when the lockdown was lifted for some time, and some of the museums in London had started opening up, I visited the National Gallery. It must have been my 20th or 30th visit to the museum (I don't even remember). But it is definitely my most memorable and impactful one. In the last one year, I have started painting and that has completely changed my outlook towards art. Now I realise how difficult painting some things could be, how critical getting the right colours and light is, and so I am able to appreciate and immerse myself in the paintings a lot more than before. Also I have slowly formed my own opinions and likes in art, so it is a lot more enjoyable appreciating and staring at the pieces I like. Which are generally landscapes, flowers, bright colours and realistic scenes. During these museum visits, I am also figuring out which artists and styles I like, and why. And it doesn't bother me if it doesn't match popular opinion - Art, I've realised is pe...

The various museums I visited in Madrid differ from each other, in their themes and time periods. Like the Prado contains paintings all the way to the 1800s, while the Reina Sofia focuses on modern art. It is a good thing that I read about Reina before going, so I knew what to expect. Else, given its name, I would have expected to see the royal collection of paintings, with Christian themes. And it had nothing close to that at all! The museum owns more than 23 thousand pieces of photographs and paintings. And they are all modern art, from the 1900s onwards. Corridors of Reina Sofia The museum is huge, covering 4 floors plus an extension. It was constructed initially to be used as a hospital but ended up being used as a museum. So its architecture resembles a hospital more than a museum still. All around are corridors lined with rooms where the paintings are housed, far away from each other. And in the middle of the building is a garden which can be seen from the corridors. I had v...

The Thyssen was my favourite museum of the ones I went to in Madrid. And it has an interesting history. This museum showcases paintings collected by the Thyssen-Bornemisza family over the years, one of the largest personal art collections in the world. Even though the Baron was German and wanted to have the display in Germany itself, it ended up shifting to Spain, in the 1990s. Of course, the fact that he was married to a Spanish woman had a part to play in it 😜.   (You can see the museum in 360 view here ) The museum houses some 1600 paintings, some of which the Spanish government bought from the family and the rest are loaned to the museum for a couple of years at a time. Since it is a personal collection, the pieces here span from pre-renaissance times all the way up to modern artists of the 20th century. And the display provides a sort of highlight of the painting styles over the centuries. Galleries of Thyssen The museum is spread over three floors with paintings ...

This fall, I got a chance to spend a few weeks in Madrid. Madrid has always been known for its art and painting scene but I never explored it much in my earlier trips. But this time, it being lockdown season with limited things to do, plus my recently discovered love for painting led me to spend a considerable amount of time exploring the various museums of Madrid. This time around for sure, I was able to appreciate them more plus learn a bit about how I can improve my own paintings too. I visited the Thyssen, Reina Sofia, Prado and Sorolla museums during my stay. Most of them when they were free to visit. Given the pandemic, one had to book online even for the free slots, to limit the number of visitors. And surprisingly, the slots got booked very early on. All these museums are different from each other. Thyssen has paintings from a private collection and so has an eclectic mix of painters from different eras, of various painting styles. Prado covers the pre-1800 art while the R...