ALT: a woman in a blue dress is reaching for a book on a ladder

One of the unexpected perks of retirement? The sheer volume of uninterrupted reading time! While the daily hubbub of chatting with hundreds of people has vanished, it just means more quality time with my books. Jumping from rereading classics and realising that you never really liked Elizabeth Bennett and it's Emma Woodhouse who is your favourite Austen character to proto-feminism in Margaret Atwood's…

The first time I went to New York I wanted to see this famous painting, and I was not disappointed. Andrew Wyeth Christina's World 1948, MoMA, NYC It was one of the first paintings I described without knowing anything about it or the artist It was such a wonderful moment to be able to see every brush stroke that it did make me cry.

There’s something utterly mesmerising about Niagara Falls — that thundering cascade of water, the mist hanging in the air like a veil, the sheer force of it all. But tucked behind the natural drama is a story just as electrifying: the tale of how Nikola Tesla, the eccentric genius with a flair for the theatrical and a mind decades ahead of his time, turned all that raw power into something world-changing.

Another of these anniversary posts for the birthday of one of my favourite artists. Michael Palin's films are a delight and his enthusiasm does inspire you to find out more. This one is a cracking watch!

7/7 is The Group of Seven Day and the AGO in Toronto opened especially for me. Sorry, no, they opened to celebrate a group of artists who changed Canadian art and brought it into modernity. I'm at the airport and have a bit of time to share some of my favourite pieces. This may become a bit random so hold onto your hats as they may blow off with excitement!

Over Vitebsk, 1915 It's one of those anniversary posts and this is at the AGO in Toronto and was photographed this morning! More on this visit to come!

Edna Reindel, The Steel Age, 1934 I have been reading about Edna Reindel, a polymath in the arts whose work during World War Two brought her to fame. Edna Reindel: An Inspiring Artist for an Unprecedented Time This article is very interesting and with a career spanning decades, there is a lot to explore. This blog gives a full overview of the different genres she worked in. Images of the Working Woman

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Not exactly art but given that I have a passion for Tim Burton's aesthetic, it would have been very remiss of me to not get a ticket to Beetlejuice The Musical at the Mirvish Theatre. First of all, wow! What an interior! I love old theatres, so much history and so many theatrical ghosts running around waiting for the first call!

I have started looking at dissertation topics and one of them is based around this kind of literature and how it reflected the fear of mechanisation on a society moving rapidly to industrialization. It wouldn't be a perfect trip if I didn't get time in a library so when this little exhibition appeared, off I popped to the Lillian H. Smith Library here in Toronto!