I spent the morning packing for a work trip, almost completing my new artist/chill out room and talking with my 3-year-old nephew on his pajama day, we ate breakfast for the first time together, it was great. He isn’t quite at the age of conversation though asks a lot of questions ‘What is that?’ And statements ‘It’s mine’ about everything. I have no idea if I’m fulfilling my duty of an Auntie correctly, I guess it’s just learning as you go?

I got to town in the busyness of Saturday shoppers, I much prefer weekdays in town. I ordered a takeaway box at my favorite cafe that was also very busy because of the whole Saturday thing. It wasn’t till I got to the station that I could actually feel space around me and breathe out a sigh of relief, the station, the trains – even in London all were quieter than my home town.

I made my way over to St. Paul’s to walk to The Tate Gallery, this is where my artist date begins.

I am surprised how natural I feel traveling on tubes now, I used to be terrified of getting lost, now I just want to explore! I took in some of the beautiful flowers by the cathedral through the rain was starting and I was map reading and holding my bright pink umbrella.

Even the umbrellas looked wonderful, as there were so many people holding colorful ones whilst walking over to the bridge and tourists posing with them.

The gallery was busy too and at the start of it, I was craving the quiet and space again, though with my notebook and sketchbook in hand using them alternatively, I relaxed. I stepped into a self-taught steal-like-an-artist mode and remembered that this experience was entirely how I choose to view it, enjoy it and go with the flow, I had a three-hour time gap to fill.

Straight away I got a feeling he was really interested in orgasms. And the moments after sex where you just lay there, though from the images he created, maybe he wasn’t directly next to the woman but looking at her from across the room. Marveling at her, the passion and planning his next painting.

I’m talking about Pablo Picasso, a surrealist artist and the exhibition Picasso 1932 Love, Fame, Tragedy at the Tate London open till September 2018.

There’s something about Picasso that I like, I can’t quite figure it out. He was indeed dedicated and did a lot of work. I like that you can explore the heart and mind of a painter through their works, that’s the beauty of Art.

Here’s what I know from what I’ve seen today.

• I like how he worked with shapes, how they are flowing, he adds lines to faces that make them distorted but they’re still faces. He draws boobs as circles and bodies as wavy lines. He makes it work. That’s his jam.
•  He didn’t work with models (or at least not often I don’t think) though he explored the theme of them A LOT. He made sculptures too and he didn’t go for the glamorous female figure look, he expressed the female in an interesting curvy imperfect way using his expression and imagination.
• He made a few smaller pieces too, a landscape portrait of a lady onto a small cardboard box and a face on canvas. Some of his works showed a contemplated view like Women writing with flowers and Rest, that was relaxing just to look at. I like to see a variety of sizes and differences of peoples works, what they do when they have to go small or stay in sketchbooks.
• There was a series on the wall where he explored the topic of Flute player and reclining nude, where he produced the same painting in 6 different ways, 4 of which were different mediums! Ink wash, graphite, oil paint, gouache paint, and brown paper – he stuck with a story and used what he had and worked it!

I finished the day with my first ever Matcha latte in Starbucks and writing. It was raining, though I really wanted to sketch the buildings nearby, the architecture is brilliant.

From the window, I was people watching, men in their finest suits and women in flowing bright dresses off to their Saturday night parties.