Ghostly

It's been gloriously sunny here in Sussex this weekend....the perfect weather for dancing and a reminder of why I am completely mad to wear a mask whilst doing so! Were you one of the lucky ones who saw the Northern Lights? Regrettably I wasn't for I am a true lark and make a hopeless owl....yes yours truly was tucked up in bed completely oblivious of all the drama going on in the night sky right outside my window I very much doubt that my ancient steam powered phone could have captured anything of it  anyway😆

Speaking of spotting things I did notice a little thing unseen by many lurking in this gorgeous painting 'Interior of the Church of St Catherine Utrecht' by Pieter Saerredam [1597-1665]. Initially it stood out for all the different little clusters depicted within this light filled space even down to the dog towards the back.

With most paintings I tend to give them a fairly cursory glance before moving on, but this one really drew me in and had I not spent a bit of time looking more closely I would never have realised that there are these intriguing shadowy figures lurking.

With my febrile imagination running riot my first thought was 'ghostly apparitions'. However, I was adulting that day so I sought out the advice from the room steward who provided me with the much more practical [and slightly duller] explanation that this is where the painter has decided to remove them by overpainting them, but over time they have leached back through to the surface. 

We saw this and many other varied works of art at Upton House. Next time I'll let you know where Mr GBT distracted me with so that he wouldn't have to go to the art gallery I was beginning to make interested noises about visiting. That will be my final Midlands post.

Arilx