Sphere's here

Something strange was spotted by Mark on his recent trip to Donegal

Venice Biennale

Arriving by water taxi

Images of Venice

Best in show - The Clock by Cristian Marclay

Watched 3pm to 5pm - magnificent !

Getting on his wick - Urs Fischer

Haiti ?

Austrian Pavilion

Greek Pavilion

Korean Pavilion

Mike Nelson - British Pavilion

Polly Morgan - Burials exhibition

Polly Morgan

Could be art ...

Moldovan pavilion in a gondola boat yard

Venice pavilion - from Louis Vuitton collection - Fabrizio Plessi

From the Peggy Guggenheim collection - a David Hockney snapshot of a beach club in Forte Dei Marmi

Leaving Venice by water taxi

Robert Breer

Trip to Newcastle with middle son to pick up his University stuff - had time for a visit to the Baltic and a wander round Robert Breer's moving sculptures - having initially dismissed them as uninteresting, we suddenly noticed that all the shapes were gliding across the floor ever so slightly - even the large wall ...

It felt like being in a large animated canvas.

http://www.capc-bordeaux.fr/en/program/robert-breer

Mystery tour

For my recent birthday, Amanda took me on a mystery tour of London.

We started at the Haunch of Venison gallery, Guiseppe Penone's wood sculptures

and his negative bronze casts of cedar bark

Graphite on black paint on canvas - a clever effect

Also had some Richard Long sculptures

I liked the mud thumb prints - good link to Guiseppe's work

Boris-biked it along the Regent's Canal to the East End where we found a couple of interesting shops -

Who knew you could be a Market Sundriesman -

my career advisor never ever mentioned it ...

Artist at work ...

Also visited the St John museum in Clerkenwell - http://www.museumstjohn.org.uk

and had a great lunch in the new St Pancras hotel -http://www.thegilbertscott.co.uk

Finished off with a rather fascinating silent tour of Dennis Severs house in Spitalfields -

http://www.dennissevershouse.co.uk

Each room was the like being inside an old master painting where the inhabitants have just left the building. Also without any descriptions and a ban on talking you had to work hard to understand what was in front of you - a bit like studying a difficult piece of art and trying to articulate what you feel about it.

Photos by Roelof Bakker ( www.rbakker.com)

Well worth a visit.

Springwatch fever

Had a great trip to Skomer Island this week - just happened to be when Springwatch was filming there - the welsh naturalist Iolo Williams was there bright and early in the car park at 7.30 am chatting to some local experts.





Roger didn't waste any time in getting the experts to reveal the secrets of Skomer ...




Exciting and exhillarating rough trip over to the island, which at this time of year is full of Puffins, Manx Shearwaters, Guillemots, Razor Bills and Kittewakes.

Roger and Iolo - a perfect pair of welsh twitchers - they always come back to the same burrow ...

Next day was a long coastal walk in Pembrokeshire

I leave you with Roger's dog Max