The National Gallery of Australia and Floriade

< Heads in the water - National Gallery sculpture garden
Last Monday was a rainy day in Canberra. Rather than giving up on exercise altogether, we decided to hike the corridors of the National Gallery. The imposing building was designed in the twentieth century "Brutalist" style, and houses some wonderful collections. But! The gallery is not, to quote an elderly woman following us down the steep exit ramp, very user friendly. Favorite works were the Aboriginal Memorial, paintings by Australian artists Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton, and Margaret Preston, and Jackson Pollock's "Blue Poles."

See our National Gallery and environs photo gallery and the National Gallery Home page.

Floriade is a flower and entertainment festival held annually in Commonwealth Park featuring massive displays of flowering bulbs with integrated sculptures. It takes place from September to mid October, and attracts more tourists to the Australian Capital Territory than any other event.

Tuesday's weather turned out to be better by far than Monday's - cool and sunny. We headed out to Floriade reasonably early but as usual the parking lot was jammed. Our luck held, however, and a parking spot opened up in front of us. David was a bit jaded ('oh, no, not another Floriade') but this year the flowers are very pretty and present a better than usual opportunity for some 'abstract' floral photos. We both carried cameras.

See the new photo gallery page by David. More to come.

P.S. Are you having Christmas this year, Judy? If yes, we'll be there.