Gilbert Place, WC1

After class, a little wander on the way to CAA for the preview of the latest show. Gilbert Place isn't exactly a dark alley, but I doubt I've walked down it before. It's rather gloomy but has a few interesting reflections of windows on windows -The magic of digital technology (and Photoshop) brings the top windows out of the gloom (I didn't use flash) -
but the manipulation lost the reflection in the photo - here it is closer up -
At the end of Gilbert Place is the cheery comfort of the London Review Bookshop, where this tempted me (but I resisted) -
and this tempted me (but I resisted) -
I did buy Bridget Riley's collected writings on art, because of reading something enlightening by her in the London Review of Books, and because of dipping into it ("The Eye's Mind") and reading this:

"The scroll paintings in that exhibition of Chinese art at the British Museum were made by scholar poets, painter poets. After seeing the exhibition, I bought a book about the criteria by which these works were assessed. The Chinese had very, very exacting standards. They developed a way of judging based on the spirit, mood and feelings conveyed by the paintings. Shih, as I seem to remember, has to do with 'alive-ness'. The informality of the little brush marks means that they required great discernment. No matter how facile and vivid the brush marks might be, unless they were imbued with a basis truth, Li, the scroll painting was worthless. I liked the way in which the criteria were to do with states of being, and that the paintings conveyed frames of mind."

The illustrations consist of her paintings, and others ranging from Egyptian tomb decorations to Bruce Nauman.