Art in Mile End

The end-of-year show of the Essential School of Painting took me to the Art Pavilion in Mile End park - what a wonderful venue, so spacious and with the evening light bouncing off the lake right outside.

The skylights give a hint that the building is partially underground, in the sense of having a grass roof; it's described as "buried in a grass bank".

I went along to see Gill Harding's work, portraiture in various media, of models and family and friends -

A favourite collage -

There's something about it that makes me smile whenever I see it, even in the photo - perhaps it's the "shower of leaves", like thoughts or words ... or perhaps the dark plant acts as the reflection of the viewer in a mirror, so that looking at the picture becomes a conversation with the person portrayed?