Degas to Dali

Yesterday the surgeon removed a "spot of bother" from my centre back.   I can't see there to check that his stitches are small and even!   However I have no discomfort and today I went into the city with my friend Tomoko to visit an art exhibition.
To avoid expensive car parks I travelled on the bus and walked down the hill from the bus stop.   Imagine my surprise when these small bronze men on their plinth appeared!  

They weren't there just a few weeks ago, or if they were I didn't meet them.   Today we got close up and personal.

The Pin Oak trees outside the university are starting to show their autumn colours.

Then outside the library there are new seats - these letters spell out the Maori word for language so seem highly appropriate.   From my observation, they are more used as climbing frames for young children than seats for weary pedestrians!

Tomoko introduced me to Malaysian cuisine for lunch -  slightly more spicy than I am used to but not unpalatable.   Then we walked on to the New Art Gallery.   I love the new adjunct to the old Victorian building and particularly this fantastic Floral Chandelier.   Made of silk, this installation puffs up and then slowly deflates in what must be a cycle but seemed pretty random to me.   This view from the outside

and from directly below

Currently there is an exhibition entitled from Degas to Dali and the artworks are all on loan from the National Galleries of Scotland.   Naturally there was no photography allowed inside the exhibition.   Of all the artwork we saw my favourite was neither Degas nor Dali but an amazing 1928 oil painting by William Roberts entitled The Rhine Boat.
Google Images provided me with this image to share with you

I just love the thick thighs of these guys -  Cubism it might be but the shading gives a certain roundness to the leiderhosen look!  
Walking back down the street to my bus I was taken with this display in the Louis Vuitton window.   No price tags visible of course and I wondered how many thousand dollars for the bag so elegantly displayed??

Home for pasta dinner and now I am settling down for an evening in the company of DMC 824 as I hope to complete the flowers on "Shelley's Jewellery Box".   Perhaps there will be progress shots  tomorrow as we are promised fine weather which is always a help in taking photos.