A boat, a bronco, a bird and some beautiful branches!

Woo hoo - I won the latest CB weekly challenge random number thingy - but - so many things I need (well, I don't actually need anything!) - but what to choose - I'll have to ponder on that one.

The Craft Barn weekly challenge is certainly making me think - this week's topic is masculine pastimes, and again, I didn't have much inspiration at all.

Then I found a background I had created on glossy card using Brushos (naturally!), and cling film. Which brought to mind that I had a yacht die, so...

The waves are created by cutting curved pieces from the same background.  A few stamps completed the picture.

Don't think I'd make a very good sailor, I would get seasick on a millpond!

On a completely different topic, this week I went to The National Gallery to see the "Inventing Impressionism" exhibition, which is about Parisian art dealer Paul Durant-Ruel who championed painters whose works had been shunned by the art establishment.  There were some fabulous paintings on show.

Including some stunning Renoirs, but my favourites were 5 Monets from his "Poplars" series.
This one I loved; it's usual home is the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

That is why I love these exhibitions, they are only on for a short while (this one ends on 31 May), but it is fabulous to see works that normally reside in private collections or museums around the world.











And, there is a new resident on the 4th plinth in Trafalgar Square. Called Gift Horse, it is by German artist Hans Haacke.  It's a skeleton of a riderless horse with a London Stock Exchange ticker fixed to its leg.

The horse is quite pleasing - but I did love that blue cockerel!

Happy Thursday!