Wittenham Clumps in Dulwich

To Dulwich , with my trusty travel card, to see the Paul Nash ' The Elements' exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery. A rather unfortunate misunderstanding (brought on by coming in the opposite side from the main entrance) meant I ended up at the front of an extremely middle-class queue. In all innocence I thought they were queuing for the cafe. They were not. My offer to leave immediately and shoot myself was accepted. I had to nip down to Dulwich Village to have tea and two rounds of toast and marmalade in order to recover my nerve. This is a good exhibition - though I think Nash's surrealism is very difficult to engage with.
I was most at ease with his landscapes, particularly Wittenham Clumps because it is an image I am so familiar with. Wittenham was an obsession with Nash - this is Landscape of the Vernal Equinox (1943). Painted from a house he was staying in at Boars Hill, the owner's daughter remembers Nash using field glasses to capure the image, with his asthma inhaler at his side. The view no longer exists, the Clumps dominance of the landscape has been eclipsed by Didcot Power Station.

A grey and wet day, with complete chaos on the Tube, but so nearly spring, as this little flower shop in Dulwich displays. I think the police car lends just that little tweak of surrealism.