30 Day blog challenge: Day 17 — An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)

ooooh.... *rubs hands together*

i've been looking forward to this one.  not because i have a great deal to say about this subject.  as the saying goes:  "I don't know much about art, but i know what i like."  or rather, i don't.  stuff can grow on me (y'know, like mould), or it can flake off.  but there is an awful lot of strange beauty out there, and some of it fills me with bliss.  such as the piece i've chosen to share here.  it's a piece of sculpture that resides in St Pancras Station in London.  the station itself is, quite frankly, a work of art.  it is, essentially, a vast dead-end barn, with a sweepingly majestic arched glass roof, where the trains arrive forwards, and leave backwards.  it is the sation where the train that travels from Derby to London terminates.  i've only been been there twice in the last three years, but both times, i spent a lot of time just looking at the building and the sculpture in it, and the poetry inscribed on the floor.  the station has spent many years being lovingly restored to its Victorian glory, and my god, it's gorgeous! *sigh*  oh yes - and the beautiful iron beams (now painted a lovely sky-blue) were, i'm proud to say, manufactured not two miles from where i'm currently sitting.

oh, look - i can't just show you the sculpture - i have to share the station, too!  everything, in fact! :oD  lets face it - i consider the whole thing a work of art.

look, i'm not going to go on and on about this (actually, i might yet - stay tuned, funsters!), but there's a couple of things i really want to show you....

first is this:

this wonderful, and somewhat scruffy, chap (rendered in glorious life and wind-blown motion by martin jennings) is Sir John Betjeman - a beloved English "poet of the people". 

he led the fight to stop the demolition of the beautiful facade of the station (the Midland Hotel, which adorns the front of the station) in the 1960s and is, for that reason, commemorated here. (see this article for a little more info).  

it's his poetry you can see inscribed on the cumbrian slate  on which he stands.

it reads:

"And in the shadowless unclouded glare / Deep blue above us fades to whiteness where / A misty sea-line meets the wash of air."

 

he's gazing in wonder at the beautiful roof of the (unromantically named) Barlow Train Shed:

 trust me - the photo does not do it justice.

and so to the piece of sculpture that started all of this off.:

  "the meeting place" by paul day

again, the photos don't do it justice.  it's stunning, and brings tears to my eyes.

since i took these photos in 2008 (coincidentally on my way to meet Neil Gaiman, though i didn't know it at the time...), more has been added around the base of the plinth, depicting...  well, all sorts of railway-related things, and it. is. awesome.  astonishing in its detail and artistry.

so there you go - Saint Pancras Station.

oh, and one other thing, because i can rarely stop at one....

this painting, which has hung in our front room for many years, was painted by none other than my talented hubby *tries not to burst with pride*

 

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