Ugles

After all the furore of the Royal Wedding on Friday (which we watched on BBC World News - loved the dress Kate!), a visit to something calming and restorative was in order, so we ventured out to Louisiana, this time to take Granny who is visiting for a few days and hasn't been here before...

There is currently a huge Picasso Exhibition here that stretches over 3 floors, with hundreds of his paintings, but my favourite piece was his little Ceramic Owl (or Ugle in Danish!), and I think he would look perfect on our fireplace! David Hockney also currently has an exhibition here called "Me Draw On Ipad", which I really wanted to hate, as I am not much of an Apple Fan (to put it mildly), but some of the artwork (shown on ipads displayed around a darkened room) was surprisingly beautiful, and I have to admit it's an interesting medium even if you are not going to get the same results if you print the pictures off...

The children's favourite piece of the day was a light installation by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama called Gleaming Light of the Souls, involving a small room with hundreds of constantly changing coloured lights, water and mirrors. Once I had managed to get S to to sit down on the floor and watch the changing colours, and not fall in the water, I loved it too, it is both beautiful and mesmerising.
Too much artwork viewing for small people must be rewarded with time at the Children's Wing of course, (which is the most incredible place for kids as I have said before), and this time they were encouraged to make their own Ugle's from giant mounds of clay, and have a go at drawing Picasso inspired still life with pastel crayons... Help and encouragement is always on hand here from the enthusiastic studio staff (although it looks like the biggest room on the ground floor will be shut for a while due to a flood)...

All the sculpting proved to be thirsty work, so it was time for tea outside in the sun where we watched a couple of hardy swimmers braving the sea below, whilst stuffing our faces with sinful Kartoffelkage (choux pastry filled with cream, a marzipan layer on top covered in cocoa powder, and called this because of the shape, not because they contain potatoes! The lovely Kitty at These Sublime Days actually made these recently if you feel brave enough to give them a go!) and chocolate Sandra Bernhardt cakes (a squat chocolate cone with chocolate mousse innards, a macaroon base, and an almond on top - thus called after the French actress, not Madonna's friend Sandra Bernhard by the way...).

Afterwards we decided to walk around the beautiful grounds and ventured around the back of the museum, where earlier Granny had spotted a huge slide(!). R&S spent what seemed like a good hour enjoying it all to themselves as I am not sure many people know it's here!...

Fish and chips on the way home at Rungsted, Friday night English supper style, and a spot of crab fishing afterwards (they didn't appear to like bacon or pasta this time either), for a perfect start to the weekend makes!...