The Hermitage Museum.

On the landing of the Grand Staircase, very grand indeed with the height of the ceiling being the entire height of the building itself.

                                   A small audience room just dripping with gilt decoration.

 A quiet corridor, amazing really given the huge crowds everywhere else. Not enough gilt maybe!
The Raphael Gallery, known as the Raphael Loggias, replicates the Vatican frescos originally sketched by Raphael and painted by his students under his supervision. They were much admired by Catherine, who commissioned designers and painters to do the Winter Palace work.

                  A garden somewhere in the palace, definitely not on the ground floor though.

                     The blank panels showing the soldiers who did not return from the war.

St. Petersburg.

Having every good intention to keep up with my Blog while travelling, I didn't get past the first day's posting! This will therefore be a retrospective Blog. After checking into our hotel, The Petro Palace we went for a short walk to get our bearings, and came across St. Isaac's Cathedral just around the corner. No time to go inside just yet however. (You can click on any photo to enlarge the image.)

 The very imposing Admiralty Building was not far away either, and I zoomed in with my camera to see what was on top of the spire.

                                                                   A ship of course!

 The next morning on our way to the Hermitage Museum we were shown this façade by our guide. Very impressive!

      This is the huge plaza outside the museum with it's commemorative column in the middle.

 The Hermitage Museum or Winter Palace, taken early one morning before the crowds and buses appeared.

Can you see the queue on the right hand side stretching right across the plaza?  As we had a local guide we didn't have to join such a long queue, in fact we were probably only 10th in line in our particular queue.

 

 

St. Petersburg, Russia.

The Petro Palace Hotel, our home for a few days.

Only 2 More Sleeps!

Only 2 more sleeps until we leave Melbourne for St. Petersburg and later in the week board this magnificent vessel to spend a couple of weeks cruising the Baltic Sea. I wonder how often she'll be like this in full sail, possibly not often and no, we don't have to climb the rigging.

Drawing.

This is a drawing presented to me by a just 4 year old. It's not random scribble, but intentional small marks all over the page. I just love it and I don't really know why, but to me it just has something!

Winter in the Park.

Printing Session.

 At last I have had a chance to carry out the next step in my current project. Using the full page feather gelatine plate prints that I made, I have stamped with the block that I cut some time ago and also with the thermofax screen that I burnt with my Gocco machine more recently.

    These are the only ones that I felt had potential, but the smaller dance'rs foot just wouldn't print.

 Drawing it in with a pen was an option, but I would rather that it printed in the same density as the rest of the print.

Wouldn't you know it, the one background that I really liked and wanted to use is no good, I didn't place the final print in the correct position!!!

Happy 4th Birthday!

 What a wonderfully colourful, but very easy birthday cake for a 4 year old who requested a rainbow cake.The cake itself was chocolate, just plain, with all the rainbow on the outside!