Mr Turner

The idea was that I would take a picture that bore some resemblance to Turner’s painting of Ullswater from Gowbarrow Park. Trouble was – wrong time of year, wrong time of day, wrong viewpoint and there weren’t any cows.

But it is Ullswater and I have played about to make it look a bit like a painting – well sort of anyway!

Mr Turner
We went to see the film last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. Absolutely!
It is long, as our daughter commented yesterday, but to us it was not too long at all. In fact we were surprised that the time had gone by so quickly.

However . . .

a) We very rarely go to the pictures cinema and the huge screen still impresses us; the ‘posh’ seats are so comfortable; there were only about a dozen people in the place. So, the whole experience was a delight anyway.
b) It helped that we had been to the Late Turner exhibition at Tate Britain in the summer, where we had seen many of the pictures seen in the film. We had also learnt a lot about how his later work was received and about his relationship with the Royal Academy. So we had a good idea about what was going on.
c) I think Timothy Spall is brilliant in whatever he does!


I thought the relationship Turner had with Sophie Booth in the last few years of his life was beautifully done and contrasted very well with how he treated the other women in his life. Timothy Spall was fabulous. The film is visually stunning. Every scene is perfectly timed. It’s funny. So, I suppose I am saying, yes I loved it. I would be interested to hear what others think though.


At one point, when Turner comes in contact with one of the first cameras, he comments ruefully – so in the future people are going to be going around with a box instead of a portfolio and paints – quite so! (Although there is a blipper who is a notable exception to this!)