Night on the Town!

Yesterday, was a strange day for me and has left me with many mixed emotions

 I had to visit London

Yes!

It was that bad.

Let me explain in a a little more detail.

After spend so many years of my life [since the age of sixteen] working in London

It has become a place I would be happy never to see again, for me it holds none of

the magic and charm that it does for visitors

It is a place where I grew from being an innocent boy to a cynical man.

However it is also the town where I was first introduced to and then taught to appreciate art

Thanks to guidence of one man [who I have mentioned before].

I admit that the places, galleries / museums and shops he intoduced me to still seem magical.

Even last night, walking past the old building where we first worked together had my heart beating faster.

London, I love it hate it.

The reason I had to make a very unexpected trip there yesterday is this.

I have been writing to the incredible American artist

Daniel Merriam.

That is nothing special as I often write and correspond with artists that I admire.

Of course, always in the hope that we might agree upon a partnership of some kind, simply because I would love to one day exhibit their work.

It is like sifting for gold, sometimes you strike it rich.

So it was that Daniel replied to me and we had the early start of a relationship.

Then!

A few days ago he asked "do you want to meet up in person"?

He was stopping at London for the weekend before tavelling with his wife to Venice

"for a proper [belated] honeymoon".

Of course I had to give this a great deal of consideration.

"Tell me where and when and I will meet you there"

A few more mails passed between us until I realised that his travel [from San Fransico] was immenent

and I still had no idea where he was staying.

He and his wife were in the depature lounge at the airport when they recieved my "where" question.

"The Ritz".

If I wasn't already nervous enough this information pushed me over the edge.

I wasn't sure what frightened me more

Meeting this world renowned artist or visiting this iconic hotel.

On reflection I think I was more in awe of the hotel.

I was right to be in awe of the hotel.

Daniel could not have been more normal, unassuming and unretensious than I could have hoped for.

He is an artist that only takes his craft seriously, not himself.

I walked into the Ritz and recognised him instantly

Let's just say if his art ever lets him down he could always turn to acting,

Would you believe he makes Bradd Pitt look ugly? 

Both he and his equally beautiful wife instantly took me "under their wing".

[weren't they meant to be the tourists]!

They lead me off to a night club 

It was themed on "Around the World in 80 Days'.

For me the non tourist it spelt "rip you off in 80 seconds", plus it was far to loud

Which is saying something for a partially deaf person.

We decided to move on and find somewhere with less noise so that we could talk.

We did talk, in fact we talked a lot.

We talked of different artists, our gallery, Daniels Gallery, Daniels art.....

in fact we talked of many many things

But none in a private place

We talked as I lead them around the area's of central London and Soho that I could remember,

In fact for me their was a lot of nostalgia involved,

Although enjoying myself I was astounded at how London had changed in ten years

Every "genuine" old pub and restaurant I lead them towards had closed or drastically changed.

What did I expect, this is London.

So, eventually we settled on a pizza.

When you are hungry at least you know your are safe with what you are eating.

A far cry from the 'RITZ'

But I don't think I was being judged, we just enjoyed ourselves.

For me I can't remember such an enjoyable evening/night for a long time

Every now and again I had to remind myself that this was a famous artist who kept asking me

"do you want a slice of my pepporoni"?

The evening was as unusual as Daniels paintings, but with "added toppings".

I hope you both enjoy Venice.