Nose to the grindstone........

I was lucky enough to be in London yesterday. I was even luckier to have four hours to kill before my train back to dear old Norfolk. A swift five stops and one change tube ride later, I was at the National Gallery.
An even swifter twelve quid later, I was feeling somewhat inadequate standing with my mouth open in front of 'Large Bather', by a certain Pablo Picasso.
The current show; Picasso Challenging the Past, is a stunning whistle stop tour of Picasso's work. Just in terms of chronological spread, you get bodily propelled from the late 1800's to the early1970's. In terms of style and content, you are by turns assaulted and caressed from flayed sheep's heads to minotaurs via self portraits and harem's of nudes. I loved it.
As a student I found the man's work aloof and confusing. Yesterday, with a few more miles on the clock, I found myself beguiled, bewitched and breathless.
These four pieces are mine, not Pablo's, but in his own words;
"Like all artist's, first I am a painter of women".