Monday, May 28, 2012

True Colours - Black

Well this week's colour challenge was to go over to the dark side and find interesting things that were black.

I decided I would take Beckett and Keltic downtown and photograph them with a few of our interesting finds. Well that didn't work out too well and I couldn't get them to sit and stay together while I took the picture.  I did take their pictures on a little hill near the Peacekeepers Monument.



So our first picture of black is the Peacekeepers Monument. This monument is to all the men and women of the Canadian Forces who have served on peacekeeping or peacemaking missions.


Our second picture of black is the reason I went downtown.  This sculpture stands outside the National Art Gallery and is called the Maman. She's called the Maman as there are marble eggs in her thorax.



You can just see some of the white eggs if you look closely at the picture above

I didn't know it until I tried to find out the name of this sculpture that there are other museums that also have it, the Tate and the Guggenheim are just two of the others.  The Maman and the Peacekeepers Monument are not actually black when you get up close, they are both bronze but at a distance they look black.

There is a sculpture at the Museum that has black. It was a new one for me as I don't recall seeing it the last time I was down.


Does the horse leading the herd look black to you? No, well let me show you the other side.


Nearly all of the horses were a different colour on the other side.  Makes the sculpture look very different depending on your point of view.

We also found black lamp posts in this part of downtown Ottawa. This picture was taken very near where Beckett and Keltic checked out pee mail.


We had only paid for an hour of parking as I thought Keltic might be getting a wee bit tired with that much walking so we headed back home but on our way we stopped to see some horses, black horses.



One horse named Edward came over to check us out. At first Beckett was a little scared, barking and growling but then he calmed down as Edward started to eat grass. And how do we know his name is Edward? Well, from the name plate you can see on his halter.  These are just not any old black horses but they are the stars of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Musical Ride.


They have their stables right here in Ottawa and before they start the show season they put on free Sunset Ceremonies at the end of June.  I went with my niece a few years back; it's all outdoors, you bring your own lawn chair or blankets and sit on the grass of an outdoor amphitheater. Sometimes you have to walk a ways as parking is hard to find.  Well behaved dogs are welcome. I may just have to take Beckett and Keltic this year.

7 comments:

  1. That maman sculpture looks like something you would see in a scary movie!

    Very cool black stuff :)

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    1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maman

      Yes, scary movies indeed, the old sci-fi horror kind, spiders who take over the world.

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  2. Kind of neat living in a national capital, eh!

    I haven't seen the Sunset Ceremony in years. If you'd like some company, let me know when you're going and I'd be happy to join you and Keltic.

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  3. Oh you really found some good unusual stuff. Love the holey horses.
    ~lickies, Ludo

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  4. Okay - the spider is definitely freaky but love it anyway - what great finds and I love the horses

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  5. That is one large spider! YIKES!
    You did a great job at finding unusual blacks!

    Love ya lots,
    Mitch and Molly

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  6. That spider sculpture is so scary. And here I thought my Raven statue was scary -- your spider one was creepier than our post! So interesting about the marble eggs in the sculpture. Sounds so interesting how artists can come up with things to make the object look real.

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