A few days ago I took a trip to Cambridge to meet up with a friend I met when I was part of the local open studios event in 2014. Our meeting then was one of those moments, I'd had a rush of people just before she arrived and I had just hit a quiet moment which felt like quite a relief when there was a knock at the door, and she walked in and within an instant I think we both knew we had met a friend. We have been in touch ever since and I have mentioned her previously in my blog as she is a fountain of inspiration. 
Up to this week our encounters have always been in Norwich but Susan doesn't live in Norwich and Cambridge is about halfway between us so it seemed like a good place to meet, particularly as there was an exhibition I had read about in someone else's blog that I thought might be interesting to both of us. 
The exhibition was at the newly opened Heong Gallery connected to Downing College. I was attracted because the images I'd seen suggested that it would be full of colour. When we arrived, after meeting at the station and stopping briefly at a charity shop on the way, we were a bit amazed at the magnificence of the college. The history of it's beginning is quite interesting so here's a wiki-link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downing_College,_Cambridge. and for Susan I'm going to mention that Quentin Blake and David Lister are two of it's celebrated alumni.
The exhibition was perhaps different to how I had imagined but not disappointing. It is always interesting to see work in body rather than reproduced in a book or as an image on a computer screen. To be able to get up close and see cracks and daubs of paint and to feel a paintings heart beat, to register the size and texture, and note how or if it is framed. 
I loved the Peter Lanyon and Roger Hilton paintings and also the personal letters and christmas cards in the case by the door. It's an exhibition that is worth a look. http://www.dow.cam.ac.uk/index.php/about/news/471-gallery and the college has a grandeur that is gorgeous if also a little shocking.