Turner @ the MET

When I think of landscape painting I think of green pastures and abstract livestock grasping at a boring, pale blue background. I certainly never envision Turner and his violent orange skies and paintings where waves become the protagonist, enveloping the canvas and the viewer.

It was an ordinary Tuesday when I found myself lost in the MET, trying to make my way to the latest summer blockbuster exhibition with an interest only in the cocktail hour afterwards. But I found myself walking through the J.M.W. Turner exhibition in awe. Various rooms were filled with famous works previously only seen in cramp musty undergraduate auditoriums on age old projector slides. The large canvases told stories and the colors evoked emotion. Each section was dedicated to a chapter in Turner's life and whispered to us his bout with depression and his love affair with the sea, the sky and with Italy. I couldn't help but stand for hours in front of his paintings feeling the emotions of nature and daydreaming of the many stories held in his paintbrushes. It was incredible and inspiring and the Pimms cup at the cocktail hour weren't half bad!

The show opens on July 1st and closes at the end of September.