There is a magical moment when you first arrive to an art gallery (in this case The National Gallery in Ottawa) and you are not sure if taking photographs is allowed. Maybe you have chosen not to closely read the pamphlet they gave you with your admission. Perhaps there are no signs posted. Regardless, you wait until you see a painting you really like which chances are will not have a matching post card in the gift shop because it's not by anyone particularly famous and/or of a naked lady. It's a rainy early spring Sunday afternoon and, except for a horn-rimmed batik-panted natural grey haired lady and a gaggle of bored high schoolers, you are alone. You get one shot before the french-speaking guard politely tells you that photos are not allowed. For me it's always a painting of a ship.
Edward Wadsworth
British, 1889-1949
Dazzle-ships in Drydock at Liverpool
1919
Oil on canvas.
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