The Secrets of Mona Lisa

We all know the painting of Mona Lisa, possibly one of the most recognised paintings in the world,  Mona Lisa with that enigmatic smile.  Yesterday Helen took our Super Leisure Group (SLG)  to the Expressions Gallery in Upper Hutt to discover the “Secrets of Mona Lisa”.  Just a small group this time, with some being unwell, and others away on holiday.

The exhibition centres around photos of the famous painting taken by French engineer Pascal Cotte,  founder of Lumiere Technology.  He scanned the painting with a 240-megapixel Multi-spectral Imaging Camera he invented, which uses 13 wavelengths from ultraviolet light to infrared. The resulting images peel away centuries of varnish and other alterations, shedding light on how the artist brought the painted figure to life and how she appeared to da Vinci and his contemporaries.   The infrared images also revealed da Vinci's preparatory drawings that lie behind layers of varnish and paint.  "If you look at the left hand you see the first position of the finger, and he changed his mind for another position," Cotte said. "Even Leonardo da Vinci had hesitation."

Photo courtesy of Expressions

All very technical, but very interesting, as we looked at a series of photos as the painting is now, with the varnish removed, and how it would have looked way back in the 1500s when freshly painted.

We asked one of the staff to take our photo outside the gallery doors

For lunch we drove down to the Naenae Bowling Club, a magnificent new building indeed. The new building incorporates three outdoor bowling greens, a state-of the-art indoor stadium, a snooker room, bistro, TAB and gaming room.   No wonder the bistro was full, with lunch at only $10 with free dessert, it was a bargain indeed.  Most of us had the delicious roast pork for lunch, with Helen enjoying her meal of fried fish and salad.  With ice-cream sundaes to follow, plus coffee, it certainly was a great meal.  The weather was freezing cold and pouring with rain, so no photos taken.

Then it was back to Helen and Calvin’s home for afternoon tea and to do the draw for the following year. Just look at these gorgeous begonias all out in flower on the covered deck.  You can tell they have green fingers in this household.

Beautiful begonias

We all took a slip of paper out of the container, which had the name of our month each to organise an outing for the group.  We will have to put our thinking caps on again – not as hard as it sounds, as we all seem to come up with something interesting for the group to do. 

With 100km drive to get back home, we got on our way, driving through the showers of rain, to see a pretty rainbow in front of us.

No wonder the weather had been so cold, just look what was awaiting us on the hills at home.  That’s quite a covering of snow.

Brrr, that looks cold