Some more of the Sydney trip...

I did not take many photos during this trip because of the rainy conditions and this was a good thing as the battery remained charged up the whole time. Because we only took cabin baggage size cases, items like the charger for my camera battery were left at home as we tried to keep below the 7kg limit.

On our second day, we continued to immerse ourselves in some of the culture that Sydney has to offer!
In pouring rain we walked to the station and caught a train to St James station and then walked to the Art Gallery of NSW looking quite waterlogged despite our plastic rain ponchos!
(I took these photos as we were leaving the gallery...as there was a break in the rain...)

The impressive front portico of the gallery

To the right...

View to the left...

DH had purchased tickets for us to view the 2013 Archibald Prize finalists, so in to the gallery building we went and down the stairs to browse through all the wonderful portraits. No photography was allowed in this part of the gallery but I can tell you that some of the paintings just took my breath away.

I loved 2 paintings especially...the People's Choice winner... a portrait of actress Asher Keddie by her partner Vincent Fantauzzo,  and the painting of Dr Hamlin by Sally Ryan. I bought a postcard of the second painting and it is magnificent...especially the way the artist has painted the face and hands of Dr Hamlin, and in the way she has painted the garter stitch of the blanket. A fellow blogger, Kaite, knitted the blanket and she can be very proud of her work. I did scan the postcard but feel that the copyright issues prevent my posting that scan on the blog, so instead I'm again adding the link to the A.G. of NSW page where you can view all the finalists, including the winner!

We could hear the rain 'hammering' on the roof of the gallery so we extended our stay at the gallery to stay warm and dry...consequently we viewed lots of other paintings and sculptures in the art gallery's collection...now that had to be a bonus! 

I didn't know DH was taking a photo! Here I am watching some videos about various artists  on an iPad...

DH loved this portrait of Margaret Olley by Ben Quilty which was the winner of the Archibald Prize in 2011.

Beside it hung a portrait of her painted in her younger years...this also had won the Archibald Prize...for William Dobell I think.

Look at the wonderful view we had out of the large windows near the cafe on one of the upper levels...

Before DH took this photo, the some seagulls had been swimming in that puddle on the right hand side...lol

Another view from the window...a family of sculptured dogs :-)

Then it was time to walk back to St James station...as it wasn't raining then I took some photos on the walk back...

A glimpse of the Centrepoint Tower in the distance...

A beautiful old church

yet another gracious old building

A statue of Lachlan Macquarie

Our next destination was Circular Quay...more about that, next time.