A Day With Schiele, Coffee and the Red Room

I like to think that once a week I have a free day.

In fact, it's not quite a full day because at four I need to pick up my son, take him to after-school activities through the traffic jam and then - hello traffic jams again! - return home where thousands of things are waiting to be done  ...
But when I think about the fact that most of the day I can do whatever I want rather than what is necessary, my heart is filled with joy. Sounds old-fashioned, but that's what it is. I can read a book. Or paint. Or go shopping. I can enjoy myself at an exhibition or in a museum, go to a cafe where I haven't been yet, take out my sketchbook and sit there and draw over a mug of hot chocolate ... The sky's the limit when there is a lot of free time!
The main thing is not to schedule anything, not feel guilty because I have time for myself. All what is needed is to relax and decide that there are no rules and that wherever the day takes me, it is all all right and exactly what it should be.

Last week was special.
First, I met a friend at a beauty salon, then we had coffee and chatted together in one of my favorite coffee shops - a spacious place with large windows, where everything is so delicious and beautiful.

And then I went to the movies.
In every city there is a "secret" place where you get only if you know the way. A "hidden gem". That day I was lucky to find it:  "Svetozor" cinema in the heart of Prague.

The film was about Egon Schiele, one of my favorite artists, and in the foyer of the cinema was an exhibition of the artist Kveta Patsovsky. I was amazed by her stunning work.

I had passed "Svetozor" cinema a million times and always had the idea that I ought to go there. It had always been just that quick thought until I saw that "Schiele" was on.

The films in "Svetozor" are exactly what they used to be in good old times: thought-provoking, not made just to get distracted and forget about problems.
They are not dubbed and are screened in the language in which they were shot. So I watched Schiele in German with Czech subtitles.
I was sure that a film in the middle of the day won't attract many people.
How wrong I was!
The house was almost full.
I bought a ticket for sixty crowns - a ridiculous amount of money. But what I liked the most were the posters of old movies that they are selling right next to the cash desk.

I have a large frame for which I want to find a beautiful old poster. And I cannot. Because in antique shops there are either no posters at all or the choice is very limited and whatever there is it is quite expensive, starting from from 2,000 CZK. There are sites where you can order something, but the choice is so great that it is difficult to decide what I really want.
And in this store they are selling great stuff for 300-400 CZK.
There are also T-shirts, but I did not like them.
So, I bought the ticket and went in.

And saw these wonderful works.

But the movie was about to start, so I decided to have a good look at the artwork afterwards.

"Egon Schiele: Death and the Girl" is beautiful and sad. With delightful music.
I do not really know how to write reviews or even convey impressions. It is necessary to watch movies instead of reading about them.
"Egon Schiele" is definitely a must.

I would have felt strange after the movie if not the Red Room from Twin Peaks.

Funny: once I had a bizarre feeling even when the room was mentioned, but now I was sitting there drinking coffee and staring at a small package on my plate that said Drink me! "Sugar kills". I was almost laughing at a point.

There was a wall with Kveta Pacovska's works right in front of me.
She was born in 1924, studied in Prague and has been working in the Czech Republic, Germany and France.
Kveta Pacovska is a painter, illustrator, graphic designer, typographer and teacher (Hochschule der Künste in Berlin and Kingston University in the UK), she was awarded the highest award which an illustrator of children's books can receive- Andersen Prize. Books with her illustrations are published in more than 20 countries.

This is Kveta at the age of 90  (a photo from 2014, source)

I really had to push myself out from there as my "day" was getting to an end.