Salt Mills, Saltaire, Shipley & David Hockney

This is a great day out, and http://www.saltsmill.org.uk/ is also a great web site.

Using the M62 and M606 and ring road around Bradford, it is a fairly easy journey from Liverpool.

There are books and exhibits about the mills themselves, which I think are more about cotton than salt, but I rather ignored them.  More than anything else the experience is about David Hockney, who was greatly involved in getting the mills re-opened, and who has many of his works of art exhibited there.  There is  a wide range of styles media and subject matter, and I would expect that most people would find at least something that makes it a worthwhile visit.

On the first floor is a space called "Home" which is something between an exhibition and a shop. It is slightly more kitchen than the rest of the house, a lot of Alessi and Dualit. You can certainly wander round and enjoy the exhibits, there is a great deal of beauty and nicely laid out, ranging from kitchen utensils to designer tables and chairs.  As well as exhibits with extraordinary price tags £3,874 was it for one dining table? there are also lots of small ticket affordable items, so the experience is partly going round a shop, and partly exhibition.

That same fusion of purpose applies to the whole place.  There is no entry fee, you can come to shop, or you can come to visit the art.   The main gallery is not a hallowed display space, with a shop annexed to it.  The books posters and art material you buy are laid out in between all the paintings and pottery you come to admire.

One of Hockneys works we saw most of was produced with the media "felt tip on napkin"  a little motif af a dog is used on the menus the crockery, the bills, and the staff's tee shirts in the Salt Diner, where we enjoyed a very acceptable lunch.    This is one of two eating places within refurbished mill.

Spending time in the book shop was an enjoyable relaxed experience.  Certainly there were shelves, but more  was laid out on tables that were easier to browse and be engaged by. With more space between tables than in an average high street bookshop, the whole experience was more like moving between one exhibit and another.

We left with much more still to see.  Rugs Fabrics early music theatre sets and more. We shall certainly come back another time.  Plus we have a much better appreciation now of Hockney as an artist.

On the way home the skies were dark in the East, and a very vivid blue in the West, darkening before the sunset lit up the sky as we enjoyed the last of the pretty scenery on the outskirts of Bradford before the darkness fell.