Art Sunday, Signs and hidden meanings

These are the Napoleon paintings to go with the blog

Picture Perfect; Angles

These steps are quite new, they were built within the last couple of years. I love this design, at the bottom of every section is a circular viewing platform. I've had these photos on my computer for a while now and never got around to posting them, then I realised how well they fit with the PP theme, ANGLES.
I just haven't had the time to do PP for a couple of weeks and I wasn't going to do it this week until I saw the theme and remembered these photos

http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/photos/album/167/Dundee_Pathway_down_to_the_tay

Dundee Pathway, down to the tay

These steps are quite new, they were built within the last couple of years. I love this design, at the bottom of every section is a circular viewing platform. I've had these photos on my computer for a while now and never got around to posting them, then I realised how well they fit with the PP theme, ANGLES.
I just haven't had the time to do PP for a couple of weeks and I wasn't going to do it this week until I saw the theme and remembered these photos

Song Saturday, Dory Previn

I think this lady is first and foremost a poet , an extraordinarly  good poet.

So many people have dismissed Dory Previn as the lunatic ex-wife of world famous Andre Previn. Personally I think if yr ol’ man who is also your working partner and yr salvation from a life of abuse and misuse; dumps your for the utterly gorgeous waif like Mia Farrow; at a time in your life when your mental health is frail to start with. ………….well need I say more? The woman is entitled to a bit of a breakdown. And anyway it all happened so long ago

Dory Previn was the wife of André Previn in the Sixties. Together they worked on music for the films ‘Inside Daisy Clover’, ‘Valley of the Doll’s, and ‘The Sterile Cuckoo’’ , she won an Oscar for that one. When André left Dory for Mia Farrow, Dory had a serious and prolonged breakdown. One way out of her own personal crisis was her song writing. This time she did it for herself not for her husband or for the film industry; she did it just for herself. Already in her mid-forties she released her almost biographical and deeply confessional, ‘On My Way to Where’, which came out in 1970. Her second album of this period, ‘’Mythical Kings and Iguanas’’, (my own personal favourite), was released in 1971. The third album of this period, ‘’Reflections in a Mud Puddle’’.,was voted one of the best albums of 1972

She is quoted as saying “They were all based on true experiences but the music I write for films is not. These songs were for me. I know myself better than anyone else, so it helped me. It was self-revelation.”

She pulled back from music for awhile, and wrote two autobiographies, Midnight Baby: an Autobiography’ (1976, ISBN 0-02-299000-4) and, Bogtrotter: An Autobiography with Lyrics (1980, ISBN 0-385-14708-2). The latter title refers to her Irish heritage: "bogtrotter" is a derogatory term for an Irish person.

Midnight baby a autobiography

                                                             This is the story of her sad childhood and early adult life  prior to her becoming   composer, lyricist, author, playwright and recording artist. She was born Dorothy Langan at exactly midnight into an Irish and repressively Catholic family. She was schooled in an equally repressive Catholic school where she was forbidden to use her left hand for writing, a sad story relived in her song ‘ To a left hand lost’.  She grew up during the ‘depression’ with a father who had been gassed in WWI and left prone to spontaneous rage and deep depression. She was, supposedly the apple of her father's eye but his rages and uncertain behaviour left its mark on her. Dory became a successful lyricist for cinema theme songs in the 1960s and  1970s, she gained three Academy Award nominations for best song. She partnered her then husband on songs written for: Judy Garland, Doris Day, Jack Jones, Sammy Davis, Jr., Frank Sinatra, Dionne Warwick, Bobby Darin and many others. Little wonder she went in to crisis when he left.

 

Lyrics to Mary C. Brown And The Hollywood Sign,

 you know the hollywood sign
that stands in the hollywood hills
i don't think the christ of the andes
ever blessed so many ills
the hollywood sign seems to smile
like it's constantly saying "cheese"
i doubt if the statue of liberty
ever welcomed more refugees

give me your poor
your tired your pimps
you carhops your cowboys
your midgets your chimps
give me your freaks
your whores your harlots
your flunkies your junkies
give me your starlets

mary cecilia brown
rode to town on a malibu bus
she climbed to the top
of the hollywood sign
and with the smallest possible fuss
she jumped off the letter "h"
'cause she did not become a star
she died in less than a minute and a half
she looked a bit like hedy lamarr

sometimes i have this dream
when the time comes for me to go
i will climb that hill
and i'll hang myself
from the second or third letter "o"

when mary cecilia jumped
she finally made the grade
her name was in the obituary column
of both the daily trades

i hope the hollywood sign
cries for the town it touches
the lady of lourdes in her grotto
saw fewer cripples and crutches

give me your poor
your maladjusted
your sick and your beat
and your sad and your busted
give me your has-beens
give me your twisted
your loners your losers
give me your black-listed

you know the hollywood sign
the witness to our confusion
a symbol of dreams
turns out to be
a sign
of disillusion.

 

The pre-amble to this next song, ‘The left hand song’, is a sarcastic review of the nuns forcing her to use her right hand rather than her left.

 

Lyrics to Left Hand Lost :

the left hand is
we always say
the demon devil's side
the left had does
the dirty work
the shameful things
you hide
judas kissed the left cheek of christ
it's satan's special mark
there were no left-footed animals
allowed on noah's ark
left-handed people are impure
they go against the grain
left-handed children
play with themselves
and drive themselves insane

i was born left-handed
but the nuns where i went to school
they said it wasn't right so they
broke me of it
and now i'm right-handed
just like i'm supposed to be
and now
i'm fine
i'm just fine
really
really

but sometimes
i get so low so low
sometimes
i get so depressed
as though i lost
a part of me that loved me
the part that knew me best
the child in me that cried
to be cherished
the side of me
that tried to be my friend
in the heart of me was living
and loving
but it perished
and i'll never be
completely me again

my right had fills the china teacups
and needlepoints with old maid aunts
my right hand clings to rosary beads
and waters dying plants
but it's never painted a picture
nor has it run for president
my left hand
might have done these things
if its roots
had not been bent
a sculptor
a poet
it might have been
instead of a useless thing
to decorate with bangles and bracelets
and my mother's wedding ring

something
it might have accomplished
or nothing
but now i'll never know
oh
my lost
my left
my natural hand
my god
i miss you so

Art Sunday, Detail, Robert Adam

Robert Adam (3 July 1728 – 3 March 1792).

 Scottish neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer, noted for his almost obsessive  attention to DETAIL.

 He was the son and apprentice of William Adam (1689–1748), Scotland's most famous architect of his time. He worked initially  with his older brother John, also an architect, and together they ran the family business started by their father. This business included work for the Board of Ordnance.

Starting in 1754 he left the family practice and spent almost five years travelling Europe and studying architecture. Amongst others he studied under Charles-Louis Clérisseau and Giovanni Battista Piranesi. Once back in Britain, rather than return to Scotland, he started a London practice with his younger brother James.

Here he developed the world famous "Adam Style", based on his observations of antiquity and ancient structures. He was very successful and held the post of

‘’Architect of the Kings Works from 1761–1769’’.

He is remembered as the greatest architect of the late 18th century and one of the most influential figures in European and North American Architecture. He lead the early stages of classical revivalism in England and Scotland between  1760 and  his death in 1792. A remarkably long ‘reign’ at the top!

His astounding success can attributed to his ability to design everything, from the outside in, down to the smallest detail. It was this attention to detail that made him different and allowed him to become one of the greatest architects Scotland has ever produced.

 

Entrance front of Hopetoun House, designed by William Adam and modified by the Adam Brothers

 

Kedleston Hall. The South front by Robert Adam, based on the Arch of Constantine in Rome

 

One of Adam's masterpieces: Pulteney Bridge, Bath

 

Details for Derby House in Grosvenor Square, an example of the Adam Brothers' decorative designs.

 

Syon House, A design for the hall by Robert and James Adam.

 

Dun House, Montrose, was built by Robert Adam and is not far from where I live. I visited it some time last year and here are the pictures.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/forget-me-not5275/sets/72157600970113070/

 

 

And this is the information on Dun House.

http://www.aboutbritain.com/houseofdun.htm

 

The rest of the photos are here.

http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/photos/album/166/166

 

 

 

Robert Adam (3 July 1728 – 3 March 1792).

detail of interior design

Robert Adam (3 July 1728 – 3 March 1792).
Scottish neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer, noted for his almost obsessive attention to DETAIL.

This is not poetry Wednesday

THIS IS NOT POETRY WEDNESDAY

 

I’m quite sure I’ve mentioned before how little I know about poetry but also how much I’ve enjoyed the few contributions I’ve made recently to ‘Poetry Wednesday’. Since there is no ‘official’  Poetry Wednesday this week; it occurred to me I could take this opportunity to do a couple of things vaguely connected to poetry but not exactly covered by the remit of ‘Poetry Wednesday’. One thing I have wanted to do is to find out a little more about the technical terms used in discussion of poetry, and the other is to return to my all time favourite pastime of introducing painting to any given subject, in this instance Poetry…………………….

 

I would like to start with a painting

‘Una and the Lion’, 1860, William Scott Bell

 

This painting can be seen in the National gallery of Scotland. It was inspired by Edmund Spencer’s sixteenth-century poem ‘The Faerie Queen’. This poem tell the story of Una, the beautiful young daughter of a king and queen who have been imprisoned by a ferocious dragon. Una undertakes the  quest to free her parents,  on her travels she encounters a fierce lion. The lion is so utterly captivated by Una’s innocence and beauty he abandons his plan to eat her, and vows instead to become her protector and companion. This painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1860, but Scott returned to the picture much later in his life and retouched various parts, including Una’s face and dress.

 So much for the painting now on to the poem;
The Faerie Queene is an English epic poem by Edmund Spenser, first published first in three books in 1590, and later in 1596 in six books.

 

 

Now for the technical bit…..……This was the first work written in Spenserian stanza. The Spenserian stanza is a fixed verse form invented by Edmund Spenser for his epic poem ‘The Faerie Queene’. Spenser intended this poem to be many thousands of Spenserian stanzas, hence its 'epic' name, but he died before even 1/4 of his goal was completed. Each stanza contains nine lines in total: eight lines in iambic pentameter followed by a single 'Alexandrine' line in iambic hexameter. The rhyme scheme of these lines is "ababbcbcc." This form was used by Robert Burns in his poem "The Cotter's Saturday Night" showing Burn’s his ability to use English forms while praising Scotland.

Spenser's verse form fell into disuse in the period after his death.BUT, it was revived in the 1800s by Lord Byron in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, (which I touched on in an earlier blog), by John Keats for The Eve of St. Agnes, by Percy Bysshe Shelley for The Revolt of Islam and Adonais and by Sir Walter Scott for The Vision of Don Roderick.

 Spenserian stanza

http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Terms/rhyme.html

 Rhyme is the similarity in sound of the ends of words: the last stressed syllable and the following unstressed syllables (if any). Rhyme is usually a structuring device in verse. Of course not all poetry rhymes: classical Greek and Latin poetry never rhyme, for instance. When rhyming verses are arranged into stanzas, we can identify the rhyme scheme by assigning letters each rhyme, beginning with a and proceeding through the alphabet. Couplets, for instance — such as Pope's

  'Tis hard to say, if greater want of skill

    Appear in writing, or in judging ill;

    But of the two, much greater is th' offence

    To tire the patience, than mislead the sense

 
— rhyme aa bb, and so on -- a represents the ill sound, b represents the ence sound. A quatrain such as

   Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,

    Their sober wishes never learned to stray;

    Along the cool sequestered vale of life

    They kept the noiseless tenor of their way

 is said to rhyme abab, where a represents ife, and b represents ay. More complicated patterns can be described the same way: the sonnet, for instance, can be abab cdcd efef gg or abba abba cdecde;

 the Spenserian stanza rhymes ababbcbcc.

 
iambic pentameter

http://shakespeare.about.com/od/faqshakespearesworks/f/iambic.htm

 
Question: What is iambic pentameter?

 
Answer: Shakespeare’s sonnets are written predominantly in a meter called iambic pentameter, a rhyme scheme in which each sonnet line consists of ten syllables. The syllables are divided into five pairs called iambs or iambic feet.

 
An iamb is a metrical unit made up of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable. An example of an iamb would be good BYE. A line of iambic pentameter flows like this:

 baBOOM / baBOOM / baBOOM / baBOOM / baBOOM.

Alexandrine

From Wikipedia,

 An alexandrine is a line of poetic meter comprising 12 syllables. Alexandrines are common in the German literature of the Baroque period and in French poetry of the early modern and modern periods. Drama in English often used alexandrines before Marlowe and Shakespeare, by whom it was supplanted by iambic pentameter (5-foot verse). In non-Anglo-Saxon or French contexts, the term dodecasyllable is often used.

 iambic hexameter

 http://www.geocities.com/red_writing2/hexa.html

Iambic hexameter is a way of positioning the sounds of syllables in a rhythmical pattern. It sounds almost like a drum. The rhythm goes like bomBOM bomBOM bomBOM bomBOM bomBOM. Say the following sentence out loud.

"To think how they may ache in icy hoods and mails"

-John Keats

The Eve of St. Agnes

 In iambic hexameter, there are 6 stressed syllables per line.

1. to-think

2. how-they

3. may-ache

4. in-ice

5. ey-hoods

6. and-mails

 

Even if no one else bothers to read this bit I’m glad for my own sake I did this little bit of research and clarified for myself some of the terms used in the discussion of poetry.

 

 

 

AND NOW BACK TO THE PAINTINGS

And now to return to the paintings; ‘Una and the Lion’, is only one of many paintings inspired by poetry. The Lady of Shalott is an 1888 oil-on-canvas painting by the English Pre-Raphaelite painter John William Waterhouse. The work is a representation of a scene from Lord Alfred Tennyson's 1832 poem of the same name in which the poet describes the plight of a young woman who yearned with love for the knight Sir Lancelot while isolated under a curse in a tower near King Arthur's Camelot.  

 

From part IV of Tennyson's poem:

"And down the river's dim expanse

Like some bold seer in a trance,

Seeing all his own mischance—

With glassy countenance

Did she look to Camelot.

And at the closing of the day

She loosed the chain, and down she lay;

The broad stream bore her far away,

The Lady of Shalott.

 

Lord Alfred Tennyson’s ‘Lady of Shallot’  inspired many different interpretations by different artists.

 

There was;

 ‘’I Am Half-Sick of Shadows’’, Said the Lady of Shalott

another by John William Waterhouse, 1849-1917

And ‘The Lady of Shalott’,

 William Holman Hunt

There are also paintings based on ‘

La Belle Dame Sans Merci’,  by John Keats.

 

John William Waterhouse

British, 1849 - 1917

La Belle Dame Sans Merci

Date: 1893

 
Sir Frank Dicksee,

British, 1853 – 1928,

La Belle Dame Sans Merci,

Date: circa 1902,

 

Frank Cadogan Cowper

British, 1877 - 1958

La Belle Dame sans Merci

Date 1926 

 
Frank Cadogan Cowper

British, 1877 - 1958

La Belle Dame sans Merci

Date: 1905,

 

This is just one of the many inspired by Byron.

Ford Madox Brown

British, 1821 - 1893

The Finding of Don Juan by Haidee

 

 ok thats it..........................hope you enjoyed it !

 

 

 

 

The Art of Poetry

A collection of paintings inspired by some of the great poets of the English speaking world

A TRIBUTE TO WALKING

A TRIBUTE TO WALKING

 

Something I feel I know quite a lot about since it seems to have been my main occupation (apart from writing here) for the past couple of months during the holidays. Now that I’m back at work my walking AND  my writing are taking a bit of a back seat, which is a shame because not only was the walking most enjoyable I’m sure it’s pretty healthy too. Had a bit of a look around a few sites and it seems walking is most defiantly recommended for a healthier life style. So…… read on,

 

Information from

 

http://www.ramblers.org.uk/INFO/everyone/health.html

 

Walking for health

There’s no doubt about it, walking is good for you. It’s good for your heart, it’s good for your lungs, it’s good for the muscle and bone growth of your children and it’s good for your feeling of wellbeing! Strong scientific evidence now supports the many benefits to health of regular walking.

"I have two doctors, my left leg and my right."
George Trevelyan, 1913

"Walking is the nearest activity to perfect exercise".
Professor J Morris and Dr Adrianne Hardman, 1997

• Health benefits of walking
• Walking for general health and longevity
• Walking to increase fitness
• Walking for weight control
• Walking for mental health
• Walking to regain health after illness
• What about children?
• Ideas for town and city dwellers
• Where to go for more help
• References
• Take 30 booklet with 10-week walking plan
This is continued on their web space address above

 

Information from

http://www.feetforlife.org/cgi-bin/item.cgi?ap=1&id=642&d=pnd&dateformat=%25o-%25B

Benefits of Walking

Sponsored by; the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists

Walking is a relaxing and enjoyable way to keep healthy and, as it requires no equipment or expense, is the perfect way to exercise.

How walking can help health and fitness:

 

  Promotes psychological well-being and reduces feelings of stress and depression

  Reduces tiredness and gives people more energy for everyday tasks

  Promotes better sleep

  Helps the muscles and ligaments in the feet to work more efficiently, and keep them supple and flexible

  Reduces depression and anxiety

  Helps people achieve and maintain a healthy body weight

  Helps build and maintain healthy bones, muscles, and joints

  Helps to reduce the risks of many serious health problems in old age

  Helps to reduce the risk of developing non-insulin-dependent (type 2) diabetes mellitus

  Helps to reduce the risks of developing osteoporosis

  Helps to reduce the risk of developing coronary heart disease (CHD)

  Helps to lower the risk of developing high blood pressure

  Helps to reduce blood pressure in people who already have hypertension

  Helps to lower total blood cholesterol

  Helps to reduce the risk of stroke

  Helps to reduce the risk of developing colon and breast cancer…………………………….continued on their website

 

Information from

 

http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/women4060/Pages/Walktohealth.aspx

 

Walk your way to health

 

Walking 10,000 steps a day (about five miles) can give you a healthy heart and reduce your body fat.

 

Walking can’t really get you fit, can it?

Yes it can. Walking is good for your heart and lungs, improving cardiovascular fitness. Most of the work is done by the muscles of the lower body, and it’s a weight-bearing activity, so it can help improve bone density. At the same time, it’s low impact, so it won’t strain your joints.

 

Surely you really need to go to the gym for a proper workout?

Doing a thorough workout at the gym is excellent and you can get good advice from the instructors about the best exercise for you. But ask yourself these two questions: do you actually go to the gym? And how often?

 The beauty of walking is that it can be fitted into your daily routine. It’s free, saves on petrol or bus fares and is better for the planet. Half of all journeys in the UK are under two miles.

 I’d have to walk really fast to burn calories.

Not true. It’s the distance covered that matters, not the time. If you walk faster you will burn calories at a faster rate but you’ll arrive quicker.

 Your size, stride and speed will affect how many calories your burn in 10,000 steps. For an 11 stone woman walking at a fairly brisk pace of 3.5 miles an hour, it would take around 90 minutes and burn more than 400 calories.

 Isn’t walking too easy if I want to get fit?

It depends how fit you want to get. If you want to get fit for sport then yes, you do need to work hard. And sport or working out in the gym are popular ways of getting and keeping fit. But you can get major health benefits from relatively mild exercise, as long as you do enough and do it regularly.

 Latest scientific evidence shows that walking one mile in 15 minutes burns about the same number of calories as running a mile in eight and a half minutes. And the calories you can lose soon add up if you walk an extra hour a day. Of course, you have to watch your diet too: walking for 15 minutes isn’t a licence to eat whatever you like.

Continued on their web site………………………..

 

This is just a small sample of the information out there telling us the benefits of walking. But so far this has told us what personal benefits we get from walking, what about the benefits to the planet??

 

    .every time we chose to walk instead of taking transport we save fuel and cut dangerous emissions.

     Walking rather than driving saves wear and tear on the roads and helps minimise maintanance.

    If we stay healthier we tend to have the thermostat set lower.

    AND…………..most people love my photos, well I would not have seen half of those views from a car or bus window, to see it you need to be out there in it.

 

You don't see views like this from the road! so lets all walk a bit more, get healthy, enjoy the views and  protect the earth all at the same time.

 

Art Sunday; Scottish Seascapes

Art Sunday, Scottish Seascapes

 

If we are doing what we like best for me it has to be ‘Scottish Seascapes’. I’ve included a couple of turner paintings here, I know he is English, not Scottish but I included him because he did spend some time here painting the coast and his work greatly influenced the Scottish Seascape painters who came after him. Today there is no big write up just a collection of Scottish Seascapes through the ages, finishing with a whole album of work from a young female artist painting in the islands today.

 

John Runciman, 1767,  

King Lear in the storm

 
Alexander Nasmyth 1816,

A View of Tantallon Castle

 
The Rev John Thomson of Duddingston

Wolf's Crag, c 1820

 

Turner, 1842

Burial at Sea

 
Turner, Slaveship

And now a couple I have shown before

Mctaggart, 1890

The Storm

Joan Eardley

Early Flood Tide

Joan Eardley

The Sea

 And a new painter Ruth Brownlee,

Gales on Brecon Beach

The album of these paintings is here

http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/photos/album/163/Scottish_Seascapes_through_the_ages

 

 RUTH BROWNLEE
Ruth Brownlee is a young Artist who lives and works in the Shetland isles. The following is taken directly from her web site, I just love her work, to me it follows directly from Mctaggart and Eardly, hope you like it too.

http://www.brownlee.shetland.co.uk/index.htm

Ruth was born in 1972 in West Lothian. From 1990 - 1994 she attended   Heriot Watt University/ Edinburgh College of Art, graduating with a BA (Hons) in Drawing and Painting. In 1993 she was awarded theAndrew Grant Bequest Exchange to L'Ecole Des Beaux Arts, Tours, France. During her career she has won a number of  awards including -The Elizabeth Ballantyne Award at the S.A.A.C 5th Annual Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, December 1994, 'Scotland's Year of the Artist Award' Scottish Arts Council/ National Lottery Fund 2000 for Artist-in-residence on board the SWAN and Finalist for The Gilchrist - Fisher Award 2002, for Young Landscape painters under 30 Ruth writes about her work:

"My paintings are based on my experiences of living in the Shetland environment and are concerned with capturing the atmosphere, the play of light on the sea and coastal landscape, through mixed media. The skies and seas of Shetland are now a constant inspiration.....I first came to Shetland in 1998 when I was invited to do teaching in the isles. The islands had such an effect on me - particularly the changing light and open space - I decided to move to the isles and return to painting. It took me nearly a year to be able to digest the wealth of the landscape and begin to interpret Shetland and its seas as it was a completely different environment to my home land in West Lothian. I was and still am, taken by the constant changing elements - particularly the drama of light upon the seas. The moods of weather playing upon the land and mists on the moors provide continuing inspiration.Since moving, I have also been introduced to sailing which has again created a whole new relationship with the ocean. I've been able to further develop my understanding of the seas and to capture the completely different atmosphere of being 'at sea'

Jamie Thomas wrote recently in Thee Shetland Post '...Ruth's work has a distinctive slightly abstract style. Using a limited palette of deep blues, whites, dark browns and greens, she creates a very intense impression of scale and depth and a real feeling of power of the sea. The cold northern skies are reflected with equal intensity...'

See her work here

http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/photos/album/164/Ruth_Brownlee