Art Sunday; Edward hopper

EDWARD HOPPER

I’ve been thinking about all the good things that are specifically American, Hopper must be the most specifically American painter there is. Everything about his work looks and feels ‘American’……………I can't think of an American painter I like more.



a little information..............
Edward Hopper was born in 1882 and grew up in Nyack, a small town in New York State. He studied illustration for a short period, then painting at New York School of Art under legendary masters William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri.
( really like this one, love the colours, it reminds me of some of the Scottish colourists work.)
 He visited Europe three times (from 1906 to 1907, in 1909 and 1910) and his experiences in Paris, above all, made a lasting mark on him: he remained a lifelong Francophile, even after settling permanently in New York in 1913.

Despite his imposing physical presence – he was six foot two – he was famous for his reserve, and very rarely wrote or spoke about his work. He died at the age of 84 and his work enjoyed the esteem of critics and the public throughout his career, despite the success of the up-and-coming avant-garde movements, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art.

In 1948 the magazine “Look” named him one of America’s greatest artists; in 1950 the Whitney Museum dedicated an important retrospective to him, and in 1956 he appeared on the cover of “Time”.
In 1967, the year of his death, he represented the United States at the prestigious Bienal di São Paulo.

Since then Hopper’s work has been celebrated in numerous exhibitions and has inspired countless painters, poets and filmmakers. In a 1995 essay the great novelist John Updike paid an eloquent tribute to his “calm, silent, stoic, luminous, classic” works.


information taken  From;
 http://www.edwardhopper.it/?IDC=33


and lots more information here;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Hopper

This one is my personal favourite, no idea why, I like the colours and I love the look of the sea, it looks real and inviting


and to finish

The emotionally charged work of Edward Hopper, American Realist and the swinging music of Benny Goodman. With some quotes and a poem thrown in for good measure!

Big sighhhhh Oh dear..... just back from the town, not been there for a while have been confined to the house feeling quite unwell. Feeling much better now and off I went to pick up a few things and settle a couple of bills. What did I find?? The number of empty premises on the High street has increased. I counted 4 shops in a row standing empty, another two with closing down sales and even a charity shop and a charity led cafe and second hand book shop sitting empty. There were more empty shops at the other end of the High street and even our tiny shopping precinct has two of larger premises sitting empty. This is a small town, population about 27,000..............seems this recession is getting very real.

Song saturday; from a bygone age.

I recently had cause to stop and think of all the things American I liked……..music, music and more music is up there at the top of my list. The world would be a greyer, sadder place without the long legacy of American music. Here is something happy and uplifting to begin the weekend with. Imagine still doing this at his age, really sad, he died a couple of years after this performance.

 

The rain has gone................say it with music

Oh so much better................at last :-)

Unbelievable.............AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Just stumbled on this on another page, If it wasn't so tragic it would be funny, WTF......................who  IS this moronic imbecile?

 

Art Sunday; George Large

For the second time in as many days I start looking for one thing and end up finding another.

I was looking for paintings of watering cans, odd I know but I’ve just bought my granddaughter a ¾ size galvanized steel watering can for her birthday because she has her own green house. (obviously despite the copious amount of rain falling, she still needs a watering can)

Anyway……………I digress……………..in my search for still life which included watering cans I came across this chap. His name is George Large, wow that’s weird because my maiden name was Large, George is a family name and  he comes from roughly the same area as I do. I suspect this will turn out to be a coincidence but I’ll investigate all the same.

On to his art………….I like it, not the sort of thing I usually go for but this time, I really like it. It reminds me of the industrial paintings of Stanly Spencer, another artist from around the same area area.


Paintings and info from his web site.


http://www.georgelarge.com/index.php

Song saturday; Why does it always rain on me?

No points for guessing what the weather is doing today.............
oh, and now we are told we have snow on the way!!

Tariq Ramadan, talking on The Western Muslim

I was looking for something; I didn’t find what I was looking for but this guy kept cropping up in my searches. He sounded like a pretty switched on sort of guy (you don’t get to be Professor at Oxford if you’re second best). And then I discovered he had written a phD dissertation on Nietzsche, and that clinched it for me. Anyone who comes any where near to understanding Nietzsche has my everlasting admiration. A guy who can write a whole phD dissertation on him is, in my opinion, genius at the very least.

(a little info on the guy)

Tariq Ramadan; born 26 August 1962, Geneva, Switzerland, is a Swiss born intellectual, philosopher, theologian, television presenter, academic, poet and writer. He is also a Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies in the Faculty of Oriental Studies at Oxford University. Tariq Ramadan studied Philosophy and French literature at the Masters level and holds a PhD in Arabic and Islamic studies from the University of Geneva. He also wrote a PhD dissertation on Friedrich Nietzsche, entitled Nietzsche as a Historian of Philosophy.

And then I started watching this, he speaks on the topic of, ‘Islam is a European Religion’, at the Salzburg Seminar session entitled "Immigration and Inclusion: Rethinking National Identity"
I found myself listening to ideas I had never considered before. So much has been said and written about the ‘Muslim influence in the West’ but not usually like this. It takes a while to watch the whole thing but I found it worth the effort.

Tariq Ramadan - The Western Muslim 1/3

The Western Muslim Tariq Ramadan 2/3

The Western Muslim Tariq Ramadan 3/3

 

What's at stake, more on Trump.

From
http://www.indiegogo.com/Youve-Been-Trumped

‘’We've been battling the police and the Scottish Government, to film a story we feel must be told.  You've Been Trumped is an urgent examination of Donald Trump's plans to construct a luxury golf resort on one of the most environmentally sensitive stretches of land in Europe.’’

What's at Stake

Described as 'Scotland's Amazon rain forest' by the country's leading climate change expert, the stretch of untouched coastal wilderness north of Aberdeen has Britain's top conservation ranking.
No large scale development is supposed to take place there.  Yet Donald Trump is now building a millionaire's playground -  a gated community consisting of 1500 houses, a 450 bed hotel and two golf courses.
Donald Trump claims he has 'great support' from the environmental groups.  However, the film reveals how every major conservation group in Scotland has come out against the plan - including Scottish Natural Heritage, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the Scottish Wildlife Trust, and the Ramblers Association.  Scottish Natural Heritage - the Government's own environmental agency - says the resort will destroy the “the crown jewels” of Scotland’s natural heritage. And Scotland is bursting with golf courses already.
Yet Mr Trump has convinced ( some of) the Scottish Government to upend the planning process and its own environmental laws on the pretext that the project is “in the national interest”. 
The documentary calls into question this extraordinary decision. And follows a cast of real-life "Local Heroes" (the classic film was made just up the coast)  as they battle against the odds to protect the ancient, globally important landscape that has been the backdrop to their lives. Their homes are under threat too - the authorities could level them to improve the view from the Trump hotel.
During the course of filming we became amongst the first journalists ever jailed in the United Kingdom simply for conducting an interview. Our crime? Investigating the cutting off of an 86-year-old woman's water by crews employed by Mr Trump. Our footage and camera equipment was confiscated too. According to the National Union of Journalists, this police action was 'unprecedented'.

heard this and thought of Bennett :-)

Not to be taken too seriously of course  :-),

Garden 2011 no3

Garden 2011 no3

Sunday 6th March 2011.

Today I did manage a good few hours outside, the only interruption was my daughter who came by to see if she could fix my bike, apparently there’s not a lot wrong with it that a couple of new inner tubes can’t fix. She has this notion that if she fixes my bike I can start using it again hmmmmm……..

The strawberry planter is now assembled, filled with compost, planted with about 25 young strawberry plants and covered in netting to protect the fruit from the birds.

The spring bulbs seem to be popping up every where, more of the snowdrops are out and even the daffs are all in bud. My pile of broken pots has grown over the winter.

This is my own fault, I left the empty pots stacked up in the garden, they filled with water, the water froze and as it expanded the pots all shattered. I’ll remember to put them away at the end of this year.

This may look like a very ordinary and unexciting pile of dirt……….but to me it is success. This is my very first full batch of home grown, ready to use,  compost. It still has quite a lot of twigs in it but that’s because I wasn’t sure if I could compost hedge cuttings.

I know now that any ‘woody’ material needs to be chopped up very small before it goes into the compost.

I did manage to plant most of my small fruit canes but by the time I finished the light had almost gone and it wasn’t bright enough to take any more photos. I took one photo,  my new  blueberry bush.

The sky looked like a pink sea and I realised my time was up. Isn’t it strange how you go out there thinking about the couple of little jobs that need doing and as soon as you get outside and look around, the list of urgent garden jobs suddenly becomes endless?

A quick look around before I came indoors confirmed that this is indeed a job in progress. I’ve left several piles of rubbish scattered around the garden, the grass needs its first cut as soon as it dries out and my wormery needs cleaning out and starting all over again, none of the little worms survived the winter. The pond needs cleaning and this year I really do want to find some frogspawn. But that’s it for this week…………..hope the weathers good next weekend.

 

Garden 2011, no2, fruit.

Garden 2011, no 2, Fruit

I planned on spending quite a bit of time in the garden yesterday. The plan was, do ‘stuff’ that always needs doing at weekends in the morning, head down the town and buy a few bits, then home and spend the bulk of the day in the garden. You know what they say about plans…………..
By the time I actually finished my chores and managed to get out into the garden most of the day was done. It’s defiantly spring, but living on the Northern hemisphere, we are still plunged into darkness at about 6.30 every evening which makes the day very short. As soon had I got out there and opened up the shed,  one by one my neighbours  appeared, all  wanting a little conversation which began with something like……………’is that you starting in the garden again?’ It’s lovely they show such an interest and they want to chat…………..but as the light faded my frustration rose.

I achieved very little, I planted a cherry tree that I came across in the supermarket that morning, I assembled and filled a strawberry tub ( the assembly bit was quite hard) and I was about to plant a few fruit canes that I bought when the light faded too much and I gave up and came indoors.

So………………no points for guessing where I’m off to now , hope to be back later with more photos.
Isn’t it nice to be back in the garden?

music for the weekend; Fruit and fun.

Fruit seems to be my 'theme' for the weekend, and in the spirit of fruit
( and fun) ...............
a couple of songs. The second one cuts out too suddenly, but its fun.....

Art Sunday; FRUIT, by Brian Simons

Art Sunday; Brian Simmons
 

http://www.briansimons.com/painting_still_life.html

Yesterday, for the first time this year, I managed to do a few small jobs around the garden. My main achievement yesterday was to plant a young cherry tree.

I wasn’t too successful at veggi growing last year and with the winter being so severe I’ve left it a little late to start sowing seeds, instead I’ve decided to concentrate on fruit this year.

Which is why, with fruit firmly ‘planted’ in my mind, I chose these ‘fruit’ paintings for this weeks Art Sunday.

I love the vibrancy of the colour, the freedom of the paint and the way the fruit look juicy enough to eat.

Brian Simons is a Canadian self taught artist who takes his inspiration from the French Impressionists and the Writings of Baha'u'lla'h (Bahá’í Faith). His family moved to Vancouver Island from Alberta, where he began to paint.

He has been showing and selling his work in 1988 and in now represented by many galleries on the Island.

He has been painting full time from 2006 and in 2004 published a course book in acrylic painting.

Currently has work shown in the following galleries:
VAN DOP GALLERY, NEW WESTMINISTER, BC
SOUTHSHORE GALLERY, SOOKE, B.C.