Climate here is now officially bonkers. Today, the pond had a thin covering of ice for the first time this year........ok so far, nothing weird about that. Next to the pond, out of no where bloomed a single daffodil !!.......... I don't think I've ever had the first ice AND a daffodil bloom on the same day before.

Art Sunday; My favourite figure paintnigs.

This is an idea I formed after saying I liked one of the paintings on Nemos site so much that I would happily hang it on my wall. I started thinking about which, of the hundreds of paintings we have all shown and seen here, would I be happy to hang on my wall and look at every day. I started out wanting ten, but the list grew and grew and now I’ve divided them into subject matter, and these are the figure paintings I would have on my wall. Next week I’ll show the seascapes I would love to hang on my wall. Not surprisingly, most of these are from Scottish painters, but that’s probably because these are the paintings and artists I am most familiar with and the ones I automatically think of as my favourites. I have shown most of these before and I’m sorry there is so little ‘new’ here, but I think its nice to sort out the ‘favourites’ and put them all together. In chronological order, oldest first, they are;  

1. From the collection at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery; Princess Elizabeth 1635-1650 and Princess Anne 1637-1640, by Sir Anthony van Dyck.  
This is an oil study for the painting ‘The Five Eldest children of Charles 1’, and shows two year old Elizabeth and baby Anne. Neither child survived into adulthood, they both suffered tuberculosis and Anne died as an infant. Elizabeth survived until her teens when she died, partly as a result of being imprisoned during the civil war and partly as a result of ill health. The painting for which the study was made showed the children of Charles 1 and Henrietta Maria and is still held by the Royal family. I find this one of the most sensitively drawn child portraits ever produced. These children lived and died in the seventeenth century but they could be any child living today.


2. Now held in The Beit Collection, Russborough, Co. Wicklow, Sir Henry  Raeburn 1792; Portrait of Sir John and Lady Clerk of Penicuik. I’ve already written a blog on this man here
http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/journal/item/158/Art_Sunday_henry_Raeburn
This was Raeburn's first picture to be exhibited in London, being shown at Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery in 1792. The background is the estate at Penicuik, and the landscape that inspired Ramsay's The Gentle Shepherd. I’ve loved this painting from the first time I set eyes on it. I’ve not seen the original and if I ever visit Ireland, this is something I would make a point of seeing. This man was one of the greatest Scottish portrait painters who ever lived and to me, this painting could not be any where other than Scotland, Scotland has a light all of its own, a quality of light not experienced any where else, and he captures it perfectly here.
Sir John was a patron of the arts and the old mansion house became a meeting place for others including Allan Ramsay. Sadly, the new mansion house built by Sir James during the 1760s was gutted by fire in 1899 and is now a ruin. Sir Robert Clerk is continuing the tradition of his forebears by pursuing a programme of improvements to the estate. More of that here

http://www.eskvalleytrust.org/penestate.html

Work is being carried out at present to make the outward structure of the building secure, offering the opportunity to create work experience and training in the use of traditional building methods. After the fire, the stables and courtyard were converted into the family home and garden and remain so today. I think the loss of this great house is a sad loss to Scotlands architectural heritage.


3. The Hinds Daughter, 1883, by Sir James Guthrie, I’ve written about James Guthrie here
http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/journal/item/613/Art_Sunday_Sir_james_Guthrie
A Hind is an old Scottish word for ‘farm servant’ or agricultural worker and this is a painting of one of the workers daughters cutting cabbages.  
( list of old Scottish occupations here)
http://www.scotsfamily.com/occupations.htm
I’ve always liked this painting because, again, to me this could only be Scotland. If I left my house and travelled a couple of miles into the country I would see vegetable gardens and/or fields  full of cabbages that looked just like this.The tawny light would be the same, the old white outbuildings would be the same, the wooden fences, rickety and broken are still there, the earth is the same rich reddy brown and the sky the same pale grey. James Guthrie was one of the original ‘Glasgow Boys’ who changed the face of painting, design and architecture in the northern hemisphere.


4. "Child With A Dove" 1901. (also known as "Child Holding a Dove") is one of Pablo Picasso's most easily recognizable paintings and one of my few favourites from a non Scottish artist.  Standing next to her ball, a child holds a white dove to her chest. I included this in my recent blog on Picassos ‘blue period’
http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/journal/item/744/Art_Sunday_Picassos_Blue_paintings._
Although she is in white and her ball is full of colour there is an overall feeling of ‘blue’ to the image. This was the very first of what became known as his ‘blue period’ paintings. He uses the innocence of child a with the universal symbol of hope, in the form of the dove and creates a painting that crosses language and culture boundaries to portray an universal image of innocence and hope for the world.  
All of Picasso's paintings are described in terms of a series of overlapping periods. In this his "blue period" (1901-4), he depicted the world of the poor. Predominantly in tones of blue, these melancholy paintings (such as The Old Guitarist, 1903; Art Inst. of Chicago) are among the most popular art works of the century. I first came across this image on a card when I was a child. I knew nothing of art but I think the symbolism of innocence and hope touched me even at that young age. I kept the card for years, I had it pinned to my wall. I think this image is maybe one of the first to initiate my lifelong love or art. Maybe without this image, I would never have become so interested in the art world. Oh how sad that would have been.



5. Anna Pavlova, 1910,  by Sir John Lavery, on permanent exhibition at Kelvingrove Gallery Glasgow. This is one I am fortunate enough to have stood in front of and admired.  I wrote about it here.
http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/journal/item/188/Art_Sunday_John_Lavery_and_Anna_Pavlova
If you are ever fortunate enough to stand in front of this apinting you will see why I have chosen it. The scarlet shouts at you across the room and as you approach the painting, it’s almost as if she is there and about to leap from the wall, a truly remarkable painting.


6. The Orange Blind, 1928, by Frances Cadell, one of a group of Scottish artists known as ‘The Colourists’. I wrote quite a long blog about this painting here.
http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/journal/item/55/Art_Sunday_Drinking

This is more of an ‘interior’ painting than a figure painting, but this is another of my favourites that I’ve been fortunate enough to actually stand in front of at the Kelvingrove gallery in Glasgow. To stand in front of this is truly mesmerizing. The composition is perfect, the blast of orange is wonderful, the whole scene glows with reflected light and I just love the way the side of the piano is lit up by the light coming through the blind. It’s a painting of social commentary, showing a particular class of person and a particular type of interior.

Next week; ...........my favourite seascapes.

Art Sunday; Zinaida Yevgenyevna Serebriakova

Russia is such a vast place and so much of it remains unknown to many of us in the West. It is land mass of many cultures and traditions, and a great artistic history; but unless you have specifically studied Russian art you tend to know little about it.

If you say Russian Art to many people they will either think of those beautiful little religious icons from the middle ages or, the Faberge eggs, the little folk art dolls that sit one inside the other or the propaganda art from the socialist era.

This artist is Russian and produces the most beautifully sensitively drawn nudes and portraits. I came across a simple drawing of a nude and found myself returning to it again and again.

I didn’t know the artist but as my favourite subject matter for drawing is the human body, I appreciate the skill that goes into creating skin tones and facial expressions. Its not easy, and this female Russian artist does it beautifully with sensitivity and tenderness.


Excellent write up in Wikipedia

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

Zinaida Yevgenyevna Serebriakova; female Russian artist born   December 10, 1884, died September 19, 1967 was among the first female Russian painters of distinction. She came from one of Russian foremost artistic families and was born on the estate of Neskuchnoye near Kharkov (now Kharkiv, Ukraine)

She belonged to the artistic Benois family. Her grandfather, Nicholas Benois, was a well known respected  architect, chairman of the Society of Architects and member of the Russian Academy of Science. Her uncle, Alexandre Benois, was a famous painter, founder of the Mir iskusstva art group.

Her father, Yevgeny Nikolayevich Lanceray, was a well-known sculptor, and her mother had quite a talent for drawing. One of Zinaida's brothers, Nikolay Yevgenyevich Lanceray, was an architect, and her other brother, Yevgeny Yevgenyevich Lanceray, was a master of monumental painting and graphic art in Soviet Russia. .The Russian-English actor and writer Peter Ustinov was also a distant relative.



More information here
http://www.artexpertswebsite.com/pages/artists/serebriakova.php


‘’Zinaida Evgenievna Serebriakova was a Modernist Russian painter, and was one of the best known and most highly regarded of her time’’


More information here
http://voutsadakis.com/GALLERY/ALMANAC/Year2010/Dec2010/12102010/2010dec10a.html

‘’In 1900 she graduated from a women's gymnasium (equivalent to grammar school or high school), and entered the art school founded by Princess M.K. Tenisheva. She studied under Repin in 1901, and under portrait artist Braz between 1903 and 1905. She then travelled abroad and between 1902 1903 spent time in Italy. Between  1905 – 1906 she studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris.’’




More information here
http://russianartconsultancy.com/Drawings_and_Watercolours.html

‘’It is often in an artist’s drawings that his personality is most directly reflected. Drawings can be the first tentative workings, “ideas in line” that are then abandoned, or later become a picture on canvas. They can also be highly finished works of art in themselves, polished and presented to the public without thoughts of further development. In both cases, the immediacy of the artist’s contact with the sheet of paper lends an intimacy that is sometimes missing from a large and finished canvas. Watercolours, similarly, have traditionally been held in lower esteem than pictures in oils, although they require no lesser mastery of handling, technique, and composition.’’

Occupy London takes over empty USB Bank offices.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2011/nov/18/occupy-london-ubs-video

Occupy London takes over empty offices owned by UBS bank - video

Early on Friday, Occupy London protesters, together with members of a squatters' action group, took over a disused office block owned by the bank UBS. Police left the scene after activists claimed squatters' rights over the block, near Liverpool Street, just outside the City of London

be sure to watch the video

Update on the 'St Pauls' protest site

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-15752168

The City of London Corporation gave notice to the Occupy London Stock Exchange (OLSX) activists to clear the "public highway" by 18:00 GMT on Thursday.
the protesters were in talks and made three simple requests. The City of London are now acting as if these talks simply didn’t happen and have so far ignored the request of the protesters.  


1 The City of London are made subject to the freedom of information Act as all other public bodies are

2. The City of London publish their accounts, as all other public bodies must.

3. The City of London discloses its lobbying agreements.

That doesn’t seem too unreasonable, but apparently rather than respond to these requests, they served eviction notices.

Please click onto the link and watch the video.

Song Saturday; Fleetwood Mac

I was out at a local restaurant this evening, eating local caught fish and enjoying some good conversation when these songs were played. The conversation stopped and we sat and listened, this is as good now as it ever was, nothing is lost with the passing years.
The two amazing female voices from Fleetwood Mac Christine McVie   and Stevie Nicks

Bah Humbug I hate Christmas.......

Bah Humbug…………..I hate Christmas.

Why??.........no not because I’m a miserable sod who wants to ruin other peoples happiness;

But because of the constant news bulletins telling us how high street sales are either up or down compared to the same period last year, what the predictions for high street sales are over the Christmas period and what the economic implications are.

There are no words to describe my despair and loathing at the saturation level advertising for an endless stream of hideous, useless, florescent, plastic crap aimed at our children from every shop, street corner and TV channel. This seeps into our childrens minds and when the message is firmly embedded, the children plague their parents into buying things that gobble up energy and resources to produce and distribute; yet serve no useful purpose. These are things no one needs and no one can afford, they are bought by harassed parents terrified of the guilt, using the readily available Christmas credit thrust at them from all directions. Thus ensuring they are slaves to the system for another 12 months at least.
And it doesn’t stop with children; millions of young women will take out store cards they can’t afford to buy clothes that glitter and sparkle and will be worn only once. We will all buy food we don’t want and will never eat. This doesn't stop with children wanting 'toys' and young women wanting 'fashion', we are all part of this madness. Every one is stressed because they feel obligated to spend, spend, spend  ……….regardless of what they actually want or need or can afford.
As if the insanity of that wasn’t enough, most of the trashy goods we buy for Christmas are made over seas in sweat shop conditions, for a wage that doesn’t even cover basic necessities, and with little regard for health and safety of the employees. This is a double whammy of the corrupt system we live in, it exploits the sweat shop employees, it deprives our own workers of jobs and it drives the consumer deeper and deeper into debt.
On Boxing Day we put out the packaging; packaging that cost us energy and resources to produce, energy and transport to collect and then gets dumped in land full sites that add to the pollution of our planet.

By the end of the week we will throw away more food that we usually buy in a week.
And why do we do all of this at Christmas…………..there is only one reason, so that the 99% stay poor and the 1% get richer. I have no idea why we are all so stupid.

I believe we are a truly decadent society, and the myth is that decadent societies fail.