A remedy if you are feeling down

or just want a good laugh!

I was not brought up on “Just William”. I think my Mother read to me as a child, but William was not part of her repertoire.

I put this right when it was my turn at parenthood and all my four offspring were subjected to an almost daily dose. They like so many children's books transcend the age gap.

Chapter one (of 12) of Book one (of 29) starts;

It all began with William’s aunt, who was in a good temper that morning, and gave him a shilling….

Sadly these wonderful tales do not adapt well to television and the various attempts at it never took off as they should. Few children will get to know the William stories unless they are lucky enough to listen to the sound recordings of Martin Jarvis reading them, or even better an Aunt perhaps, so often useful for such purposes!

Or here

20 C Figure Sculpture latest post

Nataniel Neujean
Lots more of his work to see here

One of the three bears

I just love this picture.

The lady was a well known American, the first American lady to setup an Art Museum.

"The Whitney Museum Of American Art"

The Museum was founded in 1931 with a core group of 700 art objects, many of them from the personal collection of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney herself.

She was an accomplished sculptress.

A note for your diary

Details of the run up to my next exhibition can be found here

http://countrysideartexhibition.blogspot.com/

A worth-while week-end

The sad fact is that there are few people who have not been affected by cancer, friends or family.

Last week-end I went to help my elder daughter in a fund raising event in Cambridgeshire. “Relay For Life” we walked round and round all day and night in relays!

as well as lots of fun


and games


and more

and of course

some more poignant moments.

And £12,000 was raised for Cancer Research UK

well done all.

Hands, Hands, Hands

My continued focus on hands and feet brought out a comment from a daughter, the one with a Degree in History of Art, that most artists have found hands difficult.

We then moved on to her pet subject of Rubens who was good at hands! We inevitably moved on to Caravaggio and searching through Giorgio Bonsanti’s book I found these pictures.

John B’s post about the first of these sprang to mind immediately and made me question the stories and “facts” surrounding these two paintings. Bonsanti has written on the subject ; “His lesson is not drawn from history but from life”.

He has made no analysis of the pictures. He talks about Caravaggio’s mission as a cutting edge artist being illustrated here. He has side stepped the subject matter and left it to a reference; Belori’s view, a writer that Bonsanti describes as highly critical of Caravaggio.

So I beg answers to a few questions:

Can you, on oath see a ring here?

Does she look like a Gypsy Fortune teller?

Is he actually looking at her or is the communication in the hands as so many lovers do?

The pictures are said to have been painted ten years apart. In the intervening ten years both characters have aged, the sword is defensive in the second, offensive in the first, the hat feathers also indicate a fall in blood pressure. Is the message she is sending him the same though?

http://www.kfki.hu/~/arthp/html/c/caravagg/02/11fortu.html
http://www.students.sbc.edu/mckinney03/gmm/caravaggio.htm

Do visit John B’s post

Carl Eldh Sculptor from Sweden

I have just found another sculptor of note from the Northern reaches of Europe.

It is so satisfying to finding a new Sculptor. It matters not that the rest of the world know all about him and I am as usual late on the scene!

I am indebted to these two websites for the following pictures;

http://www.olofstrom.se/Eldh/skulpturerna.htm
http://www.eldhsatelje.se/eng/

Very powerful work. Some connection in my mind to Rodin's Thinker.

Again I think of Rodin,

and Dagas and Hans W. Larsen have similar works

What Chris Miller would, I think, call "pretty", but I see more of a German influence here.

with some running of the patina reminiscent of Chris' contemporary Japanese post recently!

I have added another, more interesting picture of him to my studios blog

Will there be a sign of life in the Palace soon?

Well it is 6th September and the sleeping beauty (or beggar Queen as she likes to be known) is still asleep in her Palace. Now the lady in Florence is up but still in the bath. The bath water there looks a bit green. I prefer the peaty brown bath water on the Isle of Skye in Scotland.

A Not forgotten 20c Australian Artist - Sculptor

I have upset an Aussi friend, so this puts the record straight.

He follows the Australian character to the letter. Do visit his website.

Helen Mirren launched her film career from one of his books when it was made into a film.

Some of the pictures of his old haunt look a little bit close to the bush again, though the swimming pool must have a good story to tell!

I give you Norman Lindsay.