Fine Art Friday

"The Champion Single Sculling"

Thomas Eakins

I love this picture! 

The stillness of the water
The blended colors
The clouds that look like mountain tops
or 
the mountain tops that look like clouds 
The look of the rower

Reminds me of this time of the year.

I learned what little I know about sculling from this interesting book, 
Racing Odysseus (Martin).

 

Fine Art Friday

"Lappings of the Waves"

Anders Zorn

 Isn't this a lovely summer painting? 
I love paintings with realistic water, and this one has it. 

 The last couple of weeks have been so busy
that I completely missed Fine Art Friday for two weeks.
And things will be busybusy through the end of September.
I haven't seen anything resembling a "retired" life yet!

And speaking of "lapping waves," I'm going to see some of those for the next few days. Nothing like enjoying the water during the warm days of summer.

Fine Art Friday!

"Idylle" 

Henri Martin

I've been fascinated with and have admired the technique of pointillism since I first learned about it in tenth grade art class. Though I've never been an artist, I have liked art since way back when. 

I remember as a child, we would occasionally travel to the closest large city to shop for things special on a Saturday during the school year. It was a memorable day because we got to eat lunch out, something we rarely ever did. There were few fast food places then and none in downtown-big-city. So, we always ate at the department store cafeteria. It was a upscale-ish place compared to places now because waiters wore pressed white jackets, napkins were white cloth, and the food was delicious. I still like similar cafeterias because the food is always good. 

Anyway, my sister and I were always allowed to go to the large "dime store" on one of the trips. Remember Woolworth's? And Woolworth's always had a pile of discounted books of no-rhyme-or-reason subject. One day I found a slim book about art. Thinking back now, the printing wasn't quality by any stretch of the imagination, and the cover wasn't ever attractively colored - it was in drab, dark tones. But, I wanted that book. I couldn't have been but in the sixth grade and didn't know a thing about art. But, I wanted that book. And with the coins I had, I bought it. And I kept it until just a few years ago. That book, as far as I can remember, was my first "introduction" to real art. 

Interestingly enough, twenty-five years after buying that book, I realized that it, which I still had though in a much early edition, was one of the book suggestions from, I believe, Child Light, the educational approach brought to our knowledge through Susan Schaeffer Macauley. Child Light eventually became known as the Charlotte Mason method.

When I was in the ninth grade, I decided to go to summer school and take English 10 simply so that I could take Art during the regular year. Of all my high school classes, I remember more about that class than the many others I took. And it was there that Mrs. Davis taught me about pointilism. I'm sure she taught more than I remember, but I learned enough to recognize it. And that's just the technique Henri Martin used.

French neo-impressionists developed pointillism as a "mind over matter" technique using small to tiny pure color dots next to each other. At a viewing distance, the mind blends these colors and they all come together to form a recognizable image. A time-consuming technique, I imagine, but one used in a rough form to test for color-blindness today.

Henri Martin was a French Post-Impressionist living in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who picked this up and used it in today's Fine Art Friday but using more tiny strokes than dots.

When I first saw this painting I liked it. Maybe because of the water, maybe because of the animals grazing. I like the encounter between the two people. Look at their gaze. And look at the dog's gaze. Wonder what she has in her hands?

Martin titled his painting "Idylle" which is French for idyll, usually meaning something charmingly simple or picturesque which this painting does convey. But, to my surprise, idyll can also mean a brief romantic affair. (Maybe that's what Tennyson is referring to with Arthur and Guinevere in his series of poems, Idylls of the King.) And maybe that's what Martin is referring to in his painting "Idylle."

Fine Art Friday

"The Three Brothers" 

Frederick Cayley Robinson

Another water picture for Fine Art Friday!

I love the clear-line simplicity of this painting. In a way, it looks almost unfinished. 

But what I'm drawn the most to are not the obvious subjects of the work, the brothers, I'm drawn to the sun (or maybe it is the moon?) shining over the water and through the sail. The light of the water is nice detail though it appears that the reflection on the water begins above the horizon line. 

I love half of the sun shining through the sail and the pooling reflection of the boat, "The Three Brothers," on the water.

 

Fine Art Friday!

Moonlight

Winslow Homer

What a peaceful ending of the day! A first glance, Homer's painting almost looks like a snapshot.

A smooth rock ledge balances the textured, broad expanse of sky with the full moon giving tranquil illumination. Notice how the skiffs of white cirrus clouds flow in one direction while the spray from a breaking wave scatters in the opposite. That's detail that Homer must have used to rotate the eye around the picture. Far, far in the distance, two, maybe three, vessels dot the horizon. Again as I've mentioned about recent Fine Art Friday selections, I love Homer's realistic use of light on the water.

And that simple-at-a-glance but detailed-at-inspection landscape provides the setting of the again simple-at-a-glance two people at the focus. While there is physical detail to observe -- notice her fan and the tilt of her head, and his hat, the lean of his body, and what appears as his umbrella -- the complexity lies within the relationship. Is he a beau and she the belle? Are they married? Are they tranquil or troubled?

Paintings like this are provender for the imagination from which stories flow. I wonder how many good books have begun with a picture.

Fine Art Friday

"The Water Fan"

Winslow Homer

Winslow Homer has been a favorite artist of mine for years. I love his water paintings especially, but also like many of his others.

The blues and blue-greens in this painting are calming. And I like the crispness of the horizon line, the boat edges, and the distinctness of the man's white shirt against the water. This are fixed when all else in the painting undulates. Nothing in the painting appears complicated, just clean and neat.

I'm not sure what the title "The Water Fan" means. Any ideas?

Fine Art Friday

 

"Jenny Whibley Sings"

Jamie Wyeth

This painting makes me happy. I love the nighttime starry stillness as dusk rolls away. I love seabirds, and this one, with his head arched upwards and calling out, is stunning to me. 

The contrasts in the color scheme – the foreground's grays and whites of the central focus against the warm sunset tones of the secondary focus all landscaped against the beautiful natural blues of the night sky – all meld together in this lovely painting.

Jamie Wyeth is the son of Andrew Wyeth, so painting is in the blood. You can read his biography linked in his name above.

 

Fine Art Friday

Peacefulness.      Beauty.      Serenity. 

These days are drawing to a close. 

I do love this place.

Fine Art Friday

"A French River Landscape"

Frits Thaulow

What stillness and peacefulness exudes from this painting! The colors are some of my favorites. 

Besides the peace and the colors, what captured my attention was the texture of the water. I've never before thought of water having texture until I saw this painting. Thaulow gave realism and movement to the ripples and swirls. And for these reasons, I'll be looking at more Thaulow works. 

Fine Art Friday

"The Reader"

Mary Cassatt

So, I couldn't help but post another reading picture when I came across this one. Mary Cassatt is a favorite American artist of mine, yet I was unfamiliar with this picture. 

I like this lady's comfortable pose. She holds the book at the same distance I do. And I like propping my arm up on something too. Whatever her reading material, it looks like a journal. 

I like the delicate blueness of the scarf and cuff ruffles. That blue combined with her dark red hair work well with such a light background. Cassatt could really create texture using a basic color. 

Fine Art Friday

After a lengthy winter with its ups and downs, and highs and lows, spring looks like it is finally here. Oh, no; I mean summer looks like it is here. I'm not sure about this weather; we don't seem to ease into a season anymore, just slam into it. 

With that, Fine Art Friday is shifting from the interesting but dreary-colored Albert Anker reading paintings to the vibrant colors of Iris Scott's painting today.

Iris Scott does not have her paintings titled, at least none that I could find. But the texture of her paintings create such movement that it's hard to not delight in them.

I love the blues in this painting. And the expanse. And I love the  distant blue mountains prefaced by the spring greens and yellows of the foreground. 

How is it that the lonely, still railroad track on land and the active clouds in the sky can exude such interest? The single walker gives humaness to the painting. Since Iris Scott did not name this work, I think I might call it "Journey Steps."

Be sure to open the painting up in a separate window so you can enlarge it some to see the texture. You might be interested to know that this painting (and all Scott's recent paintings) is finger painted. That, in my opinion, is what gives texture. View more of Scott's paintings here. 

Fine Art Friday

"A Gotthelf Reader"

Albert Anker

Throughout the Albert Anker paintings which have made it to Fine Art Friday, I've noticed similarities in texture, color, and position. And, of course, subject matter. 

With little time right now to right observations, I'll leave that to you, except for two: the glow on her cheeks and the dirt on her feet. Interesting.

Dreams, books, are each a world; and books, we know,

Are a substantial world, both pure and good:

Round these, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood,

Our pastime and our happiness will grow.

William Wordsworth

Fine Art Friday

Boy Writing

Albert Anker

Recent Fine Art Fridays have included several Albert Anker paintings of people, particularly children, reading. This one is of a boy writing, maybe copying, with a little book in hand. 

Brown tones seem to dominate Anker's paintings, but his details bring out the richness of those browns. Notice the folds in the little boy's pants and sleeve.

In many of his painting are furniture of the era with cutouts. Notice that in the  the stool he is sitting on  and the chair in the background. Also of note is the stool is precisely the right height for the length of his legs to accommodate his writing board. 

What I like best in this painting is the boy's sweet expression. If he is doing school work, he does not have a grumbling look. This makes me wonder if he is a naturally content child who completes his given tasks with a happy heart. 

  

Fine Art Friday

Continuing the book and reading theme of recent Fine Art Friday selections, this painting makes me laugh! 

So, I've chosen it for fun today, and also because, the Lord willing, this is me today. 

Yes, I have blonde curly-in-the-wind hair, wear glasses, have wrinkles, drink tea, and read books. And today, I will be reading outside today in the sun and the wind at the beach. And likely I will have my towel wrapped around me shielding me from the cool beach breeze. 

Friday is forecast to be the only sunny day of the long weekend, but that's okay. Saturday can be restful too, and maybe a necessary shopping day if the rain showers the beach.

Rest. Sun. Quiet. Solitude. All components needed here and now. 

Laugh with me at this rather anonymous painting.   

Fine Art Friday

The Grandfather's Prayer

Albert Anker

What a lovely picture! The young caring for the old. 

This is what brings a warm smile to my heart:

The open mouth on the boy as he reads. He's not just sitting; he's active. As always, I do wonder what he's reading.

The strong, young hands of the young boy curled around the book.

The long, slender, peaceful fingers of the old man. This old man is a worker; just look at the dirt under his fingernails from the duties of his day already before his tea break.

The striped covering underneath the old man with the blue being picked up in the pretty tea cup on the side table and the faint red stripe on the old man's apron-like covering also picked up in the tea cup.

Do this grandfather and grandson work together? Maybe in shop that works with leather? Has the grandfather been teaching his trade to his grandson and now letting the grandson practice his reading skills? 

Taking the time for close inspection of the picture and evocation of some emotions and feelings is a grand way to write a story. Rather than tell students to come up with a story out of their imagination, give them a basis - the knowledge - by showing them a picture, guide their eyes to travel through all aspects of it, and then write a story based on inspection, emotion, and imagination.

 

    

Fine Art Friday

Boy Writing

Albert Anker, 1905

I like particular details in this painting. 

I like the wrinkled inner sleeve of his jacket. 

I like the position of his hand across his chest suggesting that his writing is thoughtful.   

Could he be writing a note of apology?

I like his flushed cheek of fair skin.

I like the papers and books stuffed into his book leather book bag.

I like the muted almost-monotone colors.   

What is that rectangular block of wood? Is it his pen case?

  

  

Fine Art Friday

An Interesting Book

Seymour Joseph Guy 

Is she reading to the little figurine (which I wonder if it is musical and turns)?

I love her short haircut, curled neatly behind  her ears. And the shades of color in her hair from the light.

The plainness of her clothing, yet the rich red color, emphasize those brilliant flushed cheeks. Maybe the light warms them to color because the intensity of the light is evident in the crisp silhouette on the book page.

 The ornately carved chair with green upholstery, which I say is velvet, is interesting. The color coordination is interesting.

I do wonder what she is reading. Nice-sized book for such a young girl. Could it be a book of fairy tales? Maybe containing "Cinderella?" What do you think she is reading?

    

Fine Art Friday

Story of Golden Locks

Seymour Joseph Guy

I love the sweetness of big sister reading a bedtime story to her little brother and little chinquapin-eyed sister. 

You have a hint of the story from the title of the painting, but you can see the picture in the book if you enlarge the image.

I love the shadows - shadowy somethings outside and a looming shadow of sister 

 on the dormer above the bed. Do you see the shadow of the hairbow?

Now, while your eyes are up on the shadow, do you see peeling paint?

Look in the chair. Sweet little doll in her box-bed with her crocheted nightcap.

Notice the rough floorboards and the delicate bare feet which rather mirror the lilting hand.

Big sister's earring hangs so gracefully.

Have you noticed the color theme? Sienna orange walls and the same sienna orange hairbow?  

The most curious item in this painting to me is the little slate hanging on the wall beside little brother. What do you think that is, and why is it in that position?

Seymour Joseph Guy is becoming a favorite (American or English, which is it when one immigrates?) artist of mine.  

 

 

 

Fine Art Friday

unknown

If this were my place,

my tea would be Lyons Original with cream, 

my biscuits would be Walker's Shortbread,

my writing would be my to-look-forward-to list,

my book would be Ireland.

Fine Art Friday

Woman Reading

Asta Nørregaard

Norwegian (1853 - 1933)

Even in a hectic day, a glance at this picture calms me. 

I wonder what she is reading. No doubt, she is involved with the message of those words as I have been in my current read, Ireland. Honestly, I cannot wait to get home, finish tasks, and crawl into bed with this book. Tremendously engaging and satisfying at this point in my life. 

Like the Norwegian lady in the blue dress, I long for spaces of beauty and comfort that provide for reading.