France

Remembering Vincent

Today is Vincent van Gogh’s Birthday. He was born on March 30, 1853. I thought I would celebrate the occasion by reposting Vincent’s Room which I originally posted on The Changing Palette in June 2014. During these difficult days taking a moment to look back on the life of someone who had to “suffer for his sanity” but was still able to show us the beauty that surrounded him in his own wonderfully iconic way should inspire us all.

Who can look at a sunflower and at the same time not think of Vincent? Let us celebrate his memory together, and please listen to Don Maclean’s “Vincent” imbedded in the post. I promise you will it will be the highlight of your day.

“What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything.” Vincent van Gogh

Vincent's Room i

Can there be a more iconic room than Vincent Van Gogh’s bedroom at the Saint-Paul Asylum, Saint-Remy, France where Van Gogh entered voluntarily as a patient on May 8, 1889 and remained until May the following year. During this time he painted the gardens, with their wheat fields, olives groves, irises and sunflowers, all of which he could see from his bedroom window.
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WPC: Transient

Depicting a state of impermanence.

I couldn’t resist re-visiting my photos of the Mirroir d’Eau in Bordeaux for this week’s Photo Challenge: Transient, where every few minutes the scene changes as the 2 cms of water that create the largest reflecting pool in the world drain away to expose its granite floor…

…before returning again to the delight of adults and children alike.

You can see more of this magical World Heritage Site in my post of December 2015

maturday

Monbazillac matted and framed

One of the twelve snippets of palettes and paintings I featured in brought to you by the color green, a color that needs to be celebrated and championed this week more than ever.

mirror ii

Mirroir d’Eau, Bordeaux, France.

From our memorable trip to South West France last October one more image to add to those that I posted last December on Day 335 of Studio 365 where you can read about this spectacular landscape architectural marvel, the largest reflection pool in the world and listed as a contemporary World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

the wrong road

teddyii

 

After yesterday’s right road all I can feel today is an overwhelming sense of sadness and despair as we remember beautiful little five year old Taliyah Marsman, whose body was found by the road yesterday, and her mother both murdered in Calgary this week, together with all of the other children murdered with their parents in Nice yesterday, including eleven year old Brodie Copeland and his father Sean from Texas, mown down with so many others on the Promenade des Anglais.  We remember them all with a heavy heart, and once again express our sympathy and solidarity with the people of France together with all of the families around the world who may be grieving today .

There are no more words except,

Je suis…un homme qui pleure aujourd’hui.

Studio 365: Day 362

Day 363 iv
 
xi           vii           iv

October: The header today is of my table top in the studio, which I posted on October 11th, the day before we left for our two week visit to England and France, and the day the studio was tidied up for the first time in months as you will have seen from the photos that day.

The previous week we enjoyed Autumn in all its glory on our final walk along the Admiralty Trail before leaving on our trip, a walk I posted about on October 5th for the Weekly Photo Challenge: Boundaries.

The table top and the trees seem to complement each other just perfectly, which I have to add only became apparent as I composed today’s post; serendipity working its magic once again.

Those of you who joined us, albeit virtually, on our European adventure will know what an unforgettable time we had.  The photos I posted each day said it all so as a little reminder here is a slideshow of some of my favourites, many of which became paintings on our return.  If you are visiting thechangingpalette for the first time and would like to learn more about the places we visited in London and the beautiful Périgord region of south west France why not browse through Days 287 to 299.

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October was not entirely without its paintings.  These are from the beginning of the month before we left.