A celebration to uplift us all of spring in our neighbourhood…
…and a look back six years, together with a little Gilbert and Sullivan:
Blossoms around the world May 21, 2014
Blossoms giving colour to our lives the world over.
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
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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On the 10th Anniversary of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics a lookback, with Sarah McLachlan carrying the Olympic Torch, street hockey, drumming on the newspaper boxes, and always thousands in the streets celebrating day and night. What a ride it was!
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Vitruvian Man and Woman
On the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci who died on May 2nd 1519.
“If you set your legs so far apart as to take a fourteenth part from your height, and you open and raise your arms until you touch the line of the crown of the head with your middle fingers, you must know that the centre of the circle formed by the extremities of the out-stretched limbs will be the navel, and the space between the legs will form an equilateral triangle”
on Human Proportions from the Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci
“The age as it flies glides secretly and deceives one and another; nothing is more fleeting than the years, but he who sows virtue reaps honour”
on Phlosophy from the Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci
Antigua study I – 29.11.18 – water-colour/pen and ink
Four years ago I posted about the charitable organization Heath for Humanity and the great work of their surgical missions over many years to Antigua, Guatemala. The post included a video presentation of theirs for those of you who would like to learn more about them, and you can visit their website here: h4h. Earlier this month I had the privilege of joining them for a week, working with wonderful dedicated colleagues who were making a real difference to the lives of so many; heroes all.
Here are a few of my memorable images from Antigua which include the dazzling yellows of the iconic Arco de Santa Catalina, the colourful pastels of the buildings and the Fuego volcano in the distance, which erupted once again just over a week ago.
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A perfect final day to our Italian travels beginning with the morning sunshine silhouetting the San Giorgio Magiorre before revisiting the Basilica San Marco to see its marble pavements once again after seventeen years.
We then climbed the 100 steps to the terrace with its views of the Campanile and Piazza San Marco.
Our final long anticipated stop was to the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari to see Titian’s masterpiece the Frari Assumption, just as glorious as I remembered it.
Then one final moment to pause and take it all in before heading to the airport and London.
I hope you have enjoyed the trip as much as we have. It’s certainly been good having you along. So many more memories to share in the coming weeks and months with photos and hopefully exciting new paintings. Stay tuned.
I have a treat for you today. Come and join me on my morning walk yesterday and escape for a few minutes from the hate, the anger, the despair, and the noise that we are all being pummelled with each and every day. I don’t know about you but my troubled soul needed a little healing and when the sun rose yesterday on freshly fallen snow with the mountains stark against the bluest of skies, I knew all I had to do was dress warmly, put on my boots and venture out into the crisp air and morning sunshine. I’m happy to say it worked.
It didn’t take long to enjoy every magical moment with everyone else who was out and about.
This gallery, which I have also made into a slide show, I hope will help sooth your soul too.
This next photo is for Cheri and her Weekly Photo Challenge: Shadow
As I came closer to the trees in Vanier Park I was greeted by a symphony of sound that made me stop in my tracks and listen for several minutes, joined by others who were equally as enthralled. Here is a short excerpt from my post entitled Birdsong for today’s Daily Prompt: Heard. If you feel like pausing for a minute or two and hearing more visit the post and listen to it all.
I hope this has made your day as much as it did mine.
I rescued this majestic branch whilst walking home one day last summer and brought it back to the studio. It was about to be pulverized in a wood chipper but like the photinia that you will remember from my yard work to art work story, it became my model.
Finally, as I completed the painting today with the brushes from the Gift of the Four Treasures, the spirit of the branch filled the studio once again and its story was complete.
For those of you who enjoyed yesterday’s post for the first day of fall, I thought today I would tell the story of its evolution. Two days ago my wife picked up this beautiful fallen maple leaf as she was walking home knowing how much it would appeal to me, and how right she was. I immediately went outside and held it up against the clear blue sky, and as I turned it in the bright morning sunshine its glorious colours came alive.
Several photographs later I was happy with what I had captured, but now how best to use them. Using Photoshop Elements I created a different layer for each of the images, some of which were duplicated, reversed and re-sized as I placed them around the central leaf.
I could have gone on for a while but felt the need to stop, as it magically became the perfect image with which to celebrate the first day of fall. I hope you agree.
