Posted in art, from the dark room, photography on March 25, 2012 | 2 Comments »
In the main foyer of the National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh, as well as the spectacular friezes, there are these stunning lamps.
I was especially taken by the design of the chains supporting the lamps – look at the lovely three circles within a greater circle, creating an inner Celtic triskele….
Posted in art, creativity, from the dark room, from the viewing room, photography, video on September 16, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Today I went to the Mori Arts Centre, on the 53rd floor of this building in Roppongi Hills….
…where there is an exhibition, entitled “Sensing Nature”. Apparently there are two words for “nature” in Japanese. The original meant “as is”, and the newer one is like the Western idea of “nature” being like “wilderness”, or “countryside”. There are installations from Yoshioka Tokujin, Shinoda Taro and Kuribayashi Takashi.
Here’s one entitled “Forest from Forest”
This is made from washi paper, and you have to stoop or crawl underneath it, and pop your head up through a hole torn in the paper forest floor.
Two of the other installations are better captured on video. Here they are
Recommended. I haven’t seen anything quite like this before.
Posted in art, from the dark room, photography on August 22, 2010 | 1 Comment »
I posted earlier about the Mitoraj sculptures installed around Aix en Provence. I’m back in town just now and just stumbled across a couple more I missed first time…
Posted in art, from the dark room, photography on July 5, 2010 | 1 Comment »
I found four of the six sculptures on one day’s walk, but I’ll need to go back and try and find the other two.
One thing which really struck me about these figures is how different they are in their individual contexts……not just a bit different, but VERY different.
Posted in art, creativity, from the dark room, photography on June 14, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Have you ever seen a landscape like this? See how red the path is……
It can be hard to remember this is a landscape on our planet….
Where is this?
Roussillon, Provence.
On the outskirts of the village the old ochre works have been transformed into a visitor centre = Le Conservatoire d’ocre
Posted in art, from the dark room, photography on June 8, 2010 | 24 Comments »
Scattered around the centre of Aix en Provence are some enormous sculptures by Igor Mitoraj. I’ve never seen his work before, but I’m glad I’ve seen some now. VERY impressive. Here’s a taste……
UPDATE – here’s more
Posted in art, from the living room, health, life on August 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
If there were only one truth, you couldn’t paint a hundred canvases on the same theme
I saw this quote at an exhibition of the work of Picasso and Cezanne in Aix en Provence. You only need to think about Cezanne’s paintings of Mont St Victoire to understand this. Or think of Picasso’s re-working of the themes of other great painters…Manet, Goya, and so on.
I find this also extremely applicable in health care. A patient never has only one story to tell, because as human beings, life is not like that. Not only is every patient’s story fascinating, but I find every time I meet a patient there’s a new story to hear and explore. Truth is never single. And it’s never complete. It’s always worth taking another perspective, hearing another story, exploring from a different angle
Posted in art, from the dark room, life, photography on August 23, 2009 | 1 Comment »
The Chateau de Vauvenargues has never been open to the public before, but for four months this summer it’s possible to visit. I went yesterday and it was wonderful. It really is in a beautiful location as I’m sure the photos above will show. It sits at the foot of Mont Saint Victoire, which Picasso never painted. He had a deeply respectful attitude towards “Monsieur Cezanne”, as he always refered to him, and that seems to have led him to steer clear of painting the mountain which not only provides the backdrop to the castle, but part of it was even included in the title deeds of the castle itself. I think that was one of the big surprises. After all, Picasso had no qualms about revisiting the works of Manet and others!
The main surprise though, was what the guide refered to as Picasso’s “spartan” choice for the interior. He left pretty much the whole interior as he found it – didn’t redecorate it (apart from painting the plaster in the bathroom with a woodland scene!) and only “upgraded” the place by installing a new bathroom and central heating. There is very little furniture in the house which certainly does give a feeling of simplicity, and the walls and ceilings are faded and peeling. I was also surprised to learn that he didn’t paint the views he could see from the windows, but that he said that when he painted here his painting became more green! You can see this is true. There’s a lot more green paint used in the works he produced here. However, the ancient links between Barcelona and Aix allowed him to explore his favourite reds and yellows and even led him to have a huge Catalan flag as the headboard for his simple double bed.
Picasso and Jacqueline are buried in front of the castle with a simple Picasso sculpture over the grave – no headstone, no words.
Sometimes it’s the simplest of experiences which are the most intense.
Posted in art, education on August 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The University of Pennsylvania usually sets a book for their new students to read over the summer before term begins. It’s a way of introducing their freshmen to academic life. This year, however, they’ve set a painting to be studied instead of a book.
They’ve chosen the local artist, Thomas Eakins and his 1875 painting “The Gross Clinic”. The university has another of Eakins’ paintings in its collection – the 1889 Agnew Clinic.
I think this is a very interesting development, and I’m not aware of any other universities which set a painting for everyone to study and discuss in this way.
Which painting would you choose for all the new students at your local university to study?
I’m pretty sure one of my first choices would “The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Tulp” (which happens to be one of my all time most viewed posts!)
Any suggestions?
Posted in art, creativity, from the dark room, photography on June 30, 2009 | 8 Comments »
I took a walk around the Jupiter Artland garden at Bonnington House last Saturday. Take a look……
In the gallery next to the ticket office amongst other exhibits there’s this
This is a collection of bottles of Bach flower remedies where each label has a vertical inscription of the name of the flower used to make the remedy and a haiku-like poem of one word per line, where each word contains one letter of the flower’s name. What an amazing piece of work! You can, if you want, buy a book of the poems. The work, by Alec Finlay, is called Mesostic Remedy and there are a pair of poems for each of the 38 flower remedies.
Once outside, the artland is a trail weaving through a wood. The day I was there it was raining intermittently but the forest was dense enough to stop me getting wet. The sound of the rain on the forest roof was beautiful.
The first work along the path is Suck, by Anish Kapoor
From here it looks like the cage is floating above the ground. Inside the cage is……
….a hole in the ground!
A little further on is Firmament by my favourite sculptor, Antony Gormley.
As you walk around and under it, it feels alive, like a giant iron shapeshifter!
Only connect, by Ian Hamilton Finlay is the first of three of his works.
Walking over this subtle little bridge flagged on each side by a simple stone plaque inscribed with the words “only connect”, you see, along the path, Andy Goldsworthy’s Stone House
Inside this pleasingly simple little dwelling is a rough rock floor
Next along the woodland path is easily the creepiest and most disturbing of all the works, Weeping Girls, by Laura Ford
Then the second and third of Ian Hamilton Finlay’s works, Temple of Apollo, and Xth Muse
The next work could well have been my favourite, Over Here, by Shane Waltener, a huge thread web spun between the trees…
It’s then a longer walk round to the edge of the forest which opens out onto Charles Jenks amazing earthworks, Life Mounds.
It took me two hours to walk around and take these photos, and as I was booked into the last session of the day, I had to leave then. I didn’t see everything and I wouldn’t mind going back again soon!
