• About
  • Contact Me
  • Disclosure

accentBritain

~ a romance with art and all things British

accentBritain

Monthly Archives: May 2014

Dylan Thomas

23 Friday May 2014

Posted by pat in sketching, Travel, Uncategorized, United Kingdom

≈ Leave a Comment

Tags

Dylan Thomas, Laugharne, Wales

This year is the centenary year of the poet Dylan Thomas’s birth.  The Welsh poet lived his last 4 years in Laugharne, Wales before he died in 1953 at the young age of 37. The author of “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night”, the work he was probably most known for, walked the coastal paths of Wales often in his lifetime. He was also a fairly good amateur painter.

Paths follow the coastline in Wales.

Paths follow the coastline in Wales.

Last summer we visited this part of Wales, and I walked the coastal paths that Thomas so eloquently wrote about.  His themes of life vs. death, our desire to stop time, and nature as an expression of our internal world all are vividly evident in this dramatic countryside.

"Coastal Path", pastel drawing by me from  my walk in Wales

“Coastal Path”, pastel drawing by me from my walk in Wales

I tend to have a cheerier view of Wales (and life) than he did.  The sunny lanes and cool breezes off the sea were invigorating and delightful for a fair weather traveler.

Entering Wales.

Entering Wales.

But the isolated area must have given Thomas many hours of deep reflection about our desire to slow the progression of time, and contemplation of the idyllic vs. reality.

IMG_9746

Wales may just be the place to have these monumental conversations with ourselves.

 

Monet, Gallery Nine and MOMA

17 Saturday May 2014

Posted by pat in Art, Art Museums & Exhibitions, paintings, sketching, Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

MOMA, Monet

The gallery paintings I have been doing this spring all came from my trip to NYC in the depth of the February winter.  It was soooo cold.

IMG_0643

But when I entered the lobby of the Museum of Modern Art, everything was warm and cozy.  Just fine for a day of walking through the galleries and searching for that perfect moment.

IMG_0579

I have spent the last month or so working on a new painting that came from this trip to MOMA in February.

Image

Gallery 9 is always a crowd pleaser, and I love it too.

IMG_0648

It is not just the spectacular Monet’s in the room (Agapanthus on the back wall, and Water Lilies stretching the entire length of the room).

IMG_0646

It is like entering a sacred space…quiet and reflective.

Image 1

But, in addition, the floor to ceiling window at the end of the room with its shadowed view of a New York City Street just seems to accent the serenity of the gallery.

Image 1

The scene is stunning, and people enter with a reverence reserved for a very special place of contemplation and renewal.  It is hushed and dim in the room, no matter how many people drift along the edges, or finally settle on one of the long black benches to contemplate this tableaux.

Image 1

Always someone goes over to the window to stare out at the street.  But soon returns to see Monet’s masterpieces. I was going through some of my art books this afternoon as I often do when contemplating new work, and came across this image in one of my David Hockney books. It’s an early picture of his, but it reminded me in some ways of these paintings I have been working on this year of art and art lovers.

Image

In this piece I am working on now, I want the rhythm of the people moving through the room to be the dominant view, but the viewer to be very aware of a strong source of light coming from the outside world.

Image

It is interesting to me that there is the same intense meditation whether looking out the window, or staring into the drifts of paint on canvas. I checked that the figures read dominantly in gray tones.

Image 1

The strong diagonal of viewers brings you into the room to the various objects of interest and emphasizes the pattern of light and shadow on the floor, and on the two paintings.

Image

 

People react with awe to the beauty. This is Gallery 9, Adagio.

Belgravia, Chelsea and Sloane Square

10 Saturday May 2014

Posted by pat in Art, Art Museums & Exhibitions, Food, London, Travel, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a Comment

Tags

Belgravia, Chelsea, Duke of York Square, Saatchi Gallery, Sloane Square

Last summer, I walked from Victoria Station through Belgravia towards Chelsea one morning, two new neighborhoods which I really had never visited before.

Great take-out from this lovely Italian Deli right up the road from Victoria Station. Photo by me

Great take-out from this lovely Italian Deli Le Bottega right up the road from Victoria Station. Photo by me

It was lovely, and I understand why the area is a popular place to live, shop and stroll.

The shops turned decidedly upscale. Photo by me

The shops turned decidedly upscale as I turned in to Belgravia. Photo by me

As soon as you head up Eccleston Street, behind the station, towards Belgravia, the scene transform from a gritty train station neighborhood to lovely shops and tree-lined streets.

This shop offered pink champagne and cupcakes. Delightful. Photo by me

This shop offered pink champagne and cupcakes. Delightful. Photo by me

IMG_9295 There are rows of lovely townhouses around green squares like this row at Eaton Square.

Photo by me

Photo by me

Soon I was entering Chelsea.

The beautiful red brick of the Chelsea neighborhood. Photo by me

The beautiful red brick of the Chelsea neighborhood. Photo by me

It became more commercial with shops and buses.  Early morning was very busy.

IMG_9300

I could understand the reputation for shopping, with one fine storefront after another presenting itself.

Photo by me

Photo by me

Photo by me

Photo by me

It was fun to see busy London on a workday morning.

Photo by me

Photo by me

Sloane Square stood in the middle of all the activity.

Photo by me

Photo by me

I wandered in circles for a bit, before finally realizing I was near the Duke of York Square, with its lovely shops, hairdressers and cafes…

Duke of York square shops. Photo by me

Duke of York square shops. Photo by me

as well as the adjacent Saatchi Gallery.

The entrance to the courtyard where the Saatchi Gallery stands. Photo by me

The entrance to the courtyard where the Saatchi Gallery stands. Photo by me

All in all it was a morning of discovery.  I always like to think I have become familiar with one more London Neighborhood on a trip. And this past year it was Chelsea.

 

Not By Words

03 Saturday May 2014

Posted by pat in Art, Art Museums & Exhibitions, paintings, sketching, Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

MOMA, Not By Words, Rauschenberg, rebus, The Museum of Modern Art

You may (or may not) have noticed I have not been posting to this blog site as frequently in the past several months as I have in the past.  That’s because my painting studio has held me a delighted prisoner.  I have been immersed in my “Cities” series of paintings, and in particular I have been working from wonderful reference I gained this past snowy winter to NYC.

Image

One of my favorite museums is MOMA, The Museum of Modern Art, in New York.  I find constant inspiration there from the art, but also, now that I have come to work on this gallery series of museum scenes, I can spend hours watching the art lovers move through the space and react to the art.

Image 2

I go back to the galleries again and again during a single visit, waiting for the right configuration of characters, with interesting poses creating interesting shapes. This woman in front of Robert Rauschenberg’s “Rebus” was fascinating to me, especially with the long black bench in the foreground catching the reflection of light and colors from the painting, as well as her shadow.

Image 3

For this particular piece I wanted a lot of contrast so that the figures would appear like chess pieces moving in the space. In my black & white check for tone, I can see these figures’ relationships even more clearly.

Image 5

The title of Rauschenberg’s art “Rebus” is where I got my title for this painting “Not By Words”.  A rebus is a picture puzzle, where the names of pictured objects have a literal meaning in a sentence…like “(Picture of an eye) I (picture of a heart) love NY”.

Image 4

Rauschenberg wanted his collage to be a true picture of the reality of his immediate environment.  And isn’t that what many artists want to accomplish, including me? By anchoring the main figure in front of the painting, and having the three other gallery visitors move around her, it focuses even more on her intense contemplation of the painting in the moment.Image 1

When I look for these scenarios in art museums, I often wonder what the security guards posted in the galleries think.  I come back again and again to the same spot and wait until the other visitors create a scene that attracts my interest. If I don’t find it at that moment, I’ll move to another gallery and come back later.  It is not until I get my digital camera back to the studio that I truly know if I have gotten it or not.  The variety of possibilities is endless.

 

♣ Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 27 other subscribers

♣ Archives

  • September 2022
  • May 2022
  • January 2022
  • November 2021
  • August 2021
  • May 2021
  • January 2021
  • September 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • March 2020
  • December 2019
  • October 2019
  • July 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • August 2018
  • March 2018
  • January 2018
  • July 2017
  • April 2017
  • February 2017
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • July 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • January 2016
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • March 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011

♣ Recent Posts

  • Autumn Stroll on the C&O Canal
  • A Winter’s Project
  • A Walk In The Park
  • An Adirondack Pond
  • Golden

♣ Categories

  • Art
  • Art Museums & Exhibitions
  • Bath
  • Books
  • British Virgin Islands
  • Burnham-on-Crouch
  • cars
  • Cornwall
  • Cornwall
  • England
  • entertainment
  • Fashion
  • Food
  • Gardens
  • Grasmere
  • Guana Island
  • History
  • Lake District
  • Lake District
  • London
  • movies
  • Music
  • National Trust
  • Olympics
  • paintings
  • Peak District
  • Sailing
  • Scotland
  • Shopping
  • sketching
  • The New Forest
  • The Royal Family
  • Travel
  • Uncategorized
  • United Kingdom

♣ my button

accentbritain.com
<a href="http://accentbritain.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://accentbritain.com/accentBritainbutton.jpeg" alt="accentBritain.com" width="125" height="125" /></a>
Copyright 2011 accentBritain LLC. All rights reserved. All original photos, text and art is copyright protected.

Proudly powered by WordPress Theme: Chateau by Ignacio Ricci.

 

Loading Comments...