Wagner Roses: Parsifal and Tristan/Isolde

On my way to Bayreuth (pre-Covid) to hear Wagner's operas Tristan and Isolde and Parsifal I stayed with friends in Hamburg. Sitting on their veranda surrounded by climbing roses and honeysuckle, I read the librettos for the operas, painted the roses and dreamt of the feast to come. Both images below are available to download and print on canvas or paper at artsmitten.com

 

 

Parsifal: Ich schreite kaum ...

 

Tristan und Isolde: Nie erwachen

Orange Hibiscus

The Art Gallery of NSW is helping their members stay sane in lockdown by organising art challenges. There are prizes to be won, like the box of Faber Castell pencils offered this week. for the drawing challenge titled 'Orange'. You have to use drawing tools, not painting.

I suspect their members would enter with or without a prize as anything to keep occupied and interested is welcome when you can't go anywhere due to circulating virus. 

Here is my Orange entry, a Hibiscus from my still flowering bush.

  

 

Enjoy the rest of the year ...

Enjoy the year ...

Thoughts on #metoo

In 2005 I attended a life drawing course in northern NSW.  'Life drawing', for those not familiar with art lingo, is the practice of drawing the naked human figure.  Drawing nudes helps you draw clothed figures with more certainty and art students spend a lot of time in life drawing classes.

This particular 4-day course had two models as subjects, and they modeled together. It is the only time I have had this luxury. They were a couple and stood, sat or lay in loving and gentle poses.  I have seldom seen models with such an admirable ability to be still without apparent stress for long periods. They said they did a lot of yoga to prepare for the course.

The class was for more advanced students and they arrived at the teaching room each day much earlier than the 9am advertised starting time. The teacher of this committed class of about 30 mainly female students was an older English artist who introduced the day by reading us snatches of poetry. We all worked like demons until about 4:30 in the afternoon when everyone was completely exhausted, then we did a show and tell about our work before heading to the local pub. It was a wonderful, creative and inspiring course.

My room was in a local hotel, one of those old style buildings with surrounding veranda. My room opened out onto this veranda and early each morning I went out to the veranda to read relax before the start of class. Our tutor's room lead out onto this veranda as well and he too was an early riser. We would share bits of poetry or discuss politics on the veranda before it was time to leave for class.

One day he asked me it I had noticed anything in particular about the work the class was producing. No, I said, not really. I was probably too involved with my own work. Well look about you, he said, and you will find that only you and one other student are producing work in which the couple looks loving. I did look about me that day and realised that what he said was true. One student was drawing lots of kicking legs, another was painting doll like figures with big eyes. Many were drawing or painting thrashing figures. One woman had announced to the class in general that her figures always looked as if they were in a rape scene. Before the tutor's quiet comment I had not taken much notice but now I realised she was not alone.

The couple hang on my wall. This painting
was produced on the last day of class
in a state of exhaustion. 
56 x 76 cm

Here is one of the many stories appearing that help explain.

Fabulous ceilings #2

Paris Opera singers would have known these ceilings well in the twentieth century when the Palais Garnier was the home of the Paris Opera.  The building excels in fabulous everything. I posted photos from a mobile phone in June - these are a little better.

Fabulous ceiling #2 : Ceiling by Chagall in the concert hall of the Palais Garnier

Fabulous Ceiling #3:Golden ceiling with lizards: Palais Garnier reception hall.

Fabulous ceiling #4: Horses nymphs and furious activity: Palais Garnier Hall

Blue Tulips as Paperback

Yaay! I got my copy of Blue Tulips: A Love Story in the mail today!

It is looking good ... quite a hefty tome at 430 pages.

Blue Tulips: A Love Story is a book that demonstrates how potent Wagner's music can be as a love potion (and aphrodisiac!)

 Blue Tulips: A Love Story is now available as paperback

Available in the UK at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0987312219

Available in the US at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0987312219?ref_=pe_870760_150889320

Available as e-book at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B1T64E0

Pears and Frangipani

Pears and Frangipani
Acrylic on Canvas, 30 x 40 cm

Warmth, summer fruit and flowers, a general relaxed feeling - they all conspire to make one want to paint, even when beset by a seasonal virus such as the one that caught up with me on my return from Tassie. 

The Frangipani tree is covered with flowers and when I bought these two inside, they were enough to perfume the studio.

Mona: Museum of Old and New Art

Ferry with sheep

The Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) in Hobart is a Museum you don't easily forget. I was there two weeks ago but it remains very fresh in my memory.  It is like no other museum you have ever visited. I usually last about an hour in a museum, but I was at Mona for five hours and there was not one bored moment of the many I spent there.

Ferries and buses take visitors from Hobart. I took the half hour ferry ride and was pleased I had. I was also pleased I had not read much about it as the many surprises, including the building itself, made my visit memorable. I will not spoil the surprise for those reading this who have not visited, but I can talk about some of the exhibits, not all of which are permanent. 

Mona thumbs its nose at everything: the art establishment especially, but everything else as well, including the creator of this gallery. I didn't notice on my way there, but as the ferry arrived for the return journey to Hobart I could see the group of sheep on the back deck. They looked at us as we looked at them. These quirky, amusing and sometimes in-your-face moments are what Mona is all about.

Golden vase ...
and reflection of me listening to
information via Mona device

Each visitor is given a phone-like device which 
automatically calls up prerecorded information about the art works near that visitor. You can have the information about the works that interest you emailed to you.  (The battery of my device died, so I lost my information - thus few of the images here are captioned.)

Henry Moore head

Woven carpet

The bottom level of the gallery had been divided into four spaces, each comprising several rooms. Four curators had been asked to exhibit art that answers the question 'What is art?"  I found the question captivating as I had written an essay in my second year at art school with the title 'What is art anyway?'

Interestingly two of the curators answered the same way, although with different exhibits. I didn't agree with their premise though, that art is all about survival of the species.

Fat red car

As I sat waiting for the ferry, I realised there was an art video playing right in front of me:

My Mona Video

Taranaki: visual joy

On a fine day Mount Egmont dominates Taranaki roads. Today was a beautiful day so as I drove south from New Plymouth I had the constant company of Mt Egmont.  What surprised me was seeing snow covered Mount Ruapehu to the east.

Mount Egmont and Taranaki cows

Near Stratford: Mt Ruapehu in the distance

Taranaki is also known for its gardens and my trip took me past hegdes of flowering camelias and huge flowering magnolias, one of which was in a schoolyard. It was so lovely I stopped to take a photo.

Schoolyard Magnolia with Mt Egmont

In every town there seems to be an art gallery or museum and one that is really worth a visit is the gallery in Stratford. They currently have an exhibition of works from the bnz collection which is exceptional. So many inspiring works of art, including works by Dick Frizzel ( pictured in a previous post), Colin McCahon, Toss Woolaston and Ralph Hotere among others. Finding works such as these in a small gallery where one can view them close up and undisturbed is a real treat. Apparently they normally hang in the staff canteen and staff rooms, at the bnz headquarters.

New Zealand treats art as something to appreciate and look at, not to store in a vault as an investment Sydney style and as a result there is  a vibrant visual arts scene here. Just visit the little gallery in Turangi to be convinced - the work by local artists there is equal to anywhere.

Glenda of Tahakopa by Robin White

Art in Hamburg

In the Hamburg Kunsthalle

After an unsuccessful attempt to sketch the fountain in the middle of the Inner Alster lake from a cold and windy seat to the north (my sketch equipment kept blowing away), a visit to the Hamburg Kunstmuseum (art gallery) was a welcome and warm relief. Most of the building is being renovated but a well curated selection of works was on display in the basement of the one building still open. Old and new work nicely juxtaposed.

Alster Lake with fountain

Artistic talent

Becoming an artist

Teachers have such power, though they may not think so themselves.

So many people have told me that they can't paint because their teacher told them long ago that they weren't any good. Many of these people harbour an unrequited wish to try again and when they do they often find hidden talent they never knew they had.

Others have told me they really couldn't draw at all when they started art classes, but perseverance has led them on a rewarding and fulfilling art journey.

Art is like anything else ... if you practise lots you get better, and if you practise a great deal you get a great deal better. The bonus is that it is such fun practising.

Artists and politics

The conversation about artists and politics has been re-ignited by the boycott of Sydney Art Biennale by artists who felt compromised by the contract that sponsor Transfield Holdings holds providing detention center facilities in Papua New Guinea's Manus Island (where asylum seekers are sent, then held with no hope of having their asylum claims heard) and by subsequent comments by Australian Government politicians and others who seem to want artists to be seen and not heard.

Politicians discussing global warming. Sculpture by Isaac Cordal.

But politics is life and art is about life so it is no wonder that art and politics are intertwined. Isaac Cordal comments on life/politics in a thoughtful manner. The photo shows a clever sculpture by Isaac Cordal exhibited in Berlin.  Waiting for climate change is another of his works, shown in Nantes last year.

(More comment about Transfield.)

The Sydney Biennale is now open and I think it is a 'must visit' year.

Tall poppies

Push down the barriers and you are bound to get bad press. A review of the Yoko Ono Exhibition by a Sydney art critic listed her accomplishments but sounded bored. Yoko Ono and her work are wonderfully passionate and very human, quite the opposite of boring (just as Nietzsche and Wagner were fun although you'd never know it reading the critics).  I was at the Yoko Ono exhibition again today (it is on at the Museum of Contemporary Art until February) and once again it was full of thoughtful or smiling faces. Or laughing faces, those worn by people trying to play chess at the tables laid out in the the first room. All of the pieces were white, so there were no losers.

From the Exhibition:
We're all Water  by Yoko Ono.

A very long line of identical bottles part filled with plain water and with names on the bottles.

You read along the line. Next to Socrates is Marlene Dietrich, ...


Frieda Kahlo .... Mary Shelley ... Osama bin Laden ...

Window ceramics

When I was in Dunedin I took a ceramics class and to my surprise I learned to love clay. Beginner students often experiment to see how thin they can make clay and I was no exception. These pots were made by rolling the clay with a rolling pin and imprinting them with figures.






The paper protrusions were inspired by my teacher Jim Cooper's work. Now the pots  are sitting on my bathroom window sill. The curtain is a piece I crocheted in Germany during a crochet splurge many years ago. However did I find the time for that?

Singing and Storms

Lisa Harper-Brown sings

I drew the lovely Lisa Harper-Brown as she sang for the Wagner Society of NSW some time ago.

The society later used the picture on an event brochure and ever since then I seem to have become a sort of unofficial artist for them.

Below is my latest effort ... an online collage. It advertises an event on 25 August at the Mosman Art Gallery in Sydney. Come if you can!

Swords and Winterstorms

Blue Tulips

 

I have just published Blue Tulips, an autobiographical book about love, music and art.  Love -  music - art,  what more could you possibly want? Wagner you say? Yes, well of course Wagner is in the book as well ... and happy 200th birthday to him!


Blue Tulips is online as a Kindle book at Amazon : http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B1T64E0



You can download free Kindle software onto a PC or any other e-device to read Kindle books.

Blue tulips is at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B1T64E0

Art in the scout hall

The scout hall in Umina is a pleasant place with wooden floors and quiet surroundings. Just the place for watercolour classes. I am busy making posters, getting insurance etc and plan to start in March. Online brochure is here in case you want to come!

Art in Bremerhaven

The art gallery in Bremerhaven has a sign on the window saying: 'Art ... nothing else'.

The building is rather small but with an interesting collection. My favorite was Gerhardt Richter's Page Corner from 1967. It might look like a page turning up, but it is flat. A clever drawing.

Sculpture in the main square.

(Dear Sydney City Councillors. Please note that you don't have to fill every available space with flags and kiosks and other street eyesores.)

Remarkable canvases

The walls of the Ptuj Castle are covered with painted canvases. They are nailed to the walls along the edges, floor to ceiling. I decided when I saw them that I could do something similar in my new abode ... where ever that may be!

Art, music, love

Terracotta bowl with slip edge. It was fired at 1120C and the terracotta colour is not quite as rich as the clay bowl with music which was fired at 1080C.