Friday, 8 May 2009
MAY IN SCOTLAND
We are heading to Edinburg, Scotland on business tomorrow. So on Sunday, I will have a chance to see their National Gallery. I am looking forward to being there, as it has been several years now since we last visited Edinburg . It will be a flash visit but I will be back on Tuesday. I have to devise a way to write on this blog whilst I am away. I couldn't get access from my lap-top. Take lots of care and have a great weekend everyone.
Wednesday, 6 May 2009
New Jack the ripper book
So what happened to the maxim: ' Never Judge A Book By Its Cover ' ? It seems to me that the established ripper authors are trying to ban a book not for its content but are just judging it for its cover. Pathetic ! and nothing, absolutely nothing that happens at Nut-casebook surprises me anymore. If you are not in their tiny little club, then they will make sure their lobby of a few little number of people will try to make sure your new book does not have good reviews in the hope that the new author will go away and they will be the only people in the market.
Once, the author Stewart P. Evans one of the ripper authors asked me when will it all end ? When will people stop writing more books about Jack the ripper ? and I replied to him, so long as it remains a mystery, there will be more people writing books theorising who did it and you will just have to put up with it. They wish their theories alone are the ones that stand and they do not want any competing books who tell another story other than the one they have already written. It is not good for their sales which is the only thing they are interested in.
Attacking a book for its cover shows how narrow minded these people are. Specially on a photo which has been circulated on the internet over and over again. That is very petty.
Once, the author Stewart P. Evans one of the ripper authors asked me when will it all end ? When will people stop writing more books about Jack the ripper ? and I replied to him, so long as it remains a mystery, there will be more people writing books theorising who did it and you will just have to put up with it. They wish their theories alone are the ones that stand and they do not want any competing books who tell another story other than the one they have already written. It is not good for their sales which is the only thing they are interested in.
Attacking a book for its cover shows how narrow minded these people are. Specially on a photo which has been circulated on the internet over and over again. That is very petty.
Ireland in May
Hello Robert, Victoria and Dougie.
We have just returned from the Emerald Island from having spent nine days there, between Dublin, Navan and Longford. In Dublin, we stayed at the Shelbourne Hotel which is the oldest in town, founded in 1824 and is situated just around the corner from the National Gallery of Ireland so as you can imagine, I spent most of my time there, viewing the paintings and exhibitions in situ brought from the Netherlands from the most iconic images of the Dutch Golden Age. These paintings were borrowed from different art galleries and all date from the middle of the seventeenth century, when the Dutch Republic enjoyed unprecedented prosperity and the Delft art scene flourished. The masterpieces I saw, were specifically from Delft, paintings by Johannes Vermeer, Carel Fabritius & Pieter De Hooch. Downstairs, there was an exhibition by Thomas Roberts an extremely gifted Irish landscape painter who lived between 1748 - 1777 and who unfortunatelly died before he was 28 years old of consumption. I enjoyed his paintings, his detailed and controlled topographical works, and his keen understanding of the fundamentals of classical landscape painting in terms of recession, tone and balance. It just goes to show that Classical paintings are timeless and the day will come, when all this tat, that now passes as " art " will be cast aside as the rubbish it really is. Would you believe, that down the road from there, where Nelson's monument was before the IRA blew it up, it has been replaced by a steel mast ! at a cost to the tax payer of 30 million Euros. Its hard to figure out this is supposed to be " Art " I would say, con-artists did this.
In Longford, we stayed at a charming country estate called View Mount which had a really nice period house ( Georgian ) with impressive and beautiful gardens. One of them was a Japanese garden with a pagoda included. Their restaurant had superb gourmet food, served in four different courses and all the rooms have wonderful views to the gardens. In their library, whilst I was browsing one of their books, in one of the pages of an Irish history book I came across a painting by my Great-great-grand aunt, Maria Spilsbury; this is a painting I had never seen before. I will show it to you here.
We have just returned from the Emerald Island from having spent nine days there, between Dublin, Navan and Longford. In Dublin, we stayed at the Shelbourne Hotel which is the oldest in town, founded in 1824 and is situated just around the corner from the National Gallery of Ireland so as you can imagine, I spent most of my time there, viewing the paintings and exhibitions in situ brought from the Netherlands from the most iconic images of the Dutch Golden Age. These paintings were borrowed from different art galleries and all date from the middle of the seventeenth century, when the Dutch Republic enjoyed unprecedented prosperity and the Delft art scene flourished. The masterpieces I saw, were specifically from Delft, paintings by Johannes Vermeer, Carel Fabritius & Pieter De Hooch. Downstairs, there was an exhibition by Thomas Roberts an extremely gifted Irish landscape painter who lived between 1748 - 1777 and who unfortunatelly died before he was 28 years old of consumption. I enjoyed his paintings, his detailed and controlled topographical works, and his keen understanding of the fundamentals of classical landscape painting in terms of recession, tone and balance. It just goes to show that Classical paintings are timeless and the day will come, when all this tat, that now passes as " art " will be cast aside as the rubbish it really is. Would you believe, that down the road from there, where Nelson's monument was before the IRA blew it up, it has been replaced by a steel mast ! at a cost to the tax payer of 30 million Euros. Its hard to figure out this is supposed to be " Art " I would say, con-artists did this.
In Longford, we stayed at a charming country estate called View Mount which had a really nice period house ( Georgian ) with impressive and beautiful gardens. One of them was a Japanese garden with a pagoda included. Their restaurant had superb gourmet food, served in four different courses and all the rooms have wonderful views to the gardens. In their library, whilst I was browsing one of their books, in one of the pages of an Irish history book I came across a painting by my Great-great-grand aunt, Maria Spilsbury; this is a painting I had never seen before. I will show it to you here.
Saturday, 25 April 2009
Pencil drawings
Well just two. Impossible to photograph them. On the black and white drawing the head did not come out and on the colour pencil one, the legs did not come out and you can hardly see them. Never mind. I am too tired to take more photos so that will have to do. I do not want to be blamed if we miss the ferry tomorrow morning. My bags are packed and I am nearly ready to go. Bye for now.
Wednesday, 15 April 2009
Holy Week in Spain
Hi Victoria, Robert !
Going to Madrid was an impulsive decision. Peter wanted to go and I doubted whether we could get a room, since this is the time of the year when most people in Spain take their holidays and go out, but we were extremely lucky in getting a really nice one with a balcony overlooking the Neptune fountain and just a stone throw away from the Prado Museum. When we arrived to the hotel on Good Friday, there were blue barricades on both sides of the road and the crowds there were waiting to see the procession with the Christ pinned to the cross. It was only 3 p.m. and this procession was not going to be until 7 p.m. people were prepared to stand waiting for four hours to see this, but the best part of it was when finally 7 p.m. arrived and the procession was cancelled ! There was a lady who had come all the way from Ceuta to see this. I have no idea why, because Ceuta has their own noted Christ, with a real set of human hair and all.
The next day, we went to the Prado Museum to see a Victorian exhibition by the Pre-Raphaelite English painter called: ' The Sleeping Beauty ' by Sir Edmund Coley Burne-Jones. All of these paintings live in Puerto Rico, in the Ponce Museum so I am not likely to see them in England. There was also this huge painting about the death of King Arthur in Avalon. The theme was sleep, sweet dreams which was also associated with death in Victorian times. The roses, symbolised love survivimg death which was a recurrent theme in Rossetti's poems and paintings. Also there was the painting " Flaming June " by Lord Leighton. I enter the museum for free. Someone came to me, a complete stranger and gave me a visitor's badge. The badge allowed me to see all the exhibits including the Rembrandt one, so that was a real stroke of good luck. I think it was an angel who gave it to me. Most people do not normally make this kind of gesture.
Going to Madrid was an impulsive decision. Peter wanted to go and I doubted whether we could get a room, since this is the time of the year when most people in Spain take their holidays and go out, but we were extremely lucky in getting a really nice one with a balcony overlooking the Neptune fountain and just a stone throw away from the Prado Museum. When we arrived to the hotel on Good Friday, there were blue barricades on both sides of the road and the crowds there were waiting to see the procession with the Christ pinned to the cross. It was only 3 p.m. and this procession was not going to be until 7 p.m. people were prepared to stand waiting for four hours to see this, but the best part of it was when finally 7 p.m. arrived and the procession was cancelled ! There was a lady who had come all the way from Ceuta to see this. I have no idea why, because Ceuta has their own noted Christ, with a real set of human hair and all.
The next day, we went to the Prado Museum to see a Victorian exhibition by the Pre-Raphaelite English painter called: ' The Sleeping Beauty ' by Sir Edmund Coley Burne-Jones. All of these paintings live in Puerto Rico, in the Ponce Museum so I am not likely to see them in England. There was also this huge painting about the death of King Arthur in Avalon. The theme was sleep, sweet dreams which was also associated with death in Victorian times. The roses, symbolised love survivimg death which was a recurrent theme in Rossetti's poems and paintings. Also there was the painting " Flaming June " by Lord Leighton. I enter the museum for free. Someone came to me, a complete stranger and gave me a visitor's badge. The badge allowed me to see all the exhibits including the Rembrandt one, so that was a real stroke of good luck. I think it was an angel who gave it to me. Most people do not normally make this kind of gesture.
Sunday, 5 April 2009
Victoria's pictures from Antarctica
Robert, These are 4 of some of the wonderful pictures from Antarctica that Victoria took during her holiday there. I think the pictures of the penguins are really cute ! and the glaciers look like ice lollies or meringues on water.
Wednesday, 1 April 2009
Red Roses
Unfortunately, it doesn't register too well. The reds do not come as bright as the real picture and the mauves fail to appear. Never mind, this is my latest flower painting. If the real one was as ugly as the one that appears here, I would start again. The photo is very disappointing.
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