Jean-Paul Gaultier (iii)

 

 

I felt really inspired to do something with my J-P G photos, (from his exhibition), and have been making small painted sketches.  I used one idea of  'pattern', and played with it in Photoshop.  I cut out some of the picture, which I then felt looked like fabric cut pattern pieces - back to Square One! :)

Jean-Paul Gaultier - Barbican 2014 (ii)

These are just a few personal photos I took at the exhibition - 

I was interested in texture and pattern.

It's quite a substantial exhibition, and worth visiting, but find the 'talking' models a bit disconcerting!

Ice Age Art

Created between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago the collection of artifacts in the latest British Museum exhibition are completely amazing.  Do go and have a look.  The exhibition isn't huge, but it is fascinating.

Link to Cave Art - Chauvet France.

Leonardo da Vinci

The Mona Lisa is not in the exhibition at The National Galley, as The Louvre never loans it out.  When I saw the Mona Lisa (also known as La Gioconda or La Joconde), for the first time, I was a little disappointed as it is a small and dark painting, but -  somehow it has a reverence and magnetism about it.

detail of a larger painting

Cecelia Gallerani was 15 when this was painted by Leonardo in 1485. He was 33.  

She was the mistress of Ludovico Sforza and his emblem was the ermine, which she holds.  

At the moment, there is, of course, an exhibition at The National Gallery in London
of  Leonardo da Vinci - until beginning of February 2012.

Leonardo self-portraits as a young and old man.
http://www.nkfu.com/leonardo-da-vincinin-cizimleri-foto-galeri/

Alan Davie

Alan Davie

I recently saw an exhibition of Alan Davie's work at Kings Place and fell in love with this style. Kings Place is in York Way, nr. Kings Cross Station and is in the beautiful Guardian building. The art spaces are wonderful and well worth visiting - (they hold concerts too.) They have a super silver exhibition at the moment, although unfortunately the Alan Davie exhibition has finished today.

Vincent - (1853-1890)

"must have a warm heart for his fellow men"

Great exhibition at the RA on Van Gogh (only on until the 18th April) and the letters he had written to his brother Theo. The exhibition was very very crowded, and it wasn't easy to read any of the translations of the letters, but his paintings are wonderful. He was extremely passionate about his work as a painter, and always seemed to be learning about his art. He was greatly influenced by Japanese art.

It is so sad that he didn't manage to sell much of his work during his lifetime, but his life and works today still attract millions of people. It seems he may have suffered from epilepsy, and at that time it wasn't known how to treat this condition, and he became increasingly mentally unstable. He was constantly subsidised by his brother, Theo, during his lifetime, and seemed to feel this as a great weight. He was 37 when he died.

Some of Vincent's words:

"To do good work one must eat well, be well housed, have one's fling from time to time, smoke one's pipe, and drink one's coffee in peace."

"There is no blue without yellow and without orange."

"It is not the language of painters but the language of nature which one should listen to.... The feeling for the things themselves, for reality, is more important than the feeling for pictures."

Tacca Chentrieri

This is actually a real plant! It's a Tacca Chentrieri
I saw it at the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show
and thought it was just completely surreal.
I've taken lots more pics (Flikr) from the Show -
click here for the link

V&A Postcards

This is a man's theatrical costume - Gorgeous! -
(gold embroidery on velvet)
I think it could be worn now -
It's Italian and dated 1740-60.

This is an extended fan leaf with a view of the interior of a shop selling export wares.
It's possibly Dutch and dated 1680-1700

The costume and 'fan leaf' is at the Brit.Library's current Henry VIII exhibition.
These postcards are from exibits normally at the V&A.

Henry VIII - The British Library

Went to a wonderful exhibition today about Henry VIII - at the British Library. The Library is well worth a visit. It's a very 'user-friendly' - place.

I'm very interested in historical portraits, many of which, in this exhibition, hadn't been seen before, and almost like looking through a family's photo album - you can put a face to Henry's parents, siblings, his wives, of course - and many other important personages in this period. (You can also check on family resemblances!)

There are love letters from Henry to Anne Boleyn and many historical documents and artefacts to browse. Politically this was not an easy time in which to live, with strong religious differences from north to south, but my interest lay in the creative side of their lives and I found the costume detail in the paintings just as fascinating as the actual history.

Catherine of Aragon - divorced - (but not according to some!)
Mother of Queen Mary Tudor (Bloody Mary).
Catherine was married to Henry for 24 yrs.

Anne Boleyn - married - (but not according to others!) - beheaded (poor thing) - Mother of Queen Elizabeth I

Jane Seymour - bore him the son Henry wanted, Edward, but she died shortly after the prince was born.

Anne of Cleves - Henry didn't like her one bit and kindly set her up in another palace -
a goodlie distance away!

Kathryn Howard - was rather flirty - beheaded too.

Katherine Parr - she seemed to give him some stability and outlived him.

More info. on The Wives
Elizabethan Embroidery link 1.
Elizabethan Embroidery Link 2.