The coronavirus pandemic has hit everyone very hard, but artists seem to be low on the totem pole of governmental help. A simple, direct drive to purchase art and in turn, that artist purchases other artist’s work is one venture recently launched on Instagram to help. Generous and a way to celebrate art.
Read MoreConfinement and the Artist /
Corvid-19 confinement is a time of great ironies, it seems. Enormous stress and tragedy contrast with astonishing abundance of ways to occupy one’s hours of isolation. For me as an artist, I am beginning to feel that some of the contrasts are a little overwhelming.
Read MoreCoronavirus Confinement - the Art of Living /
During these strange, coronavirus-dominated times, perhaps the art of living needs to refined so that we can avoid some of the negative aspects over which we have no control and dwell on the positive, the amusing, the beautiful, the interesting - even small details, but which can make life pass better which we all remain in confinement.
Read MoreCoronavirus Confinement and Art /
Confinement or quarantine is a novel experience - the coronavirus is taking us all into a life where perhaps the art of life has to be freshly defined. The Spanish, as other nations, are setting out to do just that, in frequently creative and often amusing ways. Art is all its manifestations threads itself through our lives.
Read MoreIn the Realm of Blues /
A series of coincidences in recent months, as I learn about different aspects of the colour blue, culminated in a wonderful, thought-provoking exhibition, “Blue - The Colour of Modernism”, currently on display at the Caixa Foundation in Palma de Mallorca. The palette of blues increased vastly in the later 19th century, and artists evoked innumerable emotions and situations with their skilful use of different shades of blue, a colour which hallmarked that era to a great degree.
Read MoreEnclosures or the Art of Cherishing /
From a circle of stones to a weather beaten Japanese door, we have all found ways to enclose, protect and thus cherish places and things that are important to us. Man’s ingenuity in finding ways to ensure that our territorial and proprietorial instincts are satisfied has led to some wonderful solutions that enrich everyone.
Read More"Aizome" or The Art of Japanese Indigo Dyeing /
Blue hands tell of wondrous traditional skills of fabric dyeing with indigo in the Tokushima area of Shikoku Island, Japan. This humble blue flower is picked and prepared through a long, complex process, then to be turned into liquid. living dye into which different fabrics are dipped. The resultant fabrics are utterly bewitching in their subtle, clear and joyous blue patterns. They lead one into yet another fascinating, centuries-old art form in Japan.
Read More"Bahan", the Art of Horse-Logging or Reviving Lost Arts in Japan /
Reviving traditional skills in Japan is always noteworthy and I was lucky enough to learn of the art of horse logging, the perfect solution to logging in steep, fragile mountain forests, and the art of horse ploughing in rice fields. In both arts, a horse treads lightly on the ground, does not require tractors with all the complications that they imply and allows close links back to the earth we should all be cherishing. A wonderful solution for our world about which many more people should learn, it seems to me.
Read MorePost-scriptum à la Soirée de Poésie, et Musique et d'Art au Musée Carnot /
Un post-scriptum bien délicieux à la soirée qui célébrait la poésie, la musique et l’art au Musée Carnot, à Villeneuve-sur-Yonne, est que le poète Jean Jacques Gleizal s’est vite installé le lendemain matin pour écrire un poème sur la soirée. Formidable!
Read MorePostscript to the Soiree of Poetry, Music and Art at the Musee Carnot /
A lovely postcript to the evening celebrating poetry, music and art at the Musee Carnot, Villeneuve-sur-Yonne, is that Jean Jacques Gleizal sat down the next morning and wrote a poem about the soiree. Fun!
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