An art appreciation stroll.

This article is a slow moving, fine meandering, easy going, stroll through various works of art. I hope that you enjoy it, and perhaps are inspired by it to some degree. This is a general article, and no particular painter is promoted. Though, you will notice that many of the fine works by these artists are now long gone and lost in the dust-bin of history.

Head’s up to “Ohio Guy” for his awareness.

Max Seliger – Archers

Not much is known about this man. But I do really love his form and attention to the male figure. For me, I have always found it far more interesting to draw and paint the male figure as opposed to the female figure. I just never could get the curves and softness of a woman’s body correctly. However, men’s bodies were much easier to draw and paint, and far more interesting. (From an artist’s perspective.) While women’s tended to focus on the eyes, the hair, and the clothing.

Archers.

Consuelo Fould – Druidesses

Another lonely singular remaining work of art. This time of the female form. Also two figures crammed into one painting. I find it lovely. But that is just me.

You will notice that the muscle definition on the female is very subtle and soft. The smooth shading of shadows is particularly difficult to render. I worked out a technique where I would paint a lighter under panting, and then paint over it with a slightly darker flesh tone, then using a rag, I would wipe away the upper layer and then apply a wash. It’s a nice effect.

You will note that the positioning of the clothing, instruments and objects all served to cover the genitals for a very timid Victorian audience.

Druidesses

Lindsay Bernard Hall – Processional

It’s not simply the muscle tone and definition that is important in fine at, but also the clothing, the textures and the lighting. So many aspects come into play. Here’s a nice example. I think that this is a very nicely done painting. It doesn’t strike me emotionally as others do, but I find it a treasure never the less.

Processional

Antonin Picek – Teatime amusements

I really love the details in this work of art. Obviously the artist was a fine draftsman and then colored the work afterwards with thin washes of oils, layer after layer until the desired effects were achieved. I love the expressions on the faces, and the details on the woman’s dresses.

Teatime amusements

Marcus Stone – The Old Letters

Marcus was a Victorian Romanticist painter, history painter, illustrator and genre painter. He tries to convey snapshots of emotion in his works, and this painting is typical.

What I find so appealing in this painting are the details in the skirt. Just look at this masterpiece. It’s wonderful.

Julius Adam- Painter of kittens

I really love this artist because he loved to paint kittens.

Anyone who can manage to paint kittens, those forever moving bundles of fur, is an expert in my book. Only seven paintings of his survive. The rest were destroyed during World Wars I and II.

He was a German painter, and his works certainly ended up in many a fine home that was later bombed into oblivion by the Allied forces in the 1940’s.

Playful Kittens
Playful kittens in a basket
The hayloft.
One For All
The Proud Mother
The Playful Kittens
Tug of War

The paws and tail detail are exquisite.

Oswald Achenbach – Fireworks in Naples

I am not usually a fan of landscapes. They tend to be calming to the point of blandness. However, Oswald here has some nice works that would really look nice in a hallway or in a living room or study.

Fireworks in Naples

That’s nice. Here’s a rather nice study of a tree in a wooded glade…

Study of a Tree

And this one depicts a Shepard and his flock… look closely, the figures are tiny, tiny, tiny.

A Mountainous Landscape

Edwin Austin Abbey  – ‘O mistress mine, where are you roaming?’

Here’s a fine artist. He’s known as a Golden Age Illustrator painter, illustrator and muralist. Some of his works are just spectacular. Such as this one. Note that the young man is wearing red, a bright color to attract attention while the woman is a harlot as denoted by here green sleeves. You will note that a mistral is playing music in the background and the only thing missing is a bottle or jug of wine. All in all a very nice painting.

‘O mistress mine, where are you roaming?’

Another nice painting, and sorry for the embedded watermarks due to the screen capture.

The Penance of Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester

Eleanor Duchess of Gloucester was forced to undertake public penance and walk through the city of London without a hood, and bearing a lighted taper. Life imprisonment in various remote locations followed.

In July 1446 she was sent to Peel Castle (Manx: Cashtal Purt ny h-Inshey) on the Isle of Man (Mannin) in the north of the Irish Sea.

What was her crime?

Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester, was a mistress and the second wife of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. A convicted sorceress, her imprisonment for treasonable necromancy in 1441 was a cause célèbre.

The Penance of Eleanor, Dutchess of Gloucester is an oil painting by Edwin Austin Abbey, finished in 1890. The painting is quite large, at 85″ wide and 49″ tall. It depicts Eleanor, former mistress, and now wife of the Duke of Gloucester, performing penance for her crime of consulting with sorcerers to help the Duke gain the throne.

Study

A “study” is where the artist makes a series of rough sketches of the idea for a painting. Some are very rough. Some are detailed drawings and paintings of various important aspects of the art. And some are beautiful in their own right. Here’s a perfect example of one by Edwin Austin Abbey. This one is with back and white chalk on a tan paper with high-lighted details in black ink by pen.

I personally think that it is awesome.

With Pride upon her Brow

And here’s another one in Gouache. It’s a nice medium. Though I never had the opportunity to practice using this method.

Around my fire an evening group to draw” (also known as Study for The Deserted Village)

Conclusion

Did you know that almost every museum has one day that allows for free entry to the museum. This is most especially true for art museums. All you need to do is look up (Google) the local museums nearby and then go to their websites (they all have one). There are the times when they are opened and which days are free, and whether or not there are special events.

For instance, at the very expensive Pittsburgh Carnegie Museum of Art, they let people on food stamps enter for only a $1…

Present your Electronic Benefit Transfer card (EBT Card) from any state (Pennsylvania Access card, Ohio Direction card, West Virginia Mountain State card, etc.) and receive general admission for up to four people at $1 each at Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History. Simply present your EBT Card along with a matching photo ID. This program is supported by BNY Mellon.

It’s a perfect opportunity to visit a local museum if you are unemployed and want some inspiration, or a good excuse to take a day off from work for you to make a date with your spouse of special friend.

You do not have to park at the site. You go to cheap parking and take a bus to the museum. All cities have bus stops near their museums and parks.

Hint. Hint. Hint.

Make a day of it. A nice ride, then a nice lunch. Then a visit to the museum, and finish up with a trip to an ice cream parlor for coffee and a sundae. Wouldn’t that be nice? I think it would be. We are so very used to doing our routines that life tends to pass us by. Don’t allow that. Go out and try to enjoy it.

A free trip to a museum, a coffee and a sundae, and maybe a blue plate special for lunch. How expensive can that be. And you know, in one week it’s going to be middle of October. This is a special golden time throughout most of the planet.

It will be a lovely day.

What a nice thing to plan. What a nice event you can generate. Make memories. Make friends. Enjoy yourself.

Do you want more?

I have more  articles on art and art related interests please go here…

Art Index

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Articles & Links

Master Index

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Snapshots of Summer in Asia (part 4).

Making Spaghetti the Chinese Way

Spaghetti was invented by the Chinese. However, if you visit any website in the United States you will read that it originated out of Italy. The detailed parroting of this narrative follows the same tired-old formula.

History of pasta meals had deep origins in the eastern Mediterranean countries such as Greece and several territories of Middle East and Arabian Peninsula.     

There, meals made form dough were different in many ways to the food  that was used on daily basis in Ancient Roman Empire. As historian  records can tell us, the direct origin of the Italian pasta came from the Arab meal  called “itriyya” that was often described by the Greeks as “dry pasta”.  

This durable and     long lasting meal was one of the main sources of nutrition for Arab  traders who traveled all across then-known world outside of Europe.  Because of their nomadic nature and military conquest, the first European contact with itriyya was recorded sometimes during 7th century AD when Arabs  managed to occupy Sicily. 

There were rumors about Marco Polo bringing Chinese recipe  of pasta to the Italy, but his travels happened more than 500 years  later. 

-History of Spaghetti

Which is fine.

In the Mediterranean region, ground wheat was made into pasta, that eventually evolved into spaghetti. This recipe found it’s way to America, where it eventually became known as American Spaghetti.

Well, long, long before the European cavemen (and cave women) were playing with wheat and pounding it into mush to make noodles, the Chinese had a very well established version of noodles and spaghetti. However, they made both the noodles, and the sauce quite differently.

This is how you make spaghetti in China…

New Make-up Trends

China is an enormous nation. It’s population dwarfs that of the United States. As such, there are many, many sub-cultures, fads and trends that are going on that are way, way off the radar screen in the United States. One such trend is artistic makeup.

Here, you define your own unique way of putting on makeup instead of the more “polished” looks that you might find in the glamor magazines. Sort of like this…

Lolita Fashion in China.

There are many Japanese fashions that have migrated Westward. China has communities of Japanese fashion in all of the cities. Even tiny Zhuhai, where I live, has a contingent of Lolita fashion aficionados.

Summer Monkey Dancing Parade…

And of course, what kind of a summer would it be without a parade of dancing monkey kings? Well?

Let’s continue…

Continued-graphic-arrow

If you want to go to the start of this series of posts, then please click HERE.

Links about China

Here are some links about my observations on China. I think that you, the reader, might find them to be of interest. Please kindly enjoy.

Popular Music of China
Chinese weapons systems
Chinese motor sports
End of the Day Potato
Dog Shit
Dancing Grandmothers
Dance Craze
When the SJW movement took control of China
Family Meal
Freedom & Liberty in China
Ben Ming Nian
Beware the Expat
Fake Wine
Fat China
Business KTV
How I got married in China.
Chinese apartment houses
Chinese Culture Snapshots
Rural China
Chinese New Year

China and America Comparisons

As an American, I cannot help but compare what my life was in the United States with what it is like living in China. Here we discuss that.

SJW
Playground Comparisons
The Last Straw
Leaving the USA
Diversity Initatives
Democracy
Travel outside
10 Misconceptions about China
Top Ten Misconceptions

The Chinese Business KTV Experience

This is the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find in the British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American liberal press. This is the reality. Read or not.

KTV1
KTV2
KTV3
KTV4
KTV5
KTV6
KTV7
KTV8
KTV9
KTV10
KTV11
KTV12
KTV13
KTV14
KTV15
KTV16
KTV17
KTV18
KTV19
KTV20

Learning About China

Who doesn’t like to look at pretty girls? Ugly girls? Here we discuss what China is like by looking at videos of pretty girls doing things in China.

Pretty Girls 1
Pretty Girls 2
Pretty Girls 3
Pretty Girls 4
Pretty Girls 5

Contemporaneous Chinese Music

This is a series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music in China. It is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at that, all that I am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews. However, this series of posts should serve as a great starting place for investigation and enjoyment.

Part 1 - Popular Music of China
Part 3 -Popular music of China.
Part 3 - The contemporaneous music of China.
part 3B - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 4 - The contemporaneous popular music of China.
Part 5 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 5B - The popular music of China.
Part 5C - The music of contemporary China.
Part D - The popular music of China.
Part 5E - A happy Joe.
Part 5F - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 5F - The popular music of China.
Post 6 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Post 7 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Post 8 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 9 - The contemporaneous music of China.
Part 10 - Music of China.
Post 11 - The contemporaneous music of China.

Parks in China

The parks in China are very unique. They are enormous and tend to be very mountainous. Here we take a look at this most interesting of subjects.

Parks in China - 1
Pars in China - 2
Parks in China - 3
Visiting a park in China - 4
High Speed Rail in China
Visiting a park in China - 5
Beautiful China part 6
Parks in China - 7
Visiting a park in China - 8

Really Strange China

Here are some posts that discuss a number of things about China that might seem odd, or strange to Westerners. Some of the things are everyday events, while others are just representative of the differences in culture.

Really Strange China 1
Really Strange China 2
Rally Strange China 3
Really Strange China 4
Really Odd China 5
Really Strange China 6
Really Strange China 7
Really Strange China 8
Really Strange China 9
Really Strange China 10
Really Strange China 11
Really Strange China 12
Really strange China 13
Really strange China 14

What is China like?

The purpose of this post is to illustrate that the rest of the world, outside of America, has moved on with their lives. That while they might not be as great as America is, they are doing just fine thank you.

And while America has been squandering it’s money, decimating it’s resources, and just being cavalier with it’s military, the rest of the world has done the opposite. They have husbanded their day to day fortunes, and you can see this in their day-to-day lives.

What is China like - 1
What is China like - 2
What is China Like - 3
What is China like - 4
What is China like - 5
What is China like - 6
What is China like - 8
What is China like - 8
What is China like - 9

Articles & Links

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  • You can start reading the articles sequentially by going HERE.
  • You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
  • You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
  • You can find out more about the author HERE.
  • If you have concerns or complaints, you can go HERE.
  • If you want to make a donation, you can go HERE.