Gary J Kirkpatrick, Art and Travel

Author: Gary Kirkpatrick

  • In the Saone in Lyon

    Il Barbe is an island in the Saone River. It’s springtime and the river flow is up, overflowing some of the riverside sidewalks.

    On the island was the home of a 5th century abbey. It was dismantled during the French revolution. Today there are beautiful stone houses and a magnificent church. See watercolor painting below.

    Old houses on Ile Barbe, Lyon
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    Church on Ile Barbe

    There’s been a bridge to the island since the 17th century. There’s a modern one in place now.

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    Houses on Ile Barbe, Lyon, France. This area is private so we had no access. Looks really neat. Photos above show it from the river side

    We got there on a local bus. You can get weekly tickets for €22 via the app, which I learned about as we were standing in line to get the paper version, which is €5 more. Once installed and you buy the tickets with your credit card, you simply click on your phone to activate the screen light (you do not have to unlock) and hold it over the scan pad at the metro entrance or inside the bus.

  • Some of the better Fallas Sculptures of 2024, a crema and a fireworks

    Some of the better Fallas sculptures of 2024

    Crema (burning of the Fallas) of Borrull Socorrs falla in Pexina

  • Margaret Walker, African American poet

    Margaret Walker (1915-1998) was a highly accomplished woman. She was at college student at the young age of 15 when she begin writing poetry. In 1936 she joined the Federal Writers’ Project in Chicago, befriending Richard Wright. BA from Northwestern 1935, MA and Ph D U of Iowa 1945. Her dissertation was published as a novel, Jubilee 1966.

    margaret walker portrait conte
    Dr. Margaret Walker, Conte pencil, 32 x 50 cm/ 12.5 x 19.5″ on gray pastel paper

    Walker was the first African American poet to receive the Yale Younger Poets Prize, penning For My People 1942. She published This Is My Century: New and Collected Poems , October Journey and Prophets for a New Day .

    In 1949 she joined the faculty at Jackson State College. She returned to the University of Iowa for her doctoral studies and received a PhD in 1965. In 1968 Walker founded the Institute for the Study of the History, Life, and Culture of Black People at Jackson State College.

    As what became the Margaret Walker Center, she organized the 1971 National Evaluative Conference on Black Studies and the 1973 Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival.

    In 1979 she published On Being Female, Black, and Free, a collection of personal essays, and Richard Wright: Daemonic Genius.

  • Judi Dench as a Young Woman

    juli dench shaespeare final
    Judi Dench, Conte pencil on cream colored pastel paper

    Judi Dench (1934) as a Shakespearean actress. One of the finest actresses Britain has ever produced. Conte pencil

  • Fallas 2024 rocks on

    Starting March 1 each year, Fallas is an annual celebration of renewal, a kind of out with the old and in with the new, clean out the shop and closet to create something out of scrap. Well that’s the way it began, morphing into an over the top celebration of, well, pretty much whatever you want, most using a wood/foam construction to create these gravity defying sculptures as well as the smaller ones, called Ninots which largely target children. Photos below the videos.

    For an explanation of what this World Heritage event is all about, see Fallas- what it’s all about

    Here is a link to the midnight fireworks of March 17, in the City of Arts section of Valencia

    Here is March 17th mascleta at 2 pm at the main square

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    In the Rusafa neighborhood of Valencia.

    Huge numbers of people arrive from all over Spain, Europe and the rest of the world. It is a family centered event. Kids as well as adults participate in just about everything. There are food trucks and cocktail stands galore, with very little drunkenness especially considering the numbers. It is loud, with firecrackers readily available and employed even by the smallest of children, generally following the requirements of adult supervision and training for members of the Casals, the clubs that organize the sculpture production and doa lot of the partying as well as sponsoring the Fallera Mayor and Fallera Infantil, the adult and child queens of the entire event.

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    A good time in the lights of the Rusafa neighborhood
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    The Fallas Pilar in construction, going on to place third in the Special Classs (the biggest sculptures)
    Pilar 1
    We watched them add pieces to the Pilar Fallas
    Pilar 2

  • Umberto Ecco

    Umberto Ecco Conte
    Umberto Ecco, Conte pencil, 32 x 50 cm/ 12.5 x 19.5″

    Umberto Ecco (1932-2016) was a medievalist, philosopher, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. He is best known for his popular 1980 novel The Name of the Rose, made into the movie with Sean Connery playing the leading role. The novel is a tour de force of intricacies of medieval theology. Foucault’s Pendulum pokes fun, again intricately, at conspiracy theory, while Prague Cemetery revisits the plots of the Risorgimento. Another of my heroes. He taught at the University of Bologna, which we visited along with the Focault pendulum then swinging in the cathedral. Portrait in Conte.

  • Pianist Singer Ballerina II

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/57614912@N08/53558084255/in/dateposted-public/
    Pianist Singer Ballerina, Acrylics on Canvas, 100 x 73 cm, 40 x 29″

    This is the third painting featuring the pianist. The first is a realistic depiction

    Pianist and Singer
    Pianist and SInger

    The second, completed just a month or so ago, appeared in the Street Art Fair in Picanya, Spain

    Pianist, Dance, SInger dones picanya final
    Pianist Singer Ballerina, 1.5 x 1.3 meters, acrylics

  • American Artists Exhibit in Valencia

    Eight American artists, including me, are participating in an exhibit from March 1-6 at Bloom Gallery in Valencia. The opening is March 1 at 1930h (7:30 pm). For those who live here, hope to see you there!

    announcement show

    Each artist will exhibit two pieces. Mine are:

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/57614912@N08/53558084255/in/dateposted-public/
    Pianist Singer Ballerina 2, acrylics on canvas, 100 x 73cm/ 40 x 29″

     

     

    Croquis Cafe 57 x 76 cm, 22.5 x 30” acrylics

  • Stormy Braggs

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    Stormy Braggs, digital portrait of Stormy Daniels

  • Pianist, Singer, Ballerina

    Pianist, Dance, SInger dones picanya final
    Pianist, Singer, Ballerina, acrylics on canvas, 1.5 x 1.3m/5′ x 4′

    This expressionistic piece combines imaginative and realistic elements such as we see in the dancer, from the performer’s point of view. The stained glass look continues, muted in the dark theater as is the audience. It’s about the challenges of cooperative performance. Without an audience there is no performance.

    Light and dark interplay. Shafts of light downpour, adding to the pressure. The spotlight’s on you. Do it. There is one escape: that open door. But to get there you are judged more harshly.

    Last year’s event here Dones de Picanya 2023 and 2022 here Dones de Picanya 2022