Gary J. Kirkpatrick

Author: Gary Kirkpatrick

  • The Sound and the Fury

     

                                  The Sound and the Fury

     

    My play upon these words from Macbeth, Scene V

    MACBETH

    She should have died hereafter;
    There would have been a time for such a word.
    To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
    Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
    To the last syllable of recorded time,
    And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
    The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
    Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
    That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
    And then is heard no more: it is a tale
    Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
    Signifying nothing.

    High quality prints $35.00

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    Best quality glicee print signed 1 of 50

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  • Duomo Monreale

    April 20, 2019

    Duomo Monreale , also referred to as the Cathedral of Monreale, sits at height over the valley in which Palermo resides.  The views of the city,  the large natural port, and the surrounding urban and rural zones are expansive.  Here’s a video with some good shots of the valley, taking you then to the Duomo and the adjacent cloisters.

    [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i557UcxWpys[/embedyt]

     

    The cathedral was built under the Norman King Guillermo II, who along with his brother is buried here in a coffin aside a petition near the altar.  Legend would have it that he fell asleep beneath a tree in the nearby forest.  In a dream, Mary told him to build a church here.  They found treasure in the tree’s roots.  The gold financed the  project, which began in 1172.  The result today is a UNESCO Heritage Site, one of Italy’s finest churches.  It is in the Arabo-Norman Style, 102 x 40 meters in size.  The interior is wall to ceiling in what I would call ‘late’ Byzantine style mosaics.  The underlying drawings are a bit more realistic than what you might find in Orthodox churches.  There is not a bare centimeter anywhere in the buliding.  The floors are exquisitely formed patterns in marble.  The arches are Moorish in style as is the external decor.    

    There is an extensive wiki so for more about this superb building.    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monreale_Cathedral

     

    Peg’s photos. 

     

     

     

     

     

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  • A Good Friday Procession in Palermo

    April 19, 2019

    We were doing this and that in our apartment when we finally heard the procession going by.  I managed to get a short video. The Mary had already gone around the corner so you can see it just from behind. You can hear the music, though it has been pretty much the same everywhere today, except for the opera singer we heard at a church.

     

    [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGOFMowAMrQ[/embedyt]

  • Pechersk Lavra

    Pechersk Lavra  is also called the Kyiv Monastery of the Caves.  It is an Orthodox Christian monastery located on the cliffs overlooking the Dnieper River in Kiev.  There are extensive caves which were occupied by monks.  There are beautiful church domes.

     

    Pechersk Lavra, Kiev monastery, digital painting, prints

  • The heights of Serpotta’s art – the Oratorio Santissimo Rosario in Santa Cita

    Oratorio di Santa Cita (1590) must be seen to be believed.  This must be Serpottas’s masterpiece.  He worked on it from 1687-1718.  Every piece is a superb example of Baroque stucco art. 

     

    Here’s Peg’s video: [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8MUhPADDiM[/embedyt]

     

    This one is professionally done so the lighting and contrast are excellent

     

    [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6q-AKjcM78[/embedyt]

     

    Peg’s photos:

     

     

     

  • Memories of the Tall Ships in the Nederlands

    April 2019

    We have friends in Haarlem, the Haarlem in the Nederlands, not the Harlem in New York City. We are going to meet them in May at a spot off the Ijsselmeer in the middle of nowhere. It’s where we first met them in 2000. It was their idea, and how charming of them to think of it! We met as we were docking our boat, they helped us get to the bank, and later invited us for Oranjebitter, a liquor made from oranges. This beverage is issued every year in honor of the monarch, still on the throne,

     

    Tall Ships Parade to Amsterdam, water color and ink, post card stock

     

     

    We met them again later that summer near their house. It was July. The Tall Ships were in Amsterdam on their annual circuit, which this year concluded here. Thousands of smaller boats joined in parades to the harbor. We joined K and A, their daughter M and her husband B in the latter’s boat for a trip to Amsterdam harbor in the twilight. There were hundreds of small craft doing the same. We were bumper to bumper, so to speak. When it was dark out came a large barge stuffed with fireworks as well as huge loud speakers. It was a great show! I am glad Kees was at the helm as it was a pitch black sail back to their harbor.

    We resume the boating life in a few weeks.  

     

    Tall Ships 2, , water color and ink, post card stock

    Crowd at Tall Ships 2015, pen and ink

    Tall Ships Sketch 1, , pen and ink

     

  • Woman in a Van Gogh Field

    I joined with two other artists in Valencia to hire a model with whom we enjoyed working.  She is able to hold long poses.  Over three hours I painted her in acrylics and later added the clothing and background.   I took as inspiration for the background the landscape paintings of Van Gogh, with a twist.

    Woman In a Van Goghish Field, 75 x 36 cm, 30 x 14″ acrylics on paper

  • Chiesa San Agostino and Oratorio della SS. Carita di San Piedro

    Oratorio della SS. Carita di San Piedro is a small church originally connected to a secular effort to raise funds for the ransom the religious abducted by pirates. The anteroom  has outstanding frescoes by Guglielmo Borremans.  One is “The escape of St. Peter from the Prison,” the other “The Glory of St. Peter.” There is also “Francis of Assisi,” “Achaio,” “Vincenzo de ‘Paoli,” and “Paolino.”

    Oratorio della SS. Carita di San Piedro
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     Oratorio della SS. Carita di San Piedro

    Chiesa San Agostino 

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    IMG_4958
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    Construction on the Romanesque Chiesa San Agostino (Chiesa di Sant’Agostino) is locally known as Santa Rita.  The building was built in the early 14th century . The rose window has 12 intersecting semi-circles and has an unusual trim that defines the entire otherwise plain facade.  The Gothic portal features arabesques (abstract patterns) and plant motifs. 

    stucco statues by Serpotta

     

  • Chiesa de SS. Trinita de Maggione

    April 11, 2019

    Chiesa de SS. Trinita de Maggione is an 11th century Arab-Norman Church located near the old port area, called La Cala, roughly equidistant from Vila Giulia, thus one of the oldest parts of Palermo.  Next to it is where the family home of anti-Mafia hero Giovanni Falcone once stood.  The church was built in 1191 near the end of the Norman era, over the remains of a mosque.  Starting in 1192 the Cistercian order controlled the church.  This order held that mosaics and decoration is a distraction interfering with worship,  thus the church is rather bare.  Yet it has a certain charm, and a tranquility from the stark contrast between the stone of the building and the green of the grass of the cloisters visible to the left,  and the monks’ chants playing over the speakers. 

    King Tancredi, who ruled over Sicily 1189-94 buried his son Roger in the church and wanted to be buried in the Basilica as well. 

     

    Madona and Child, Gagini

    As of 1492 the church was governed by one Rodrigo Borgia, from Valencia, who would later become Pope Alexander VI, one of two Spanish popes, both among the most corrupt.  Perhaps things were not so tranquil then, given the expulsion of Moors and Jews, and the pleasantries of the Inquisition. 

     

     

     

     

  • Necropoli Punica

    Necropoli Punica dates to between the city’s founding in 734 BCE as ‘Ziz’ (changed to Pánormos by the Greeks) in 734.  The Necopolis on Corso Calatafimi has an excellent if somewhat technical narrative panel.   You can walk into the dig and one level down into several burial sites.  The site is behind the Norman Palace, placing it between the now diverted rivers Papimeto and Kemonia Rivers.  (‘Punic’ refers to the Carthaginians, who were Phoenician in origin). 

     

    The panels discuss the ancient development of the city.  The earliest description of the site dates to the 10th century, by an Arabic geographer.  Archaeological digs show the first area settled to be nearby the Palazzo Normani.  It then goes through the eastward expansion in the 6th c. BCE.  They even discovered the unit of measure used in the layout –  the cubit, 54 centimetes/21.3 inches. 

    Human remains were either inhumanted or cremated.  Some remains were found in calcarenite (a type of limestone) slabs, simple trenches, others were laid out in underground tombs.  They show you examples in the dig, including that of a 5-year-old girl.  There are decorative motifs linked to the Egyptians, and an oinochoe, a large jar used to mix wine.   

    I should have brought my Indiana Jones hat – I felt the buzz going down these stairs: 

     

     

    Watercolor self portrait in leather hat