Xylophone player at the Palau de la Musica, Valencia, Spain. Fun house floor suggests a departure from every day reality, meeting with the muse, traveling to the realm of creativity.
Comments from my Facebook timeline July 24, 2016
Marti: Loved it Gary!
Sandra: This is fabulous Gary!
Carol: I love the energy.
Patricia: The combination treatments of floor patterns are interesting
Part of the Palau de la Music Series. Muses prepare the stage and the instruments for the performance so musicians step into the realm of creativity.
Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876-1907) is best known as one of first women to paint female nudes. A German painter and very important early expressionist, She is credited for the introduction of modern painting and used tempera almost exclusively.
In a brief career, cut short by an embolism at the age of 31, she created a number of groundbreaking images of great intensity. She is becoming recognized as the first female painter to paint female nudes. Using bold forays into subject matter and chromatic color choices, she and fellow-artists Picasso and Matisse introduced the world to modernism at the start of the twentieth century.
Marie Laurencin, Enchanting Poses
Marie Laurencin 1883-1956 Paris
Marie began her art career studying porcelain painting in Sevres, then went to Academie Humbert, where she became a painter. She exhibited at the Salon des Independents and the Salon d’ Automne in the early 1910’s. In the 1920’s she was an important member of the avant guarde. Picasso was among her cohorts. She was a known bi-sexual, thus perhaps explaining some of her choices for subjects. She married a German, Baron Otto von Waëtjen, and lived in Spain with him during WW1. They divorced after the war. She was successful selling her art in the 20’s but the depression hit her business hard. In the 30’s she taught art.
Some o her paintings have an ethereal quality. The pastel like presentation as seen in this example is typical of this style, as is the subject matter, beautiful young girls in leisure.
She also painted in the Cubist style, and was also friends with Braque. Many of her works are now at a museum dedicated to her in Nagano Prefecture, Japan
July 10, 2016
From Graz you take a railroad operated bus to the train that carries you into Italy through the Alps; the bus avoids a much longer train ride through the mountains. The scenery alone makes the trip worthwhile. There are viaducts and tunnels galore. Human have inhabited this area for thousands of years, although it is well west of here,in the Oetztal Alps, where researchers unearthed the frozen body of a man who died in the mountains some 5000 years ago. For more information on that, go to http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/oetzi-iceman-mummy-alps-lyme-disease-lactose-intolerance/story?id=15816788
Here are the pen and ink drawings I did on location in Graz, Austria, early June through early July 2016
This was done at the Kunstmuseum (above). The following several drawings were done at the Schlossberg Park near where we stayed:
The Semmering Railroad, designed and directed by the Venice born Carlo Ghega, is a UNESCO World Heritage Center (1998) that travels from Gloggnitz to Semmering. I was constructed between 1848 and 1854. At the. time the Semmering was a feat of engineering and the first mountain railway in Europe built on a standard gauge track. From your seat you see superb Austrian mountains, 16 viaducts and 15 tunnels, over 100 curved stone and 11 small iron bridges, as well as many mansions. All this in a journey of just 41 kilometers.
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July 2016
The lovely Mariatrost Basilica is a baroque style building on top of the Purberg hill, a steep climb from the bus stop including some 225 steps. There’s a lovely view from the top- see my pen and ink sketch below- and what’s inside is a superb example of the baroque.
June 2016
There’s enough to see and do in Salzburg, Austria for the three days we were there, although beyond that I am less optimistic. It’s certainly attractive enough for longer term living but a bit on the small side, and a good four hours from Vienna for more intensive living, and the winters are still cold and snowy enough to discourage any but skiers and ice skaters. A bit of background and then some highlights.
