Author: penwithlit

“By 1935, when this work was painted, Morris’s fascination with irises had firmly taken hold. He established a studio in the garden where he would sit and paint his flower subjects for days on end, and one ex-student, Joan Warburton, poignantly reminisced how ‘to go in there quietly when Cedric was painting the favourite of all his flowers, Irises, was a revelation.’^[2] Morris’s thorough understanding of the iris is evident in the present work which explores each flower individually, using colour and texture to give them mood and personality.”

Philip Mould and Co

Thanks for Visiting 🙂

~Sunnyside

Just after the UK’s last COVID lockdown, and longing to visit galleries again, my mum and I did an online City Lit course on major artists whose work was to be exhibited in London over the summer of 2021.

One of those discussed was renowned Portuguese artist Paula Rego (1935-2022), an artist known for her feminist and political stance, along with skewed references to fairy tales, nursery rhymes and Portuguese fables, reminiscent of a painterly Angela Carter. Other interests and influences include traditionally female crafts such as embroidery and dollmaking (subtly subverted), Jungian psychology and surrealism.

I wasn’t particularly taken with Rego’s work when it was presented to me on screen, but when I went to see the large-scale retrospective of her work at Tate Britain that autumn I was converted. Mum and I saw more of her work on display at the Venice Biennale this year, when we escaped…

On the way back from a visit to the West End, I passed St-Martin-in-the-Fields, standing out against the cold sky.

The statue in the foreground, left, is the Edith Cavell Memorial, seen from the back. Edith Cavell (1865-1915) was a British nurse. In German-occupied Belgium, guided by her principles of humanity and her Christian faith, she provided medical care to soldiers irrespective of which side they were on. She was executed by a German firing squad 1915, because she had helped Belgian, British and French soldiers to escape the German occupation and reach Britain. Her grave is in Norwich Cathedral.

I sketched standing on a corner of the Charing Cross road, see map above. This turned out to be a very noisy location. The National Portrait Gallery is being refurbished and there was continuous drilling and banging. Buses and…

“At the Edge of the Cliffis one of the strongest works in this clifftop series. The young woman in her striking striped blue and white skirt and white jumper has a timeless quality to her, her outfit feeling as modern to a contemporary audience as it did over 100 years ago. She stands on the cliffs at the top of Lamorna Cove, gazing out at the turquoise and deep blue sea, lost in thought.”

READ FULL ESSAY: Christie’s

What is demonstrably clear is that Knight was, as her biographer Alice Strickland recently said, ‘a woman of firsts’. She was the first female artist to be made a Dame of the British Empire, in…

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Franz Marc at wikiwand

Franz Marc at Art Story

Franz Marc: The Painter Who Loved Horses

Franz Marc’s artist page at Guggenheim

Franz Marc Museum website

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Tag: Franz Marc At Sunnyside

Thanks for Visiting 🙂

~Sunnyside

“Painted following the First Impressionist Exhibition in April 1874—which had opened the eyes of the public to the revolutionary Impressionist aesthetic—and around the time of its second iteration which helped cement the validity of its new, modern terminology,Matinée d’octobre près de Port-Marlypays fitting homage to the movement’s pursuit of paintingen plein air. Determined to capture the fleeting, atmospheric beauty of the cool, early morning light, one can almost imagine Sisley waking early in order to secure the perfect location from which to paint—dismissing the icy autumn chill which must have no doubt plagued his fingers as he began to work the canvas.”

READ FULL ESSAY: Christie’s

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Alfred Sisley at wikiwand

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