Post Adventure Impressions 2

It’s a cozy rainy morning. There’s a cat on my lap which makes it a challenge to type. But, as we all know….kitties rule.

Today, I’d like to talk about the Art. After 40-50 years of seeing, studying, plastering prints on my walls of my favorites, I finally met some old friends. It can move one to tears…greeting an old friends, seeing the artist’s brushstrokes up close and personal, being delighted with their size…some much smaller than what I had thought and some much larger. Delacroix’s Death of Sardanapalus comes to mind. It’s massive.

Here, all these people were huddled around Liberty Leading the People…and you turn around and ….Whoa! You see that rich and violent masterpiece. Do you know the story? Briefly, Sardanapalus was being besieged and the enemy was at the gate about ready to take over. Rather than surrender and seeing all that he loved be raped and abused, he had all that he loved killed and then he killed himself. Strange topic. Incredible painting which I always thought would be smaller, but realized, for the details, it had to have been this large. The people in the foreground are life-sized, just so you know.

And here’s another monster painting…I made a copy of this painting for a friend. I struggled and struggled to get the folds and the violets and the shimmers of fabric on my itty bitty copy. When I saw the real thing….well….no wonder I struggled. This painting is huge…larger than life….and so beautiful…

Struggled with these folds, I did!

So many paintings. So much to take in and swallow…that’s what I did…I swallowed and swallowed without chewing and now I’m digesting. Mr. Al and I took nearly 4000 pictures, so there’s lots to digest.

Looking into the eyes of VanGogh’s self portraits, painted as he struggled to understand who was looking out from those eyes….searching, seeking, surrendering into the void…poor dear soul.

And of course….Rembrandt. In Amsterdam, his paintings were so alive compared to his contemporaries. Genius…

And here’s a painting that’s a new friend….don’t even know the painter, other than he’s most likely Dutch, but looks like there’s fun to be had and brings to mind my painting days with my art teacher, so I shall go to Google Images and find out the painter cuz although not Rembrandt….how fun is this painting?! I’ve half a mind to just jump into that canvas, take his glass away from him, take a swig of whatever it is, and encourage him to put that violin under his chin and play. ( And if any readers know the artist, please enlighten Moi.)