Wood On The Downs After Paul Nash by Martin Malone We have been here before. Uffington, Hackpen, Grim’s Ditch, Ogbourne St.George, Wayland’s Smithy, Sparshott Firs, Bishopstone and Barbury; all the trodden way from Overton to Beacon Hill. Each place its genius loci, a favourite colour: Ash-Blue, Ochre, Payne’s Grey, Terra-Verte, Lamp Black, Sienna. But today you ditch your winter…
How will artists and writers portray this Trumpian time of disillusion, delusion and deception in which we now live? All a poet can do today is warn. That is why the true Poets must be truthful. – Wilfred Owen Perhaps we can find some clues in the extraordinary exhibit World War I and American Art now showing at the the Pennsylvania…
About suffering they were never wrong, The old Masters: how well they understood Its human position: how it takes place While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along; …
Caravaggio is one of the bad boys in the history of art with a biography so outlandish it reads like fiction. When he arrived in Sicily in 1608 he was wanted for murder in Rome and had brawled his way across the Mediterranean. There a story of his entering a church in Messina where he was offered a bowl of…
The Palatine Chapel is one of those must-see places if ever you have the chance. It was commissioned by the enlightened Norman King Roger II (Ruggero) and was consecrated on Palm Sunday 1140. It was designated a UNESCO World heritage site in 2015. It’s inside the palace of the Norman kings of Sicily that now serves as Sicily’s seat of the regional…
The Gallery of Modern Art is located inside the restored 15th century convent of Sant’Anna and has many works of art from the last 150 years. I always enjoy looking at depictions of schools and classrooms and I was very taken with this large painting – Gli Scolari (The Schoolchildren) – by Felice Casorati. Five students and a teacher with symbols…
Palermo has three outdoor markets and we managed to hit all of them. Two we found by design while foraging for supplies and the third on our walk back from the Palentine Chapel and on our way to the completely over the top Chiesa del Gesù. So a few scenes from the market and then on to Montreale. Lots of…
On the back-end of bronchitis I’ve been hacking, wheezing and coughing my way through Palermo with the long-suffering travel mate. Here’s part of the first day. First impressions: Grit – the sort that swirls around your feet – , garbage and graffiti. Everything seems pitted and pocked and either under construction or crumbling. Narrow streets with washing hanging from the…
There’s a great exhibit on at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC: Max Beckmann in New York It highlights Max Beckmann (1884–1950) connections with New York City and includes works from his time living in New York as well as works from 1920-1948 that are in New York collections. One of the first works in the exhibit is a self-portrait…
In celebration of Labor Day: It’s Steel Workers 1939 by Philo B Ruggles and his brother John Ruggles, a study for an unrealized mural for the Post Office in Bridgeport, Ohio. It’s part of the current exhibit Celebrating Heroes: American Mural Studies of the 1930s and 1940s from the Steven and Susan Hirsch Collection at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar…
On Christmas Day 1915 David Lloyd George the former radical liberal,then Minister of Munitions and soon to be Prime Minister addressed a crowd of restless shop stewards and trade unionists in St. Andrew’s Hall, Glasgow. He was there to try and forestall strikes in an area where labor relations were contentious and complicated. He also needed to make the case…
The winter solstice – the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. The earth – tilted away from the sun – receives the least amount of sunlight today. Here’s Winter Solstice by Barbara Hepworth – originally created in 1970 as part of Hepworth’s suite of screenprints and lithographs known as ‘Opposing Forms’. This work expresses Hepworth’s interest in exploring a…
We had some glorious fall days last week (as well as some much-needed rain). It was perfect weather for the soccer and cross-country teams. I took advantage of the sunshine to visit the lower school at recess. Plans were being made, plots hatched, games created and imagination extended. And plenty of opportunity to run, slide, chase, ride, jump, swing, hang and…
Building community means getting to know each other. And that means time. Last week we had the first ASA (all-school-activity) of the year and it was a lot of fun. This year the faculty have divided up the activities for the year and have each taken on the responsibility to be a part of the planning of that event. Our…
Great to see these video tweets yesterday. Thanks Jenn and Jill. Making art is messy! @PoughkeepsieDay pic.twitter.com/EL9jE1nx5q — Jennifer Jordan (@artteacherjenn) September 16, 2015 "Air Lock" at the middle school cooperative field day today! @PoughkeepsieDay pic.twitter.com/7ioWh8Jlnr — Jill Walsh (@JillDoesPE) September 16, 2015 Hoppity hops were GREAT! pic.twitter.com/lNDkSpNDX4 — Jill Walsh (@JillDoesPE) September 16, 2015