Wassily Kandinsky

Hey ladies!

 

Happy Thursday to you!  I have a terrible cold today, so I’m going to not write much….seems like there’s always something going on that’s going to prevent me from writing much.  I should really just stop bothering to say that.  But it doesn’t really matter.

 

Thankfully we’ve finally made it to the end of January.  Even knowing that February will be awful, at least the first third of winter is over.  I’m sure that doesn’t matter much to you Florida girls, but if you remember your Minnesota days, you probably know what I’m talking about.

 

So today I’m going to show you some pieces from Wassily Kandinsky.  Tell me that’s not a great name!  It sounds like a superhero to me.  The writers who create superheros pay a huge amount of attention to the alliteration of their names (the repeating of certain sounds) because people apparently find names that have alliteration to belong to people who are better people – which is why you have Bruce Banner (the incredible hulk), Peter Parker (Spideman), Clark Kent (Superman) etc.  Well Wassily Kandinsky has FABULOUS alliteration…but it comes out of my mouth all slithery sounding….it would be a perfect evil wizard name.

 

Anyway, Wassily (sometimes spelled Vassily – I think that’s a Russian thing, making those interchangeable, but it would seem to me we should spell it however HE spelled it and not flip it around) was not an evil wizard. He was a Russian law professor who decided he wanted to be an artist, and became a truly famous abstract and theorhetical artist…which means that by the end of his life, all of his work was really, really DEEP.  Since I am really, really shallow, I like his earlier stuff best – it was impressionistic, but full of bold color (the first 2 images below are great examples).  His work has sold for $20mil plus, so people do seem to like him. 

 

I have a rug in my house that was inspired by the circles painting.  I like it as a rug.  Less so as a piece of art.  But the last image I do like, primarily because for whatever reason, when I look at it, I see Klimt’s the Kiss – which we talked about a long time ago.  The two paintings look absolutely nothing alike, it’s just something in the shape.  So that makes me happy.

 

I’ll leave you to read more about how profound he is if you choose to do so. J

 

Hope you’re having a wonderful day, know that I love you and think that you’re awesome.

Hugs and kisses,

Auntie Paula

xoxoxoxo

 

James Egan

Hello my fabulous nieces!  How is this week treating you?

 

I am most completely enjoying our foray into Australian artists.  Looking up someone new to share their work with you is usually a highpoint of my week!  I’d like to pretend that I intimately know the names and key works of enough artists to be able to do this off the top of my head, but that would make me a much more impressive art historian than I actually am.  What I really do is spend some time on the google, using different key words (like lately “Australian artists”) until I come across an image that appeals to me, and then I research to find out who created it, and if I like their body or work, or at least what I can find of their life story, enough to want to share it with you, then that person gets to be our artist of the week….after I check my list to make sure we haven’t already talked about them, of course!

 

And that is how I found the ridiculously awesome James Egan.

 

James is an Australian and is still very much alive and painting today, but as a young man he was a boxer and a “horse breaker” (a man who helps convince horses that they should let people ride them).  Apparently he has a coffin in his art studio that he likes to take naps in…so James is what we’d call “eccentric” – which is a kind way of saying “if he were anything other than an artist we’d call him a Grade-A weirdo, but art people are supposed to be nuts, so we use this word instead”.  People like James are usually some of the most interesting ones you’d ever meet in real life (but should you meet this kind of person in college, I can tell you with authority that although they are super fun to hang out with, they make terrible, terrible roommates & almost never have the rent on time).

 

His website tells me he was designated a "Living treasure in Perpetuity" in 1986.  I’m not entirely sure what that means, but I think I  need to add getting that designation to my own list of life goals.  It sounds AWESOME.

 

Someone said about him: "James paints the life that thunders around us and the people that inhabit it."   I’m not quite sure why I like that sentence so much, but it seems like this is an extraordinary thing to have someone say about your work. 

 

What I like best about his work is the texture in it.  I love this portrait, how clearly you can see the planes of the mans face – the angle under his cheekbone, the ridge of his brow…the paint is so soft looking, but the edges it makes are so hard.  And I love his houses.  He uses lots of violet-blue in his landscapes, and he does such lovely things to capture the light.  I hope you enjoy it, too!

 

Know that I love you and think that you’re awesome.

Hugs and kisses,

Auntie Paula

xoxoxoxoxoxo

 

 

 

 

 

 

McLean Edwards

Hello my favorite small humans!

Happy Thursday!  I hope Florida is lovely today – New Jersey is cold and wet and in it’s usual early winter yuck.  I am displeased by it, so we’ll speak no more of that.

 

Your GramE has just visited the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, of which I am insanely jealous.  Your Uncle Patrick wants to visit there someday and go into one of those cages where you get dropped into the water off the side of a boat so that you can swim with the sharks!  I’ve told him I’ll come along, but I’m staying ON the boat if there are sharks in the water!  (Actually, I’m pretty sure that if I were there, I’d end up getting in the cage with him…but it really does sound like a very bad idea…or a very good way to end up losing bits that you need as shark snacks!).

 

So, in keeping with my theme of Australian artists this month, I’ve selected McLean Edwards.  He was born in 1972, so is just a little bit older than I am, and lives and works in Sydney.  I’m pretty sure the first picture below is a self portrait – it’s my favorite, because there’s a sweetness, or a kindness, in it that isn’t in the others.  All of his work that I’ve seen has this wonderful, whimsical, almost cartoon-ish feel, but there’s a darkness to it – like the lady, with her big pink bow in her hair and her snow white colored dress….but she’s holding a cigarette and a voodoo doll. 

 

The second one is the one that caught my eye, because it immediately made me think of VanGogh’s postman (below).  Van Gogh had a thing about painting the same things a bunch of times, so not all of his postman paintings have this same background, but I remember the first time I saw it thinking it was just about the ugliest thing I’d ever seen, even though I loved the colors – and McLean’s painting of the red eared man strikes me the same way; I like it, but I hate it, too. 

 

My boss is needing me, so I’ve got to cut this short, but know that I love you and I think that you’re awesome.

Much love,

Auntie Paula

XOXOXO

 

Kevin Best

Good morning, lovely ladies!

 

I’m going to keep things short over the next few weeks, since I know you’ll also be following GramE’s blog as she adventures through Australia, but thought I’d take advantage of the timing to introduce you to a few Australian artists!

 

First up, Kevin Best.  Kevin was a stockbroker who didn’t become an artist until he was 45, and stories like that always make me happy, because it gives me hope that someday I might still be able to make my dreams come true.  He lived in Australia, and only just passed away a couple of years ago.

 

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE his painting, Yarning the Night Away, because the blues are so amazing and beautiful and with the bright warm reds it just feels like a lovely place to be, although the red area is so big compared to the fire that it makes me feel a little bit like something dramatic is about to happen, so I’m more than a bit worried for the cows!  I also feel a little bit bad for the guy at the back right who has to keep working while everyone else is gathered about the fire.  I hope someone has at least brought him a cup of coffee. I spend too much time thinking about the lives of the people in paintings….but it amuses me to wonder what they were doing before and after this particular moment in time.  I love the dark trees in the front, and it’s so perfect how the glow of the moon is catching on the tops of the clouds at the back.  I hope so much that Australia looks like that and GramE gets to see it! 

 

On Kevin’s website, this painting is featured with a lovely poem beneath it, so I’m sharing that here as well!

 

‘A New Day’
A grey world in silent slumber Does not come forth to greet the dawn The ocean shifts its molten silver Until the birds give their call Gently now the night retreats The stars will not dare the sun The maiden blush on each cloud’s cheek Tell the dark his work is done	In rose and apricot new waves dance Crashing joy upon the sand They celebrate the miracle in the east While colour steals over a lifeless land Suddenly she raises her mighty form Over the ocean’s shimmering side Gold spills forth and touches all Leaving us with shadows to find.
Mary Anne (Best) O’Connor

 

The second painting I’m including because it reminds me a bit of the painting in GramEs house – can you see that?

 

In any case, know that I love you and think that you’re awesome.

Hugs and kisses,

Auntie Paula

XOXOXOXO