Light and Shadow

As I was taking pictures of patterns and textures, I started taking pictures of shadows including me taking pictures of me taking pictures of me taking pictures of shadows.  Here are some of my best shadows from my vacation.

me

my husband

Three More Mark Rothko Paintings

On my latest family reunion/ vacation Brownie and I went to visit 4 art Museums--Harvard's, Columbus OH, Toledo OH, and Cornell's.  What great art we saw and we saw including THREE more Rothokos.  In 2014 I posted some information about Mark Rothko after seeing one of his painting up close and personal.

The first new Rothko we saw was in the Harvard Art Museum.  It is from his transitional "multiform" period. "Rothko himself described these paintings as possessing a more organic structure and as self-contained units of human expression. For him, these blurred blocks of various colors, devoid of landscape or the human figure, let alone myth and symbol, possessed their own life force. They contained a "breath of life" he found lacking in most figurative painting of the era. " 

The other two Rothkos we saw were in the Toledo OH Museum.  I wish we had had  more time to spend there.  These are both in Rothko's later style of floating rectangular fields of light and color and is the style for which he is best known.

And some details of the Lilac and Orange over Ivory.

I am not sure  if you can see the drip marks on the picture above.  I would guess that they are the reason there was a problem about how to hang the piece.  The Toledo museum had some question about which way was up for the picture and had to verify it before hanging the painting.  Yes, the drip marks do run  up.  The drip marks are also an excellent representation of  Rothko's use of very thin layers of paint to produce a depth in his paintings--those drips are nearly transparent.

I clearly did not love Untitled as much as I loved the Lilac and Orange over Ivory since I did not take any detail pictures of Untitled. Well, I didn't take any detail pictures of the transitional piece either and I didn't even take a picture of the plaque for it.  If a picture is worth a thousand words then the number of shots taken of each Rothko painting visually demonstrates my excitement level in each of the three pieces.  However, I am truly thrilled to have gotten to see all three this summer.

Texture and Pattern Tuesday

From the Boston Navy Yard, the cement wall in front of the Commandant's house.

The Smoke Bush

Once upon a time there was a lady who loved to do eco-printing.  She had many good trees and plants on her land whose leaves and flowers would print very well.  Her daughter who  lived far away also helped by sending items that did not grow in the woman's part of the kingdom.  But alas, the woman had no access to the leaves of the smoke bush.  She really wanted to print with their leaves.

The woman went on a vacation.  It was a 14 day driving vacation.  While the smoke bush is a less seen plant the woman saw several along the way.  She was sorely tempted to pick leaves off the bush but she knew that taking things from others was called stealing so she did not.  That went on for days until the next to the last day of the vacation.

The women to her man that when she saw the next smoke bush she would anxiously knock on the door of the smoke bush owners and ask to pick the leaves.  She knew they would think her a bit odd but the woman really wanted the leaves.  The very next smoke bush she saw was the biggest one in the world!  Surely the owners would let her pick a few leaves since the bush had millions of leaves. So, the man pulled into the very long driveway and with trepidation the woman went looking for the owners.

Rather than knocking on the door to the house, the woman heard talking from the behind the house and she went there to see who she might find.  It was a man and his adult son working on some farm equipment.  Really big farm equipment.  The son was working on a truck and was closer so the woman asked about the smoke bush.  He looked at her with wonder, said he didn't see why not, but said she would have to speak to his father since the father owned the smoke bush.  The man climbed out of the cab of a huge tractor when he saw the woman approach.  The woman explained she was an artist and in need of some leaves from the magically smoke bush.  He grinned and said, "It is really big isn't it."  The woman whole heartedly agreed. He then gave her permission to pick the leaves.

The woman picked leaves until the hardcover book she was using to press the leaves could absolutely not hold one more leaf.  She knew that soon those leaves would leave wonderful prints on silk.

Texture and Pattern Tuesday

We have just returned from a 2-week driving vacation from Maine to Indiana.  Boy, do I have a lot of texture and patterns to share.  These are from the Harvard Museum of Art.  All but the last are detail shots from the Aboriginal Art Exhibit.  The last is the metal chairs in the museum's cafeteria.  Enjoy!

 Pardon the shadow.