Frank Henry Mason (1876-1965)

Watercolour, pencil and watercolour on paper
width: 45.3 cm, height: 26.7 cm

it appears that this artist only became a full-time artist after World war 1 ended in 1918.Borni in North East but travelled round country painting shipping

A delightfull scene showing , Northumberland.

Social Networking

What do these paintings have in Common?
They have all appeared on my friendfeed site and one thing leads to another.It can become rather addictive. I shall however continue to blog away here.There is a link to friend feed in side bar.

William McTaggart The Storm 1890

William McTaggert
The Storm
1890
This painting is at the National Gallery of Scotland and shows McTaggart energetic brush work. The painting as a whole conveys the power of nature and a threatening storm you can almost feel the wind and foreboding fom this painted scene.Huddled families wait on the shore for the return of fishing trawler.

Monet Sea Painting

This painting of sea and rocks is grand a quote from Monet

“I am in a wonderfully wild place”, he wrote to his friend the painter Caillebotte, “amongst a heap of terrible rocks and an unbelievably coloured sea. “ Claude Monet

Cliffs Near Dieppe Claude Monet

I feel a Monet phase comming on and why not?!
I llke the viewpoint of this painting and the sense of distance

Van Gogh At Royal Acadamy 2010

There is going to be a major exhibition of van Gogh at the Royal Academy next year, perhaps a sign that the people who orgainise these things are playing safe.
Along with this there is going to be a major on line resource and book launch.
The article in The Daily Telegraph just gave us facts and a picture whereas The Guardian was also keen and gave good info another article here
So it looks to be very good and something to look forward to

Blue as a Background Colour

Just a quick post to ask a question.
Blue Is the colour ( Or Turquoise?)  I  have chosen OK for Background? I think it works fine and not to garish. It stands out when I want to use it for quotes.
I only ask as I suddenly thought it could effect some people, on some sites i have seen the colour combination that are awful. some people use green and Yellow.HORRIBLE.
If there is a consensus that it doesn’t work I will change it,

Van Gogh The Sower 1888

Image via Wikipedia

The Sower 1888
Oil on Canvas
6480.5cm
Kroller-Museum,Otterlo
The Netherlands
The peasant sows the seed and the brilliant yellow sun let the artist speak in his own words

“I painted it at the height of the mistral [strong wind]. My easel was fixed in the ground with iron pegs, a method I recommend to you. You push the legs of the easel deep into the ground, then drive iron pegs fifty centimeters long into the ground beside them. You tie the whole lot together with rope. This way you can work in the wind. This is what I wanted to say about black and white. Take the sower. The picture is divided in two; one half is yellow, the upper part, the lower part is purple. Well, the white trousers help rest the eye and distract it just as the excessive contrast of yellow and purple starts to jar. There you are, that’s what I wanted to say.” —Vincent van Gogh, 1888

Van Gogh and Sunflowers

Image via Wikipedia

Vincent Van Gogh
1888
Oil on Canvas
92cm x&3
National Gallery London
What more can one say about Van Gogh and his sunflowers that already has not been said?
Yellow is a difficult colour and tends to dull with age so perhaps we are not seeing them as they once were.
so on this ocaasion not many comments just enjoy the sunflower for what they are.

I am now on the fourth picture of sunflowers. This fourth one is a bunch of 14 flowers, against a yellow background, like a still life of quinces and lemons that I did some time ago. Only as it is much bigger, it gives a rather singular effect, and I think that this one is painted with more simplicity than the quinces and lemons … nowadays I am trying to find a special brushwork without stippling or anything else, nothing but the varied stroke.” (Quote source: Letter from Vincent van Gogh to his brother, Theo van Gogh, from Arles, c.27 August 1888.)

Two sections of different paintings compared

I want to compare these two different sections of recent paintiings that I have shown, you may recognnise them,let us see if anyone can, but that is not the real point, on the one hand you have a substantial meal as a picnic such as the one below but in the  first painting shown it looks very meager and perhaps was not the major part in proceedings.The paintings were painted many years apart of course, so perhaps I am not comparing like with like, but I suggest the  in the painting below the meal plays a more important role.