Honoring Antoine Chintreuil’s “The Coast,” watercolor by Mary GowI love gestural drawing and painting – and especially admire the work of Henri Matisse, Andre Derain, and Vincent Van Gogh.
Have you ever heard of impressionist painter, Antoine Chintreuil, born in 1814 in Paris, France?
I thought I’d paint a quick semi-abstract landscape today. Here’s a watercolor I derived from Chintreuil’s “The Coast,” which he painted from about 1850 to 1857.
For this sickly, solitary, poor painter, a former pupil of Corot, the Ile-de-France was the occasion of delicate poems in which Redon rightly distinguished “that tender and gentle genius which reveals itself in a simple manner and in such a discreet form and whose profound and passionate reserve is echoed only in a number of select souls.”
(Impressionism, 1973, published by Chartwell Books, Inc., p. 45).
“Alive! ” watercolor on paper by Mary Gow“These will heal you.”
“Henri Matisse, 1945. (a promise about the beneficent radiation of his color as he placed his paintings around the bed of a sick friend).” – from Art in Healing Spaces
Like Matisse, organizations such as Art Heals spread the word about the power of art.
One of my personal goals is to create art that heals. I’m sending lightness and joy to you today and the days ahead. Catch the vibe in today’s piece! 🙂
“Focus,” watercolor on paper, by Mary GowThe most important thing to focus on today is: ___________ (fill in the blank).
It’s getting easier and easier to get detoured from what’s important, isn’t it?
I don’t need to remind you of the daily barrage of information to sort through.
To control my email that pops up in my “in” box I created a bunch of folders and then I created a bunch of rules so that much of my incoming mail goes directly to folders. It feels so much better!
Freedom software might be worth a try. It’s $10 to download. You can choose how much time to restrict your access to the internet.
“Bravo,” watercolor and pencil on paper, by Mary GowGood news made headlines over the weekend.
Americans still love to buy and we showed up in record-breaking numbers to support our own economy.
It feels good to see the uptick, doesn’t it?
It looks to me like the design of what’s available seems to be getting better. And better. My bold statement of the day is: There’s never been a greater time in history than now for well-designed products.
This year I my trusted PC laptop was ailing and I bought a Mac. And earlier this year I also got an iPhone (not this latest one).
I didn’t know why such hoop-la about a phone though I did notice my friends who had one seemed to use it as an everyday efficiency tool. For years I resisted because I didn’t want to go with something because it was popular.
But within the first two hours of buying my iPhone it proved its value because I was lost in Los Angeles and the GPS features showed me exactly where I was. Plus I immediately admired the useful speakerphone that could really amplify!
That doesn’t mean the new Android phones haven’t caught my eye.
The mini-computers we can carry around in our pockets is getting incredibly exponentially more awesome as the days go by.
And the astounding sales figures for them shows that people are willing to pay for well-designed products.
Great design is getting noticed more than ever.
Word travels quicker than ever.
I feel like there’s never been a greater time to be alive and creative. And for creative-types, there’s never been a more important time not to keep your work a secret.
I know I’ve been guilty of “hiding my light under a bushel.”
But no more!
Someone other than you needs to see what you’ve painted, hear that song you wrote, read that poem, smell and taste your new dish, experience your new film or play.
