Happy Christmas and New Year!

In my usual tradition, here is the round up of featured posts for 2011.  It’s been a pretty tubulent year personally for me and I haven’t blogged as much as I usually do – but my New Year resolution is to do so, so get ready for more eclectic mixes of art, design and quirkyness! 

Behind the paint ‘A Tale of Two Chairs’

I’ve just put a poem on my other blog Bookstains, using Vincent Van Gogh‘s very famous chair to illustrate it.  A recent (virtual) trip to the Van Gogh Museum (see this post) gave me the opportunity of seeing his paintings up close.  I have seen Van Gogh’s chair before in The National Gallery London –

Behind the Paint – The Governess by Chardin

    When we look at paintings from the past we look at the subject of the painting – any meaningful clues or messages it may contain.  We also look at the technique of the artist, and also perhaps the symbolism or language of the painting.  Historically, this was easily understood by the artist and

My 550th post

I’ve reached a little milestone with this post, and the last time I looked back was on my 500th post.  So I think it’s time for another look over my shoulder.  I’m still blogging every day (in fact I need to look back when I first started this daily blogging and see how long it’s

Behind the paint – Primavera by Botticelli

  The inspiration for today’s post came from a fantastic poem by the poet Hames1977, which I urge you to read as it is truly beautiful! (here).  Sandro Botticelli was a principal painter in Florence in the latter half of the 15th century.  He was born 1444 and he lived until 1510.  His work is very

Behind the Paint: ‘Olympia’ by Edouard Manet

Edouard Manet (b. 1832 – 1883 Paris) he was born to affluent parents.  His mother was the god-daughter to the Swedish Crown prince Charles Bernadotte and his father was a judge who expected his son to follow suit.  Manet had his own ideas though and tried to join the navy but failed the exams.   From 1850 -56

Behind the paint ‘Susanna and the Elders’ by Artemisia Gentileschi

It’s about time we had a woman painter in the ‘Behind the Paint’ category – and who better than Atremisia Gentileschi the daughter of Orazio Gentileschi (1563 – 1639) an Italian Baroque painter, very much influenced by Caravaggio.  He was  quite an important painter at the time and admired.   Orazio Gentileschi went to Paris where

Behind the paint – ‘The Kiss’ by Gustav Klimt

  ‘The Kiss’ by Gustave Klimt (b.1862 -1918 Vienna) was painted 1907  – 1908, it is probably the Viennese artist’s most famous work.  Klimt trained at the school of Applied Arts in Vienna, but eventually broke away from the State’s patronage to form the Secession group with friends.  The group believed the promotion of the  art of unconventional