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 bedroom at Arles’ Van Gogh

I am introducing this new category ‘Behind the paint’.  I hope it will prove popular.  it will be attempt to interpret popular paintings.  the clues are there – it’s just a case of looking.  When we go to a gallery, of course we look at the paintings and appreciate the composition, the colours the way

Happy Birthdays Dear Artists!

My section about celebrating artists birthdays is growing quite nicely.  There are lots of artists I want to write about but I don’t seem to have the time.  Those I do write about, I tend to make it brief.  I hate it when it’s an artist I really like and I’ve missed the birthday grrr! 

Happy Birthday Paul Gauguin! Sail Away!

It’s French artist Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin’s birthday today!  Born in 1848 he would be ….well OLD if he was still alive.  His style is Post Impressionist.  His bold use of colour was influenced by folk art and Japanese prints and veers towards Cloisonnism (A form of encasing colour, used in enamelling).  In some paintings,