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Athrabeth
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Posted: Thu 21 Apr , 2005 5:38 am
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You know, this is the strangest thing! :Q :Q :Q

Today, a presenter from a wonderful outreach programme called "Art Gallery in the Schools" came to our class, and guess who the featured artist was this year...................hmmmmmmmmmm?

THAT'S RIGHT!!!!

So the kids viewed about 20 reproductions of Van Gogh's work from his earlier, more conventional paintings to his later wonders of form and colour.

And the five favourites?

#5 "The Bedroom"

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#4 "Landscape Under a Stormy Sky"

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#3 "Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, At Night"

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#2 "Sunset Wheatfields Near Arles"

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#1 "Starry Night"

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"Church at Auvers" was actually in the collection shown, but did not receive the raves due the ones above. Interestingly enough, "Sunset Wheatfields" and "Starry Night" were very closely matched in the kids' opinions, but the latter "won the day" when most of them agreed with one girl's assessment "It's like the whole sky is in that one painting. Like every one of his stars is a million stars."

I love Vincent! :love:

I love kids!! :love: :love:

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Semprini
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Posted: Thu 21 Apr , 2005 12:37 pm
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I tool love Van Gogh. I find his paintings strangely moving.

There is a stark and strange contrast, Voronwe, between your Van Gogh painting avatar and the Witch King image placed at the end of your posts. And what is even stranger, is that when you consider them a certain time, they appear to be almost connected, and the contrast seems to blur, as if the witch king image were accentuating the slight foreboding quality of the Van Gogh painting. I almost find it disturbing. Are you in a pessimistic mood? :)


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Voronwë_the_Faithful
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Posted: Thu 21 Apr , 2005 2:33 pm
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'Beth, :love:

Semprini, you are a perceptive man (but then, we knew that already). The juxtaposition between the two pictures was indeed not completely accidental. However, I will soon change the Witchking picture to something somewhat more hopeful. It wouldn't do for a perspective admin to be so negative. :)


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Athrabeth
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Posted: Thu 21 Apr , 2005 2:55 pm
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I had never seen the "Wheatfield" painting before, and it just jumped out at me with its blaze of yellow-gold. Somehow, it just made me smile. I just realized this morning that there are definite similarities in composition between these two "pictures", even down to the windmill in the distant left:

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The scene from the Shire always makes me smile too. :)

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Voronwë_the_Faithful
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Posted: Thu 21 Apr , 2005 3:19 pm
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'Beth, Vincent painted many, many wheatfield paintings. There are several of "reapers" in the wheatfields that are some of his most powerful paintings.

Here is one of my favorites:

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BTW, how do you like my new sig pic?


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Semprini
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Posted: Thu 21 Apr , 2005 3:22 pm
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Better. The connection is still there but it is now a more hopeful one. :)


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Voronwë_the_Faithful
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Posted: Thu 21 Apr , 2005 3:35 pm
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Yes, it almost looks like the hobbit woman is heading to church after leaving the fields. :)


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Primula_Baggins
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Posted: Thu 21 Apr , 2005 3:45 pm
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I like that image a lot, Voronwe. More hopeful indeed. And it's good to know that hobbits had already figured out that canola oil is good for you. ;)

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Semprini
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Posted: Thu 21 Apr , 2005 3:49 pm
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V>>> it almost looks like the hobbit woman is heading to church after leaving the fields

Yep, they seem to be wearing exactly the same hat. :)


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*Alandriel*
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Posted: Thu 21 Apr , 2005 7:25 pm
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Voronwe pointed me to here :love:

and :love: for Van Gogh too. Though I must say I was not familiar with the painting you have in your avatar Voronwe but I also like the 'hopeful' combination you make with it to your sig piccie.

As to Van Gogh, I was spoilt and got a large size calender of some of his best paintings for this year and so every day when I get to the computer my eyes get to soak up beautiful colours and movement.

This month, April, I have been feasting my eyes on Les Alpilles
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One of my favorites Van Gogh's will remain though Starry Night ;)

You know... though I hate stealing ideas, this really get's me into the spirit of messing with sigs.

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Athrabeth
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Posted: Thu 21 Apr , 2005 7:26 pm
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Voronwe the Golden wrote:
BTW, how do you like my new sig pic?
I like it VERY much. It made me smile after a particularly gruelling morning. :hug:

The painting of the "sower in the fields" was one the facilitator asked the kids to compare with the "Sunset" painting. Some of them remarked on how the figure seems to be part of the field itself, which triggered a brief discussion on what Van Gogh's intent was: "hiding" the figure so that it comes as a surprise to the viewer?....trying to show a relationship of the farmer to the earth? I never cease to be amazed at the depth of thought that can issue forth from children so young, when they are exposed to greatness such as this.

BTW, I'm almost finished my "notes" for your Temptation thread, and once again, I've discovered something new and unlooked for (at least, for me)......hurry on, weekend!

:D

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laureanna
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Posted: Thu 21 Apr , 2005 8:26 pm
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I, for one, am glad you switched. The Starry Night pic always touched a very disturbing part of my mind that I would rather not wake up. It was like looking at the abyss. The new pic is much more pleasant. Thank you. :love:

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yovargas
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Posted: Sun 24 Apr , 2005 1:32 am
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laureanna wrote:
I, for one, am glad you switched. The Starry Night pic always touched a very disturbing part of my mind that I would rather not wake up. It was like looking at the abyss. The new pic is much more pleasant. Thank you. :love:
How odd. I find it one of the most inspiring and hopeful paintings I've ever seen. I get a sense of the infinite wonder hanging over this simple little village. It says to me that life's possibilities are endless, that life's capacity for wonder are boundless. Fascinating to have such starkly different reactions to one painting!


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RoseMorninStar
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Posted: Wed 04 May , 2005 3:23 am
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I also have a 'special place' in my heart for Van Gogh's works. I have recently gotten a new computer so I do not have access to my old art files at the moment (I used to teach art appreciation to children) but there is a very interesting story behind 'Starry Night'. I will try to recap from memory, but it probably will not be as well written and concise as written in my file!

Vincent's Father & Grandfather had been ministers. In fact, Vincent himself was a missionary to the poorest of the poor in Holland (where 'Potato eaters' was inspired). Vincent however, being Vincent, was always 'too intense'. He took everything so much to heart...and was so literal in his interpretations that he often gave away all his food and clothing. He even gave away his bible. His superiors felt he was too radical and dismissed him. The reason I point this out is that 'Starry Night' is one of the few paintings that Vincent painted 'from memory'. Vincent almost always painted 'plein aire' (open air...actually in front of his subject) and it is also why he has so many self-portraits..he seldom had money for a model..so he would paint himself using a mirror. I believe there are over 40 self-portraits known of Vincent.) ANYWAY.. the scene 'Starry Night' is painted from memory, because it was painted while he was in the hospital/sanitarium at St. Rémy...which has a very different landscape than the painting. And he had a small window which looked out to the heavens. If you look closely at the painting...it tells a story..one Vincent would have been very familiar with. It is from Genesis Chapter 37:9-11

Quote:
9 Then he has another dream, and this one, too, he told to his brothers. "I had another dream," he said; "this time, the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me." 10 When he also told it to his father, his father reproved him. "what is the meaning of this dream of yours?" he asked. "Can it be that I and your mother and your brothers are to come and bow to the ground before you?" 11 So his brothers were wrought up against him but his father pondered the matter.

What is especially interesting, there are eleven stars..and a moon overlapping the sun. A town, small and quiet and at rest, sits totally unaware of the celestial wonders occuring in the heavens just above it.

For this reason, some consider 'Starry Night' to be one of the most spiritual paintings of the 19th century... without ever being 'religious' or a 'holy' painting.



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Voronwë_the_Faithful
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Posted: Wed 04 May , 2005 6:26 am
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Rose, I think we are going to get along famously. :love: I certainly consider 'Starry Night' to be one of the most spritual paintings of the 19th Century, or any other century for that matter.

Its my understanding that it was Paul Gauguin that encouraged Vincent to paint more from memory. I believe this was one of many subjects that they quarrelled over, eventually leading to Vincent's famous cutting off of part of his ear. What a sad, but ultimately inspiring, life he lived.

Last edited by Voronwë_the_Faithful on Wed 04 May , 2005 1:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Primula_Baggins
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Posted: Wed 04 May , 2005 7:23 am
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Rose, wow! Welcome! I am so glad you were found at last!

Anyone who knows so much about Van Gogh and Tolkien will certainly fit in here. Voronwe will see to it! :D

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RoseMorninStar
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Posted: Wed 04 May , 2005 6:54 pm
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Primula, well, I don't know if I know 'much'... I tend to pick up on bizarre little facts and bits of information that I find fascinating. I used to do art presentations for children (mostly 1st-8th grade) so I would try to come up with quirky bits of information that they would find interesting/memorable and be able to relate to. I would sometimes dress in character or do other odd little things. I loved it. I really think I learned a lot more that way.

I realize I am getting off-topic, but I can't help myself! :D

Voronwe, I do think Vincent was very misunderstood (not to mention probably poisoned by lead-via paint- and wormwood-via absynthe). Did you know he had an OLDER brother (and again, I don't have my art files available to me at the moment) and that brother died. I don't remember if they shared the exact same birthdate or if Vincent was born one year to-the-day after the death of his older brother-it's one of the two. Not only that..but the older brother who died was ALSO named Vincent. SO.... because Vincent's father was a minister & they lived near the church/graveyard, Vincent had to walk by the tombstone of his brother everyday.. and that tombstone had his name and birthdate on it. I can imagine that would really mess with someone's head..having to live in the shadow of someone else all your life. But his brother Theodore always believed in him and supported him most of his life... talk about true brotherly love. Great example.


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The Tennis Ball Kid
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Posted: Sat 25 Jun , 2005 12:42 am
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Any objections to me starting an index for this forum? Ala META M00bies forum etc? I can't begin to imagine how much easier it would be to do something like that from the begining, instead of starting four years in, as Laureanna did at TORC.....


:)


ttbk

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Primula_Baggins
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Posted: Sat 25 Jun , 2005 12:48 am
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Objections? :Q

ttbk, that would be wonderful! :love:

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Voronwë_the_Faithful
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Posted: Sat 25 Jun , 2005 12:51 am
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I object!

To you not doing it.


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