Reincarnation

Reincarnation
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
18" x 36"

 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground;

for out of it wast thou taken: 

for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.  

-Genesis 3:19

 As we fall to death and decay the dust of our bodies is the fuel for new life.

 It is a secret of the world that all things subsist and so not die, but only retire a little from sight and afterwards return again… Nothing is dead; men feign themselves dead, and endure mock funerals and mournful obituaries, and there they stand looking out of the window, sound and well, in some new and strange disguise.

- Emerson

Happy New Year!

 

Friday Feature: William Morris

William Morris Tree of Life Tapestry

Inspiration for the Arts and Crafts Movement came from a reverence for the natural world.  At a time when industry and cities flourished between 1890-1910 people craved the delicate beauty of country life.  William Morris was a leading artist in this movement designing tapestries and wallpapers. He believed that beauty should return to every home regardless of class. He wrote, "I do not want art for a few; any more than education for a few; or freedom for a few."

William Morris "Strawberry Thief" Tapestry

Today a resurgence of Morris' work can be found in the form of needlepoint kits and reproduction wallpapers.  Not to mention he is featured on many a Pinterest board including my own.  I think that Morris would have loved that his work continues to honor nature in our homes and that individuals recreate his designs for themselves.  For we have the power to create heaven on earth.

A good way to rid one's self of a sense of discomfort is to do something. That uneasy, dissatisfied feeling is actual force vibrating out of order; it may be turned to practical account by giving proper expression to its creative character.

-William Morris

William Morris "Willow Boughs" Wallpaper
(The most popular of Morris' paper... I so want this for my laundry room.)

With the arrogance of youth, I determined to do no less than to transform the world with Beauty. If I have succeeded in some small way, if only in one small corner of the world, amongst the men and women I love, then I shall count myself blessed, and blessed, and blessed, and the work goes on.

-William Morris

The Star and the Flower

The Star and the Flower
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"

You must become brother and sister

to each and every thing

so that they flow through you 

dissolving every difference

between what belongs to you and others.

No star, no leaf shall fall-

you fall with them-

to rise again 

in every new beginning.
-Herman Hesse

The Nativity

The Nativity
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"
Prints available on Fine Art America

Yet in the dark streets shineth the everlasting light;

The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.

-O Little Town of Bethlehem, Phillips Brooks

Friday Feature: Carl Larsson

Painting by Carl Larsson

Swedish artist Carl Larsson's depictions of his family offer some of the warmest images of home life during the Christmas season.  This leader of the Arts and Crafts Movement had a style that was both realistic and fluid.  I admire his delicate yet confident line work.  

Larsson's home was decorated with outstanding murals such as this one.

Happy Holidays!

Sketch of a Woman

Sketch of a Woman
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Pen on Paper

The human heart has many treasures, 

in secret kept, in silence sealed.

-Charlotte Bronte

Her History

Her History
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"
Prints available on Fine Art America

And what's her history?
A blank, my lord.  She never told her love,
But let concealment, life a worm i' the bud,
Feed on her damask cheek: she pin'd in thought,
And with a green and yellow melancholy,
She sat like Patience on a monument,
Smiling at grief.
-Shakespeare, Twelfth Night

Love which is made to be silent is most painful for it goes against the best of our nature.

Conventionality is not morality.

-Charlotte Bronte

Friday Feature: Claude Monet

Norway Village in the Snow by Claude Monet

Monet equals classic impressionism. Landscapes that capture the subtle changes of light as the day progresses. For paint to reflect the tone of fleeting environments, this was Monet's goal.

For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at any moment.

Every day I discover more and more beautiful things. 

It's enough to drive one mad. 

I have such a desire to do everything, my head is bursting with it.

-Monet

 

Below are a couple of Monet's quick studies of light...

Haystack by Claude Monet

Haystack by Claude Monet

Here is an excellent example of how light changes over the course of just a few hours... amazing!  The earth is so beautiful.

Love Alters Not

Love Alters Not
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediment. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove: 
O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken; 
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error, and upon me prov'd,
I never writ, not no man ever lov'd.
-Shakespeare, Sonnet 116

Leaves Have Ripened

Leaves Have Ripened
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
18" x 36"

Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;

Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,

Should waste them all.

-Robert Frost

Friday Feature: Wassily Kandinsky

Composition 7 by Wassily Kandinsky

Kandinsky is considered most famous as a founder of the abstract movement.  He allowed for symbolic images to drop from his work depicting only non-representational shape and color.  His goal was to communicate emotion through color exemplified by the painting above.

Color provokes a psychic vibration.

Color hides a power still unknown but real,
which acts on every part of the human body.

-Kandinsky

And that is all cool, influential stuff...

but honestly my favorite Kandinskys are his works just before he hit abstraction... when there was still a hint of a human form or a landscape.  What can I say- I love the more Fauve-ish Impressionism greater than the later forms of Expressionism.

Personal taste.

White Sound by Wassily Kandinsky

As the Sea

As the Sea
Copyright 2012 Addie Hirschten
Oil on Canvas
16" x 20"
Prints Available on Fine Art America

O Spirit of love!  how quick and fresh art thou,

That, not withstanding thy capacity

Receiveth as the sea.

-Shakespeare

Moving On

Here is a view of my latest work in progress. Layer number one is always (usually) a thin wash of burnt sienna over the whole canvas with a thicker application of the same color to create the image.   This layer is a bit ghostly and I sometimes find myself liking it so much it is hard to move on to the next step. 

But we must move onward and upward!  Yes?

For all at last returns to the sea, 

like the ever-flowing stream of time, 

the beginning and the end.

-Rachel Carson

Stay tuned; the next layer will be posted on Wednesday.