Thursday 27 November 2014

Thanksgiving Greetings



Willem van Aelst, 16 May 1627 – in or after 1683

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Our rural ancestors, with little blest,
Patient of labour when the end was rest,
Indulged the day that housed their annual grain,
With feasts, and off'rings, and a thankful strain.

~Alexander Pope
(21 May 1688 – 30 May 1744)


German "Erntedankfest"

Remember God's bounty in the year. 
String the pearls of His favor. 
Hide the dark parts, except so far as they are breaking out in light! 
Give this one day to thanks, to joy, to gratitude! 
~Henry Ward Beecher


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Monday 24 November 2014

On a gray November Monday....


"Enlightenment"

 

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"Chop that wood....
Carry water
What's the sound of one hand clapping
Enlightenment, don't know what it is

Every second, every minute
It keeps changing to something different...

...Enlightenment, don't know what it is

It says it's non attachment....."



".....I'm in the here and now, and I'm meditating....."




...last roses at La Pouyette... 3 little buds at the end of November...

 
".....Wake up....



 .....Enlightenment says the world is nothing
Nothing but a dream, everything's an illusion
And nothing is real....."

"....You can change it anyway you want
You can rearrange it...."

 Van Morrison

like to dedicate the music to 
our dear blogger friend and painter Helen Tilston

here

go raibh maith aga 
simply  THANK YOU !


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And by the way....



.....today.....

150th Birthday of:




Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec 
24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901


 "At the Moulin Rouge"
 Self-portrait in the crowd,1892

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Photographer:  Guibert, circa 1887

"I paint things as they are, I don't comment"

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only a few of my favorite paintings:

A Box at the Theater, 1896

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The Laundress, 1884 - 1886

Upon seeing a mysterious, untamed young woman with glowing red hair
while exiting a restaurant somewhere on the streets of Paris about the year 1884,
Toulouse-Lautrec exclaimed to his friend:
“She’s a stunner! What an air of spoiled meat she has! 
It would be so marvelous to get her as a model!”

Later he finally caught up to her, the woman known as Carmen Gaudin,
a laundress and prostitute that Toulouse-Lautrec tirelessly depicted in many different settings and media.
Referring to Carmen in a letter written to his mother in 1884,
Toulouse-Lautrec gushed that he was  
"painting a woman whose hair is absolute gold".

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La Toilette, 1889

Redhead reveals the artist’s debt to Degas,
but instead of the ungainly figures found in Degas’ pastels,
Toulouse-Lautrec has created a beautiful, slender figure with her back to the viewer
and her rich red hair tied in a knot.
The artist had a predilection for red-headed models and it has been proposed
that his favourite model, Carmen Gaudin, sat also for this particular painting.
 

Toulouse-Lautrec gave painting lessons 
to Suzanne Valadon, one of his models 
(and possibly his mistress as well). 
Suzanne Valadon - see also my post from september 2011

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In Bed, 1893

"Love is when the desire to be desired takes you so badly 
that you feel you could die of it"
Henri Toulouse-Lautrec 

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"I have tried to do what is true and not ideal"
Henri Toulouse-Lautrec 

I raise my glass to that!

Sláinte - CHEERS!
xxxk
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Remark:
Toulouse-Lautrec was drawn to Montmartre, an area of Paris famous for its bohemian lifestyle and for being the haunt of artists, writers, and philosophers. Tucked deep into Montmartre was the garden of Monsieur Pere Foret where Toulouse-Lautrec executed a series of pleasant plein-air paintings of Carmen Gaudin, the same red-head model who appears in The Laundress (1888). When the nearby Moulin Rouge cabaret opened its doors, Toulouse-Lautrec was commissioned to produce a series of posters. Thereafter, the cabaret reserved a seat for him, and displayed his paintings. Among the well-known works that he painted for the Moulin Rouge and other Parisian nightclubs are depictions of the singer Yvette Guilbert; the dancer Louise Weber, known as the outrageous La Goulue ("The Glutton"), who created the "French Can-Can"; and the much more subtle dancer Jane Avril.
Toulouse-Lautrec spent much time in brothels, where he was accepted by the prostitutes and madams to such an extent that he often moved in, and lived in a brothel for weeks at a time. He shared the lives of the women who made him their confidant, painting and drawing them at work and at leisure.
Lautrec recorded their intimate relationships, which were often lesbian......
info source   here

Tuesday 11 November 2014

"By Invitation Only" - November 2014



The theme for this month's post:

"Describe one of the BEST days of your life so far."

Oh my! 
I've had - and still have - so many good days,
don't know where to start - where to end - which one to choose??

Succently, 
 I think the Best Day of my life is the day
"when I saw the light of day"
the day I was born 
  
because

I LOVE LIFE.

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"In the end, 
it's not going to matter how many breaths you took,


 

...but how many moments took your breath away"
shing xiong

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To read and see the "Best day in life" of our friends in this group
please visit Marsha's blog
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A bientôt....

Sunday 2 November 2014

All Souls




The first two days of November are Allerheiligen (Nov. 1) - All Saints
and Allerseelen (Nov. 2) - All Souls.

Related to Halloween
these two holy days are devoted to all of the saints (known and unknown) 
and to all of the “faithful departed,” respectively. 

In medieval English, All Saint's Day was known as All Hallows.
 All Hallows Eve (Oct. 31) came to be called “Halloween.”



Ruins of    
 All Saints' Abbey (Kloster Allerheiligen) 
which was a Premonstratensian monastery near Oppenau 
in the Black Forest, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

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All Soul's Day is always November 2,
it is a time when families fondly remember the deceased.


All Soul's Day, 1888
Jakub (or Jakob) Schikaneder 
(February 27, 1855, Prague – November 15, 1924, Prague)

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 All Soul's Day is a day of remembrance 
for friends and loved ones who have passed away. 


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This comes from the ancient Pagan Festival of the Dead, 
which celebrated the Pagan belief that the souls of the dead would return for a meal with the family. 
Candles in the window would guide the souls back home, and another place was set at the table. 
Children would come through the village, asking for food to be offered symbolically to the dead, 
then donated to feed the hungry. 

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The traditions of the Feast of All Souls began independently of the Feast of All Saints
The Feast of All Souls owes its beginning to 7th century monks 
who decided to offer the mass on the day after Pentecost for their deceased community members. 
In the late 10th century, the Benedictine monastery in Cluny, France,
chose to move their mass for their dead to November 2, the day after the Feast of all Saints.
 This custom spread and in the 13th century, 
Rome put the feast on the calendar of the entire Church. 
The date remained November 2 
so that all in the Communion of the Saints might be celebrated together.


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 Wish you all a peaceful and reflective Sunday.



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Jacub Schikaneder:
Schikaneder came from the family of a German customs office clerk. Despite the family's poor background, he was able to pursue his studies, thanks in part to his family's love of art; an ancestor was Urban Schikaneder, the elder brother of the librettist Emanuel Schikaneder. After having completed his studies in Prague and Munich (1871–1879), Schikaneder, alongside Emanuel Krescenc Liška (cs), was involved in the furnishing of the royal box in the National Theatre in Prague; however, this work was lost in a fire in 1881. After his work in the National Theatre, Schikaneder travelled through Europe, visiting Germany, England, Scotland, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy and France. From 1891 until 1923 he taught in Prague's Art College. Schikaneder counted amongst those who admired the Munich School of the end of the 19th century.
He died in 1924 and was buried in Vinohrady Cemetery in Prague.
info source  here