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| Where the beck crosses the lane at Wheeldale |
A favourite place. Over the moors past the old prehistoric stones that marked the lane from olden times as when the snow was thick on the ground and only the stones would tell the road across. I photographed those stones, and once found harebells growing by the side of one. Such fragile, delicate flowers in the rough atmosphere of the moors. If you were to walk along the Beck side you would eventually come upon Rowan trees. The birds many years ago must have scattered the seeds and over time the trees had grown. Rowan is a magical tree, given to protecting the house and the farming practices of milking and making butter and cream. It protected you against the dead arising. It also has been call 'quicken' translated as lively - as the tree endowed with life.
Funny news this morning, A famous painting had been thrown away. It was by Andy Warhol. It was somewhere in Holland and belonged to a batch of 'Queen' paintings. It does not particularly worry me, as there are other Warhol paintings out there and he has never been a favourite of mine. And as for the prices quoted of these paintings I will say nowt.
We have just passed JMW Turner's 250 year anniversary and I am quite happy to stick with the knowledge that he was a marvellous painter with no equal. I once almost bought a print of a ravine by him. It was in the 70s and the £50 was a mite too much for me but I always regret it.
It also reminded me of two prints I had left behind which were of George Morland. Both prints of horses, he was called a pot boiler. Which is a negative term that implies his work was inferior only produced for his daily bread. It is funny in what you want to put on the walls of one's house. Obviously if I was rich enough I would put Turner and Constable on my walls with perhaps a smattering of Morland in the guest bedroom!
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| George Morland. Bucolic scene or a scene of sad poverty. |
The pictures on my walls are many and varied - some handed down from my parents, some drawn by my children, cross stitch samplers done by my Mom or myself. Nothing too fancy and nothing valuable as far as I know. I chose some at craft fairs or resale shops just for the look of them. I'm not up on famous artists at all...
ReplyDeleteWell my daughter collects stuff so there is plenty around hanging on the wall.. Often the large posters of films, though she has a strange interest in religious prints, mostly of Mary. But then there is Matilda's Kate Moss jostling with Frida Kahlos down the hall way.
DeleteYour first descriptive paragraph drew me in to read it twice, giving me a fleeting sense of what it would be like to walk in that very place. Nostalgia, perhaps, reminding me of walks in my grandfather's pasture as it was many years ago--and is not now.
ReplyDeleteI only know what I like and don't like in art. Wild slashes of garish color, distorted figures, strange [to me] compositions that supposedly 'mean something' would never find a place in my home.
Hello Sharon, this little valley did have a special feeling to it. We met other people, one in a wheelchair coming back to visit. Also on one Rowan tree was a little disc remembering someone who had died. As for what one puts on the wall, something quiet for me and a reminder of things I love.
DeleteOur preference is for the works of Graham Carvery, Alan Ingham and Judy Boyes, Yorkshire dales.
ReplyDeleteWe used to have a couple of tatty Constable prints as a reminder of where my parents came from in "Constable Country" - Dedham, Flatford Mill etc.
Just looked them up Will, they are all excellent painters. We have a gallery along the road, just the work of one artist, I should buy one of his paintings but it is a bit late in the day to start collecting.
DeleteWe used to have some Terry Donnelly prints of Newcastle from when he had a small gallery near Newcastle Central Station many years ago, but they went when we moved house 20+ years ago. We also have another artist, Alan Reed, who lives, and had a studio and gallery, just a few miles down the road..
DeleteLooking at the line of the old grey horse's back, not bucolic to me. I love Rowan trees - especially in wild places. The art I have here tends to be representational - I love the soft landscapes of Gillian McDonald, and the detail of the Pre-Raphaelites. I cannot abide art that looks like monkeys might have done it!!
ReplyDeleteMonkeys occasionally sell their own work Jennie! But yes representational art work pleases the eye.
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