Blog

Modern Art 1860 – 1970. Cubism and the rest of it.

Cubism Cubism changed the world of art for good.  It was the representation of the pinnacle and also of the lowest point of modern art.   The two most famous cubists are Picasso and Georges Braque.  People have been both intrigued and scandalized by Picasso’s work, which went through various periods that he called “The Blue […]

Posted 11 years ago

Modern Art 1860-1970. Fauvism and Expressionism.

Fauvism.  This was probably the first definable movement of the 20th century.  Between 1901 and 1906 there were several exhibitions in Paris and for the first time the works of Van Gogh (Dutch), Gauguin and Cezanne (both French) were available for viewing to the public.  For many new painters the effect of seeing these great […]

Posted 11 years ago

Modern Art, 1860 -1970, Symbolism.

   Gustave Moreau, Salome. Symbolism Symbolism runs alongside and interacts with post-impressionism.  Like most of these modern art forms, symbolism started quietly before it was thought of, and carried on after it was finished. It was all largely inter-active. It was not a new idea at all but, unlike the symbolism of the pre-Raphaelites some […]

Posted 11 years ago

Modern Art 1860-1970. Part 1. Post-Impressionists.

Modern Art 1860-1970 Post-Impressionism. When we use the phrase “modern art” we tend to think of artists like Robert Natkin, an American who died in April of this year.  This picture is called “Farm Street”.  He claimed that a painting meant no more than the materials used on its surface.  I struggle in no uncertain […]

Posted 11 years ago

Armistice Day in France

  Marshal Foch Armistice Day is a solemn day here in France, but there is none of the moving pageantry or marking of the event that one sees in the UK.  I have just been watching on SKY TV as the UK remembers … and it always moves me to tears. The Armistice was signed […]

Posted 12 years ago

Marianne. Snippets of French history.

 Marianne as depicted by Delacroix (1798 – 1863), violent, charging in to battle, bare-breasted (insinuates Amazons), walking on the dead, insouciante despite horror and destruction all around her. There are several symbols of France (as indeed there are for most countries) and the most commonly seen one is Marianne.  It seems to be sometimes referred […]

Posted 12 years ago

Christian Dior – snippets of French history.

Christian Dior was born in Normandy in 1905, one of five children.  His father was a wealthy businessman.  Christian’s parents had high hopes for him as a diplomat, but he was determined to be an artist.  As a boy he sold fashion sketches on the street for the equivalent of about 1p each – they […]

Posted 12 years ago

Running your own business, being self-employed.

A bit of a sweeping statement, but I sometimes think that only people who run their own businesses  really know what work is.  If you are employed by somebody else, you go in to work, do whatever it is you have to do, then go home again.  You get paid for it.  It may be […]

Posted 12 years ago

Speaking French; language and its idiosyncracies.

Today a friend asked me if, when I speak in French, I feel that my personality changes.  The friend, Annie, is French, but lives in Australia.  The question surprised me because I had often felt that I am a different person when I am in French mode, so to speak. It was such an interesting […]

Posted 12 years ago

How do you dial 999 in France ? Living in France.

The emergency services in France are excellent. The national emergency numbers in France were not widespread till the 1970s (1937 in the UK).  Although a skeleton system had been in place for several years, operators (through whom the calls were made) closed for lunch (from 12.00 till 2.00 or even 3.00) and at night, and […]

Posted 12 years ago

Books now available on Amazon:

A Call From France
French Sand
Kefani: An African Childhood
The Man With Green Fingers
Saying Nothing