Field & Clouds, 6×8, acrylic © 2009 Michelle Basic Hendry
I post a new painting every week on Saturday at the Small Paintings Blog. This is the new one for the week of February 28th! I am toying with doing another big sky piece after I finish the Cooper’s Falls painting I have on the easel at the moment.
It has been a very busy month. I have taken a close look at what I do and how I do it. I have started a new series of habits for painting and I am trying to shrink my environmental footprint. I created a very ambitious set of goals for 2009 and I have taken a running start. I even have some travel plans in the works for this summer. If they pan out… I will be sharing a great adventure!
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In my wanderings around the web I have been looking at how we communicate with each other. Something I have noticed is the power of storytelling. I have read some fabulous and touching stories and been asked to share my own on blogs, including Robin Easton’s, and I have been getting this wonderful picture of people from around the world. I am getting to see how they think and getting to know what matters to them. It is so inspiring!
I want to share that inspiration a little more here and add a goal to the list. More stories – and hopefully I can encourage you to share yours here. Like – What was the first work of art that you remember having an effect on you? Were you young or older? Was it one painting or a museum?
My mother exposed me to art at a young age, but, I am not sure it really impacted me until I was a teenager. I always loved to draw and doodle, but, ART was not really a part of my consciousness. I took an art class in high school and I remember seeing paintings by the Impressionists on a slide projector. I remember one in particular, a pointillist painting by Seurat, “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatt”. I was not sure what to make of it, but I never forgot it.
Two years later at the tail end of a trip to Egypt, my group stopped over in Paris for a couple of days. I was tagging along with one of the chaperons and ended up at Le Musée de L’Orangerie. Built to house Monet’s Nymphaéas, L’Ornagerie houses the collection of Paul Guillaume and has works by Picasso, Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse, Rousseau and other greats in the modern art movement.
If you can imagine, I had never seen some of these artists before. My introduction to them was not through a book of plates, but by seeing the originals. I remember the stunning entrance. The building was classical in style and there were rooms and rooms filled with art. The colour of the art was incredible. Most of my memory is of colours – oranges and yellows, barely diluted, if at all.
Then, there was the room of water lilies…
There were several paintings in two spaces. The paintings were curved like the walls of the oval rooms that housed them. Monet’s Nymphaéas… The paintings were so large and encompassing that it felt like I was standing on grass at the edge of the water and that the room itself might be damp. The space was flooded with natural light as if I had been outside all along. Some of the paintings made me feel like I was under water and seeing the world filtered through blues, greens and lilacs – as if I were a koi fish.
After that day, I saw art. I needed art. And I realized how lucky I had been. How many get to stand next to the Nymphaéas?
So what is your story?
Hi Michelle, I grew up in a suburb of Chicago. I remember when I was little, my parents took us to the Art Institute of Chicago. So I was exposed to many, many different artists at a young age. Funny how I remember being drawn to the “different artists” then. Picasso, Albright and Chagall. When I was older, I fell in love with Renoir (Two Sisters) and Monet and Degas. To this day, my very favorite artist is Monet. I’ve seen large exhibitions of Monet’s work at the Art Institute, but going to France (to see what you’ve seen) is on my “some day” list.
great story 😀 A wonderful thing to experience!
I was always encouraged to draw and paint when I was younger so people usually think that its a painting or a drawing that I love and had an effect on me. Its actually any of Michelangelo’s unfinished sculptures.
Seeing how he worked and how such great works started had a big impact on me. I spent a lot of time doing research about him and all of the works that he had done. I would have been about 17/18 and 10 years later I am still fascinated by the work. Seeing his works made me want to take up carving but my hands are too shaky to carve anything successfully. I would love to see any of his work in person, would love to touch them (I know, not happening :p). Hard to explain why I am so fascinated by his works (the man is interesting to). I have a hard time sometimes believing that something so beautiful come out a chunk of marble. I can see past the religious aspects and see the skill that went into showing the human form.
I wrote a really long report for school, drew David as an example because I figured it was what most people think of when asked about Michelangelo (I could have drawn parts of the Sistine Chapel, but couldn’t decide on what part to draw). My history teacher asked to keep the drawing, put it up in class on the wall but put a little leaf over his genitals because parents complained. Even he thought it was stupid, its a piece of art not porn.
hmm rambley comment lol sorry
Michelle,
My first art teacher was a humanities profesor from the univerity. I was about 8 years old. He was from China and taught watercolors. His work was graceful and in the traditioal Chinese style. I had never seen anything like it before.
Love,
Linda
Wow, gorgeous work!
Hi Michelle,
I like how you are drawn into this piece of work towards the farm- nice expansiveness! Loved your story too.
Keep up the great work!
Jennifer Rose! What a great story! I hope you get to touch a Michaelangelo sculpture someday. Many great sculptors I have met said the the work was to be touched. It is very sensual.
Your drawing must have had the same effect in order for there to be complaints – well done….
Linda! What a wonderful introduction to art! I love Chinese watercolour and Japanese sum-i. Graceful is exactly the right word.
Thanks Trev and Debbie! 🙂
Janelle – Growing up in the city has some advantages. If you love Monet – Nymphaéas in unbelievable. You must go to France!
Your latest painting is gorgeous; they always are, but I love the landscapes.
I’m horrible as far as art appreciation goes. Mostly, it’s looking at natural things that inspire me, and fascinate me. Often, I have no wish render it into an image as it is perfect as it is; I just want to tell everyone, “look! look! see!” and they say, ‘oh, its a flower…’. I hope of late I can manage with my art to get people to ‘look! look! see!’ and be a little more enthusiastic about the little flower.
Ingrid – I think the point of art is to make us see our world a little differently and take it less for granted. I think your point about nature is a good one for the next ‘story’ post!
I remember that same feeling when I first saw the Barnes exhibit on tour. I was fortunate enough to see the whole collection in London a few years later. It was a fabulous experience, and re-iterated my love for the palette of Van Gogh. Seeing the originals is always more moving than any other form of reproduction.
A.
Hi Al! Nice to see you here… What you say is so true!
I saw the Barnes Exhibit in Toronto ( I still have the sweatshirt from the gift shop with a Van Gogh on the front!). I was surprised by how small Munch’s “Scream” was!
Thanks for sharing your story. Mine’s not as impressive…I was thoroughly entranced by a unicorn poster in my 1st grade art teacher’s room & the rest, as they say, is history. 🙂