How to Paint Like Turner

I have recently visited the exhibition -  J.M.W. Turner: Painting Set Free - at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

One of the memorable and well-know paintings- Snow Storm - Steamboat off a Harbour is oil on canvas. Exciting as this painting is, I much preferred his luminous watercolours.

                                                              The Blue Rigi, Sunrise
                               ( He did several variations of this image in Switzerland)
                                                 

                                                                      The Red Rigi

                                                                Nordham Castle,Sunrise (my favorite)

    Fort Vimieux

                                                                               
Imagine my surprise when I saw a book advertised in an art journal claiming to  help you "paint like Turner". Wow! Off to the public library for a copy of  How to Paint Like Turner, edited by Nicola Moorby and Ian Warrell and featuring the work of various artists.
This is a book well worth a look. The forward is by Rosalind Mallord Turner, his great-great niece and also a painter. It is an interesting introduction to Turner and provides practical information and demonstrations.
I found the book provided additional material on Turner which enhanced my appreciation of the exhibition I had just seen. I decided, however, that I wasn't ready to"Copy first the works of God, and then the works of Turner" as Edward Lear suggested.

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Frida and Diego

What a wonderful exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario of the art of Frida Khalo and Diego Rivera. Leave lots of time to read the posted commentaries and appreciate some of the details in the paintings.
The sections of intricate and political murals by Diego and his other paintings glowing with colour were wonderful.

Most affecting for me, however, were Frida's paintings. Many of her paintings depict the pain she suffered from an early accident which affected her health throughout her life, and her subsequent  miscarriages.

Their's was a complicated relationship - hints of which are in many of the paintings.

 Their story becomes real as you view the many photographs taken of them through the years, including those taken after death, in their caskets.

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Picasso

You have until August 26 to see a fabulous exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario:

 The galleries are beautiful and  the paintings are exciting.  The audio commentary is extremely helpful and there are some charming sections in which the narration is by a group of children attempting to make sense of it all.

 One of my favorite pieces is a self portrait of "himself" licking an ice cream cone on the beach

A joke might put things in perspective:

Artist Pablo Picasso surprised a burglar at work in his new chateau. The intruder got away, but Picasso told the police he could do a rough sketch of what he looked like. On the basis of his drawing, the police arrested a mother superior, the minister of finance, a washing machine, and the Eiffel tower.


As Picasso said - "Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life" - so go and get cleaned up!



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