setting the table

When MissM is at home
she always sets the table.

La Table dans la versure (1926)

I love to watch her select the mats,
arrange the plates and fill the water jug.
Even the way she lays out the knives
with the blades pointing outwards
has a personal touch.

La Table d'automne (1924)

MissM has always known
that setting the table
is about more than making sure
there is cutlery to eat with
and glasses to drink from.

La Nappe rose (1924)

My parents taught me
and I have taught my children
that every opportunity
to eat together as a family
should be treasured.

Petite table au pavillon (1935)

*****
Henri Le Sidaner (1862-1939)

Student Finance

MrM
So...do you understand
how we are organising your finance
when you are at university?
MissM
What happens if I want to buy
sports equipment?

Scheherazade
(Virginia Frances Sterrett)

MrM
Like golf clubs?
MissM
I don't think that is very likely...
but if I wanted to buy a squash racket?
MrM
You could have my squash racket.

Scheherazade
(Edmund Dulac)

MissM
What about a hockey stick?
MrsM
You have your old hockey stick from school.

Scheherazade
(Umberto Brunelleschi)

MissM
And a pole?
MrM and MrsM
A pole???

Scheherazade
(Leon Bakst)

MissM
For pole dancing.
I've heard that it is very empowering
and there is a club at uni.

Scheherazade
(Leon Bakst)

MrM (faintly)
We would pay for the pole
because that is...errr...
equipment.

L'après-déjeuner

Siesta, Interior at Nice
Henri Matisse (1869 - 1954)

All day long I stare
at the wire trays
and the year planner
and the filing cabinets
and the lever arch files
and the neatly arranged noticeboard.

The sun streams through the louvred windows
and the sounds of spring leak into my office:
the chatter of magpies, the rattle of mowers,
the murmur of students sitting on newly cut grass.

When I go home I soak myself
with pictures of magnolias
and give thanks that other people
have been to Kew in March
when I could not go.

First Day of Term

MrsM slept soundly
and woke feeling rested
which was just as well...

La grasse matinée

because she had completely forgotten
what the first day of term feels like:

invoicesexpenseandpayclaims;
examquestionsassessedwork
employmentcontractsattendanceissues;
insuranceagreementsworkshopadvertising...

and...the Spain Field Trip...

MrsM has been distracted
but she needs to plan her wardrobe urgently
because she departs on Sunday.

At the Races

This little number will be perfect for field work:

note the responsible use of sun hat
and day sack for first aid kit.

La Madeleine

This outfit will blend in nicely
for the in-depth study of cafe culture.

Julia

There may be an occasional evening expedition
and MrsM want to be prepared
and observe the local dress code.

After the Ball

Finally, MrsM plans to travel in this.
She is required to be on campus
at 3.15am on Sunday morning
and she wants to look stylish
when she collapses with exhaustion
on Sunday afternoon.

*****

All paintings by Ramon Casas i Carbó (1866 - 1932),
Catalan artist and contributor to Modernisme movement.

a world within

Anna Maria Garthwaite (1688 - 1763)
Cut-paper work 1707

I look at this for a long time,
trying to absorb every detail,
and wonder at the exquisite skill.

I try to imagine the initial vision,
the fierce concentration
and the determination to complete.

I remind myself that even
the most ambitious of projects
are completed one tiny snip at a time.

Whence and Whither

The Sunshine Roof

Cyril Power created these images over 80 years ago
as he experimented with the new technique of linocuts
but the experience of commuting in London
is still immediately recognisable:

The Escalator

the steamed up windows of the bus,
the surge of people joining the escalator,
the frustration of arriving on the platform
just as the train departs.

Whence and Whither

I think of MissM on her way to work,
hurrying down Piccadilly,
wrapped up in her coat and scarf

The Tube Station

and I remember the thrilling feeling
of being a part of that great bustling city
because I was only a little bit older than her
when I started my first job in the City.

The Tube Train

Berthe Morisot (1841–1895)

Still Life with Cut Apple and Pitcher

Berthe Morisot studied with Corot
and married the brother of Édouard Manet,
She was an influential member
of the Parisian Impressionists,
exhibiting alongside Cezanne, Degas and Renoir.

Her paintings provide insights into her life
that I recognise from my own experience
one hundred and forty years later.

White Flowers in a Bowl

I could have featured 'The Cradle',
a study of the intense relationship
between mother and child.

Daffodils

Or any of the intimate portraits
that capture the violin lesson,
the little girl with the doll,
the picnic on the grass
or the child at the garden gate.

Dahlias

But this is my first half term without children
so if you don't mind
we will look at pictures of
apples, flowers and china bowls.

It seems safer.

Variation On a Theme

I start with the vague idea of researching
the Parade of Painted Parasols in Kyoto...

Woman with a Parasol in the garden of Argenteuil
Monet

but it is Sunday evening
and it has been a busy weekend...

Under the Birches
Edelfelt Koivujen

I decide that what I really, really want
is a pretty picture (or three...)
to look at on Monday morning...

The Blue Japanese Parasol
Martha Walter

Shallow?
Moi?

cure for a jaded palate

I am tired of flowers and cakes.

Combinable Wall I and II (1961)

I need to see eye-popping slabs of colour.

Gloria in Excelsis (1963)

I need an injection of Hofmann.

Autumn Gold (1957)

"the ability to simplify
means to eliminate the unnecessary
so that the necessary may speak"

Hans Hofmann (1880 -1966)

A Short History of Toasters

Four generations of the Princes of Orange:
William I, Maurice and Frederick Henry,
William II, William III
(Willem van Honthorst, 1662)

*****

The Toaster is Dead.

I have concluded that we are living through
an in-bred dynasty of Toasters,
with receding heating elements
and impotent timer switches.

Toaster the First
Solid, dependable, old fashioned.
Toasters the Second, Third and Fourth
Short, forgettable reigns
Deceptively attractive exterior
No substance
Toaster the Fifth
Extended period of consistent eccentricity.
Toaster the Sixth
Smart and well presented
A brief but brilliant reign;
expired suddenly with multiple failures.
Toaster the Seventh
The twin of Toaster the Sixth
welcomed with naive optimism on Saturday
by the loyal subjects who continue to believe
(despite all the evidence to the contrary)
that somewhere out there
is a Toaster that works.

Long live the Toaster.

Edna Clarke Hall (1879 - 1979)

Edna Clarke Hall (née Waugh)
entered the Slade School of Fine Art
as a precociously talented 14 year old.
She was a contemporary of Gwen and Augustus John.

She married the eminent lawyer, William Clarke Hall, in 1898
and they had two sons, Justin and Denis.
In the summer the Clarke Halls would move to Cornwall
and these idyllic holidays are recorded in numerous paintings.

Edna chose watercolour because 'it captured the moment'
and I am attracted to her work because it evokes
my own childhood on the cliffs and beaches of Cornwall.

Edna had a period of mental breakdown
as she tried to reconcile the conflict
between her world as wife and mother
and her inner creative life.
Reading about this has started a train of thought
that I know other people struggle with.

(1)
How do you find the space for creative expression in a family
- and in my case, working full time -
especially if your creative work
is not going to clothe or feed your family?

Gwen John painted portraits of haunting intensity,
but lived alone after the end of her relationship with Rodin;
it must have required immense self control by Edna Clarke Hall
not to compare her work to that of the single minded Gwen John
and regret her own limited opportunity to fulfill her early promise.

(2)
How do you understand the value of your own creative work?
Edna had a distinctive, fluid, sketchy style
which was quite different to anything that her peers were creating
- where did she find the self-belief to keep painting in this style?

I don't know the answers to these questions.

I wish I did.

wood engravings

The Bird's Nest

Sometimes a birthday present is so unexpected
and yet so thoughtfully chosen
that you catch your breath
when you undo the wrapping.

The Farmyard

My father-in-law, Thomas, is a bibliophile
and gave me the tiniest slip of a book
wood engravings by Gwen Raverat
published by R.D. & J.M. Carr
The Quince Tree Press

Children

Gwen Raverat was a granddaughter of Charles Darwin
and later in life published 'Period Piece',
a memoir of her Cambridge childhood,
one of my parents' favourite books.

April

She was an exceptionally talented artist,
specialising in wood engraving,
who trained at the Slade
and then lived in France with her husband
until his early death in 1925.

The Balcony

The exquisite wood engravings featured
include examples from her time in France
and her later book illustrations.

In the Loft

The ones I have selected remind m
of my family home in Cornwall.
There are days when I wish I could be closer.

I had a dove

*****

I wrote this post originally on 5 March 2009
and it means a great deal to me.
Today, a year later, the sun is shining
and MrM and I are driving down to Cornwall.
I hope that you will forgive the repetition.

Norah Neilson Gray (1882-1931)

Can I talk about Norah Neilson Gray this morning?
Will you indulge me?

Self Portrait
1918

Norah was part of a remarkable generation of Scottish women artists
who were empowered by the Arts and Crafts movement
and the changes to society created by the First World War.
She grew up in Helensburgh, on the shore of the Clyde,
but her family moved to Glasgow when she was 19
which enabled her to study at the Glasgow School of Art.
The environment was dominated by male academics
but the Director, Francis Newbery, encouraged women
and many attended as part-time students,
supervised by a lady warden and housekeeper.

date unknown

Norah Neilson Gray became a fine portrait painter
with a strong sense of colour and composition
which originated in her early specialisation
in fashion-plate drawing which she taught
at the Glasgow School of Art from 1909.

Little Brother
1921

During the war Norah worked as
a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse
at Royaumont Abbey, outide Paris.
Her war-time paintings powerfully convey
the bleak courage of the people that she met.

The Belgian Refugee
1915

Norah was the first woman to be appointed
to the prestigious hanging committee
of the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts in 1921
and is included in the Glasgow Girls,
a group of female designers and artists
working in conjunction with the influential Glasgow Four:
the painter and glass artist Margaret MacDonald,
her husband, the architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh,
Frances MacDonald and Herbert MacNair.

Four Sisters

My interest was sparked by this painting.
It seems to me that she paints from the heart
and the inspiration is the memory of her childhood
in the large garden at Helensburgh.
The luminous colours, the arc of birds
and the way the children fade into the backgound
has added poignancy when you realise that
she died at the tragically early age of 48.

*****

all images courtesy of WikiCommons.
If any reader knows the correct orientation
of the self portrait
I would be most grateful.
Half of the sources face to the right
and the other half to the left.