Wakges: August 2010

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Autumn 2010 Ebooks Now Available!

Autumn 2010 Nature Study with the Outdoor Hour Challenges

The new Autumn Nature Study ebook includes:

10 Outdoor Hour Challenges-7 new challenges and 3 continuing studies (Seasonal Tree, Weather, and Queen Anne's Lace). All the Outdoor Hour Challenges in this ebook are based on the Handbook of Nature Study and include page numbers and suggested learning observations. The three on-going studies are totally revamped with an autumn focus and they will inspire you to continue in your year-long studies that you started in previous seasons.
New to this series of challenges is the focus on learning to compare and contrast using a Venn Diagram. Full instructions and a notebook page are included.
16 Outdoor Hour Challenge notebook pages and nature journal suggestions.
4 optional coloring pages.
Ideas for field trips other than your normal Outdoor Hour Challenge backyard adventures.
Links for further enrichment for many of the challenges.
Complete list of resources and instructions to get started with this ebook.
43 pages.

You will have a complete plan at your fingertips for your autumn nature study when the opportunities arise. The ebook gives you links and resources to find most of the information online, including the Handbook of Nature Study.

Autumn Nature Study plans sample:
Autumn 2010 Nature Study eBook Sample

Autumn Nature Study with the Outdoor Hour Challenges
Contains all the challenges, custom notebook pages, resource links, and coloring pages for nature study.
43 pages for $8.95.

Note: There might be a delay in you receiving the ebook in your inbox. I am emailing each book out myself and the delay can be up to 24 hours. I usually can send them a lot quicker than that. Also, I will be emailing the ebook to the email address on your Paypal.com account.

Edit to add 1/11/11: I would like to announce that you can now purchase all four seasonal ebooks for the Outdoor Hour Challenge in a bundle for a discounted price of $29.99. Click the button to order your bundle now. You will receive all four of the current seasonal ebooks.

If you have any questions, please email me: harmonyfinearts@yahoo.com.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Autumn 2010 Ebooks-Update

I have had numerous emails asking me how to purchase the new ebooks. For some reason when you get my blog entries in an email or in a Google Reader, the Paypal buttons do not show up. This means you will need to pop over to the blog to find the buttons.

Handbook Of Nature Study

Sorry for the extra step.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Owen Jones and Leaves From Nature

Illustration: Owen Jones. Horse Chesnut Leaves from The Grammar of Ornament, 1856.

In Leaves and Flowers from Nature, Owen Jones sums up in the final chapter of his seminal and influential design and decoration book The Grammar of Ornament, the power of nature over all forms of architecture, design and decoration. With this final chapter, Jones was making sure that everyone who had purchased and read the book understood the nature and reasoning for the title and why Jones had felt it necessary to publish in the first place.

The Grammar of Ornament in some ways was laid out as a history of human decoration and ornamentation. Covering human civilization from Ancient Egypt to Renaissance Europe Jones reflected on the human relationship with nature. Throughout the twenty chapters and one hundred and twelve colour plates, the basic line of the narrative was one of how successfully or not each culture and era had interpreted its original inspiration, namely the natural world.

Illustration: Owen Jones. Vine Leaves from The Grammar of Ornament, 1856.

Although, to some extent this was a personal critique of the history of decoration and ornamentation, Jones did try to put at least a healthy and respectable element of objectivity into the experience, which allowed him to at least bring general attention towards design and decoration techniques that were outside of the familiar European context. By placing European, Islamic and Maori cultures along with a number of others within the same publication, and at least to a certain extent with the same emphasis, Jones although not necessarily opening any prejudiced or preconceived European eyes, did start to lay the foundations of what we see and appreciate today as the complex and infinitely layered patchwork of human culture.

Illustration: Owen Jones. Ivy Palmata and Common Ivy Leaves from The Grammar of Ornament, 1856.

In the final chapter of his book, Jones produced ten colour plates entirely devoted to the leaves of relatively common plants and trees. With these plates, he laid the emphasis on the direct interpretation of nature. The chapter explains that all the previous chapters in the book dealt with individual cultures and eras and their own often unique interpretations of nature which could be reinterpreted by contemporary designers within reason. However, Jones purposely laid the emphasis on direct and individual observation of the natural world as the only true starting point for all forms of decoration and ornamentation, from architecture to the multiple disciplined decorative arts.

Illustration: Owen Jones. Scarlet and White Oak, Fig Tree, Maple, White Bryony, Laurel and Bay Tree Leaves from The Grammar of Ornament, 1856.

In closing Jones hoped and also felt confident that although mid-Victorian decoration and ornamentation led much to be desired and was in many respects derivative and riddled with pastiche, the building blocks for a new interpretation, even a new era in architecture and the decorative arts, was truly imminent. However, he did also warn that unless nature and its observation was at the root of this new and expected era, it would come fail just as surely as that of his own era.

Which new era Jones was predicting is debateable as the emphasis on nature implies the near future Arts & Crafts movement. However, Jones also placed emphasis on the new Victorian innovation of building with cast iron, which implies a future that was to produce the Modernist movement, one that was to dominate the twentieth century and that of our own contemporary world, much more so than the somewhat insular craft movement. Perhaps Jones saw room for each aspect to develop, eventually producing a Modernist movement tempered by a pragmatic grounding in the merits and laws of the natural world. That this intertwining of Modernism and Arts & Crafts did not develop is perhaps one of the missed opportunities of the last one hundred and fifty years.

Illustration: Owen Jones. Honeysuckle and Convolvulus Leaves from The Grammar of Ornament, 1856.

Wellcome Library Insights - September and October

Our popular Insight sessions offer visitors to the Wellcome Library an opportunity to explore the variety of our holdings. These free sessions are thematic in style, last around an hour and offer a chance to learn about our collections.

The next series of Insights begins this Thursday afternoon (2nd September) at 3pm, with a session exploring the manuscripts and early printed books once owned by William Morris that are now part of the Wellcome Library's collections.

You can pick up your free ticket for this event from the Wellcome Collection Information Desk from 13.30 on the day. Tickets are issued on a first-come, first-served basis: for more details, see the Wellcome Collection website.

Our other Insights sessions for September and October are:

The Quest for Perfect Skin - Thursday 9th September, 3-4pm

Mind and Body, Heart and Soul – Thursday 23rd September, 6-7pm

London Faces - Saturday 2nd October, 2.30-3.30pm

Anatomies of London - Thursday 7th October, 6-7pm and Saturday 9th October, 2.30-3.30pm

Henry Wellcome: His Life and Work - 21st October, 3-4pm

For more details on attending the sessions, please follow the links above to the appropriate pages on the Wellcome Collection website.

For a preview of other Wellcome Collection events over the next few months, have a look at this post on the Wellcome Collection Blog.

Image: Liber chronicarum, previously owned by William Morris.

Van Gogh visits Haarlem

‘Schizophrenic genius’, manic depressive, or a sufferer of psychoses that drove him to paint at lightning speed? These are some of the diagnoses that the exhibition 'Dossier Van Gogh: Gek of Geniaal?' ('Mad or Genius?') at the Het Dolhuys Museum of psychiatry in Haarlem, the Netherlands sets out to explore. The Wellcome Library, as part of its ongoing programme of loans to temporary exhibitions both in the UK and abroad, has lent four items from its collections to the exhibition and I was recently lucky enough to travel to Haarlem to install them.

Going on display from the Library were an etching by Van Gogh of his physician Paul-Ferdinand Gachet, Gachet’s business card and a label from an antiseptic medicine he invented, and Etude sur la melancolie a book written by him.

We don’t always send a courier to install items we loan to borrowing institutions - we treat each loan on a case by case basis - but because we had never lent to the Dolhuys before, and because of the value of the Van Gogh etching, we decided that on this occasion someone should go to check the environmental and security conditions. And so it was that I made the short flight over to Holland on a Sunday afternoon, in order to be able to begin the installation first thing the next morning.

The staff at the museum couldn’t have been more welcoming or accommodating – they had gone out of their way to provide our items with their own brand new case, with environmental controls built into it to ensure a stable temperature and relative humidity is maintained at all times, and had positioned security cameras onto the case so that it is monitored around the clock.

During the installation, the museum’s communications advisor asked if they could take a photograph of me holding the Van Gogh etching to be used for publicity purposes – still somewhat windswept from the gale that was blowing outside when I arrived, I was a little hesitant at first, but quickly gave in to the temptation of having my 5 minutes of fame (if you can call it that!).

I was very impressed by what I saw of the museum. Its displays are modern and innovative with an emphasis on involving the visitor as much as possible, and I would highly recommend anyone with an interest in the history and treatment of mental health to pay it a visit. Haarlem itself is a very attractive small town, only a 15 minute train journey from Amsterdam, with many interesting buildings, bars, restaurants and shops.

All in all, this was a great loan to be involved with, and a wonderful opportunity to discover a fascinating museum that deals with a sometimes difficult and uncomfortable subject.

Dossier Van Gogh (The Van Gogh Files), Het Dolhuys, nationaal museum van de psychiatrie, 24 August 2010 - 27 February 2011

Author: Rowan De Saulles

Lion on the Train

London is truly multi-cultural, even lions can be seen on the underground.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Wallpaper Design by Walter Leistikow

Illustration: Walter Leistikow. Wallpaper design and frieze, c1899.

The German fine artist Walter Leistikow also produced a significant amount of design and decorative work between the years 1897 and 1902. He was particularly involved in textiles, tapestry, stained glass, furniture and wallpaper design. The wallpaper examples shown here which were reproduced in an 1899 publication of Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration the leading fine art and decoration magazine of Germany if not Europe as a whole, are a clear and good example of his style.

Illustration: Walter Leistikow. Wallpaper design and frieze, c1899.

Leistikow was an important member of the Modernist art movement in Germany. In 1898 after showing work at the Royal Academy in Berlin for a number of years, a landscape by Leistikow was rejected as being below standard. This was a euphemism used by the establishment to denote the unacceptability of modern art. This rejection directly influenced the founding of the Berlin Secession, which very much like the Viennese Secession, soon proved more popular and entertaining than any of the establishment funded and sanctioned Royal Academy shows could ever be.

Illustration: Walter Leistikow. Wallpaper design and frieze, c1899.

Leistikow's approach to fine art was such that many of the new parameters used were seen to be more than appropriate when applied to the decorative arts. Therefore, during a relatively short period over the turn of the twentieth century, Leistikow produced work in both fine and decorative arts, hoping as so many did during this period, to blur the lines between the two art systems producing a genuine art that would be broadly inclusive of all aspects of the interior.

Regarding Leistikow's wallpaper design work during this period, it is one of originality, taking a definite fine art approach to the discipline. The work is refreshingly clean and contemporary and has little to identify it with some of the more obvious excesses of the Art Nouveau movement. It is interesting to note some of the elements that combine to make these wallpaper designs what they are. They can only be described as graphic in tone and quality and it must be remembered that Leistikow had been producing graphic artwork for the influential German Pan magazine since its first publication in 1895.

Illustration: Walter Leistikow. Wallpaper design and frieze, c1899.

Although Leistikow produced wallpaper design work for such a relatively short period of time and arrived at the discipline from a fine art perspective which is not always the best direction, he was able to produce work that should be seen as some of the leading design and decorative work not only in Germany, but in Europe in general.

Leistikow gave up design work in 1902 to concentrate again on his fine art painting. His reasoning was that he felt that the decorative arts could give a formulaic approach to creativity, which could well influence and reflect in his fine art work. It is unclear whether he meant that the two disciplines could not be combined, or at least work in some form of partnership as he had originally planned. However, he did not return to the decorative arts and died at the extremely early age of 42 in 1908.

Illustration: Walter Leistikow, 1903.

Further reading links:
Walter Leistikow, Landschaftsbilder (Ars Nicolai Galerie) (German Edition)
Walter Leistikow (1865-1908): Maler der Berliner Landschaft (German Edition)
Das Leben Walter Leistikows. Ein Stück Berliner Kulturgeschichte
The Berlin Secession: Modernism and Its Enemies in Imperial Germany
Die Berliner Secession: Berlin als Zentrum d. dt. Kunst von d. Jahrhundertwende bis zum Ersten Weltkrieg (German Edition)
Arts in Germany: German Art, German Art Just Before the Third Reich, Zero Foundation, Erwin Faber, Kunsthalle, Berlin Secession, Kunstmuseum
BERLINER SEZESSION (The Berlin Secession)
Wallpaper: A History of Style and Trends
Pattern Design: Period Design Source Book
Wallpaper and the Artist: From Durer to Warhol
Wallpaper, its history, design and use,
Wall Papers for Historic Buildings: A Guide to Selecting Reproduction Wallpapers

War-Torn Flynn Teams With Walsh

I'm developing this crazy notion that Errol Flynn was the Classic Era's James Bond. Who else had such an action franchise going through the thirties and forties? You could argue Flynn himself was a continuing character in formula narratives custom built to fan expectations. I'd posit EF as having gone Bond several better by supplying texture from a personal life to deepen wells his screen characters plumbed. How else could directing Raoul Walsh mine diamonds so deeply flawed out of post-(statutory rape) trial Northern Pursuit and Uncertain Glory, roles unthinkable for pristine 30's Flynn? Errol supplied complexities later 007 entries had to manufacture. What is rogue agent Bond of current fashion (seems the character's run that direction incessantly since Tim Dalton days) but variation on Flynn's disgraced Canadian Mountie in Northern Pursuit? There was fan reliance on Errol Flynn to goose each year's threshold for action-packing, same as with Bond in the 60's. EF crashed existing walls to pull off last word on sea battles, saloon brawls, and heroic last stands. I've never seen it done that big was surely exit remarked (and often) among Flynn consumers same as we'd assess latest Bond-busters growing up. You'd have spotted EF another twenty years' stardom but for loss of health and looks (does Flynn's kind of stuff really date? --- not if DVD sales are any indication!). Warners is recently out with five he did for the war (including one by Lewis Milestone, Edge Of Darkness), and what a sweet reboot for this hero they dispatched against Axis devils. The fact Flynn suited up with pack master Raoul (rode with Villa) Walsh made (makes!) for joy unconfined. Here's where autuerists and plain comfort seekers smoke consensus pipes over a quartet of derring-do plus nuance the Bond series has tried, but so far failed, to duplicate.

Flynn's rogue aspect showed from initial donning of Allied uniform, the star's once uncomplicated persona coarsened thanks to rape trial trauma. Walsh was just aboard in time for probing what scandal would do to Errol's hero mantle. Theirs was a creative match heaven-sent. "Uncle" Raoul was more a one-of-the-boys sort despite age and accomplishment that commanded respect. Not a martinet like Curtiz, he drank with Flynn while tactfully reigning him in. Walsh viewed the younger man like a son, was heartbroken by Flynn's dissolute ways neither could harness, but spun gold out of seven pairings between 1941-48. Whatever (considerable) merits of Curtiz work gone before, Walsh's are the richest Flynns, and first to consider irresponsibility beneath bravado that characterized EF arrow-splittings and Sea-Hawking of yore. For all of Desperate Journey's joie de vivre, it's still reckless Errol that gets his plane shot down with half a crew lost. Now with war really on, we're put to wondering if Sherwood Forest strategies are best for seeing it's won. Flynn led off sound stages by investigating officers was blight on produce previously graded A. Warners would henceforth blacken him up or laugh off the mess, depending on justice's outcome. A jury's acquittal enabled the latter, which led to ham-fisted frolic of San Antonio and parts of Don Juan. For a meantime of uncertainty, however, there was Walsh and shadings he'd apply to Flynn's ever-coarsening alter-egos.

Northern Pursuit found EF in apparent service to German interests, so believable in that capacity as to almost disappoint us when it's revealed he's under-covering. Then there's Uncertain Glory and Flynn guillotine-bound for murder plus assorted what-all. Could admirers imagine such screen conduct even three years before? Here was what headlines and statutory charges would do for you while cleaner boys were off defending their flag. Of all actors engaging this war at home, Flynn was by far more ambiguous and doubtfully committed, which makes him, of course, most fascinating to observe from a modern perspective. Uncertain Glory was his first go at an unapologetic rotter. Viewers now wondered if this was the real Errol Flynn peeking out at them. Problem again was he essayed it so convincingly as to render a tacked-on sacrifice (for war hostages) unconvincing. Flynn was hitherto accused of playing himself. Maybe now, and under newly trying circumstances, he'd gotten a little too good at it. The best role I've ever had, Errol called it, but Uncertain Glory was heavy going even for those seeking darker corners in this actor's gallery. Walsh referred to this and Northern Pursuit as quickies, but only thirty years after he and Flynn sweated both out. There was a piece of Uncertain Glory's action for EF thanks to a producing scheme he'd contrive with Warner bookkeepers. The idea was to shade taxes otherwise due. Walsh got skittish with the deal and preferred salary directing. Customarily goldbricking Flynn surprised everyone by showing up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for shooting, for now it was in part his money efficiency would be saving.

There was better behavior too on the jewel of this wartime lot, Objective, Burma, through which Errol spent breaks penning his second novel, Showdown, published in 1946. With a few year's buffer since the verdict, he was back to straight heroism, but that's not to say Flynn's dulled down. This may have been the last time he'd look presentable in matinee idol terms that sealed an adoring public's deal. In fact, Walsh so understated Burma as to make it seem near documentary in approach. Was this outcome of Signal Corps footage and actualities running in war-numbed theatres? (Burma arrived late in the conflict). The two and a (nearly) half-hour jungle trek stands tall with They Were Expendable as soberest and maybe best of war studies done during the fact, and was one of the few post-trial jobs Flynn took pride in. For such a brand labeled Action Only, he now bent with every joint too long abused. There'd been a heart attack during Gentleman Jim, plus cigarettes and alcohol stopping his breath when goings proved too strenuous. Walsh got the midnight call to Chez Flynn where the imperfect specimen confided a doctor's estimate of six months left, maybe a year. Well, that was a decade ahead of eventual drop date (1959). By now, the two amigos were well past tippling sessions that fortified completion of increasingly troubled collabs. There was a last, Silver River, after which an out-of-patience Walsh finally threw in the directing towel, leaving Flynn to mercies of product not half so good (Don Juan an exception), and mores the pity, for here's where a star in decline really needed aid and comfort of sympathetic/capable directors. Unfortunately by this time, Errol had used all of them up.

Wakges

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Autumn 2010 Ebooks Now Available!

Autumn 2010 Ebooks-Update

Owen Jones and Leaves From Nature

Wellcome Library Insights - September and October

Van Gogh visits Haarlem

Lion on the Train

Monday, August 30, 2010

Wallpaper Design by Walter Leistikow

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