SOME LANDSCAPES

Well I'm pleased to say that this blog is proving to be very successful.
While we have mentioned that THE CURMUDGEONSⓒ are not into frequency as quality is what drives the three blogs and their posts, I thought that it is time to write a new post.

A very eminent blogger who has been blogging for nearly twenty years and has followers all over the world recently reviewed this blog and regretted that there weren't more posts to inspire him. This blogger (I won't mention his name as I'm not a name-dropper) is very highly placed in the performing arts arena. He/she plays for a major city's symphony orchestra and has performed with world leading string instrumentalists like Stephane Grappelli and Robert Prowse.

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Today I have photographed some of the landscape-oriented paintings we have hanging in different parts of our house. Please note that in the interests of retaining the true essence of the artwork I haven't put too much emphasis into the technical perfection of the photographs. I think that this would distract and detract- don't you?

CYNTHIA TAYLOR

Sunshine after the rain - Northland

Cynthia Taylor is known for her unique New Zealand inspired paintings. She grew up in a family of artists and has been exhibiting since 1970.

"Landscapes remain my first love and has played a big part in both my paintings and my life. I think of myself as very much a New Zealand artist.." - Cynthia Taylor.

PETER MCINTYRE

Gum tree

Peter McIntyre was one of New Zealand's most famous artists. He also came from a family of artists and his son Simon is very active as a painter today. His daughter Sara is an accomplished photographer as well.

McIntyre had the title of official war artist for 2NZEF in the second world war. It was in North Africa that my father met him and maintained contact for the rest of their lives.  This oil painting was given to my mother by Peter McIntyre in the 1970s.

IAN ROBERTSON

The Pumpshed

Robertson was a very prolific New Zealand artist and quite a character. He excelled in the mixed use of oils and acrylics and was able to put vibrant life into his paintings. The greens in this painting virtually shine out of the canvas  and light up our study.

SIMON WILLIAMS

Sandy Bay, Rakino Island - triptych.

Simon Williams is a New Zealand artist who studied his craft in Europe and worked in Australia where he won major awards. In New Zealand he has made a name for himself with his outstanding paintings of the islands in the Hauraki Gulf. This island is Rakino which I flew over every second week in a helicopter to Waiheke Island when I worked for a wine company there. I love this view which is faithfully recorded. This is a very large painting in three panels and takes up one wall of our lounge. It is also meaningful for The Old Girl as she bought it in memory of her father who died in 2006.

(my photo)

(Website photo)

HAROLD COOP

Various

Harold Coop is The Old Girl's favourite artist.

He is a New Zealand eye surgeon who is as celebrated in his medical work as much as he is in his artistic work. We have about twenty of his paintings and I should collate them for another post.

These are some of his 'landscape' paintings that we have in the house. we have others in the apartment in Auckland which I don't have photographs of.

Mount Cook - acrylic

Coastal

Coastal Bay oil

Urupukapuka watercolour

TONY ROCHE
Wanganui River

Tony Roche is a New Zealand artist (born 1961)  who specialises in landscapes.
He is sought after wth his paintings being snapped up by world-wide collectors.
This oil painting is reminiscent of the great artists of the 19th century with the vibrant colours and super-real bush scenes.

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We at THE CURMUDGEONSⓒ trust that you enjoyed this little preview and welcome you to come visit us sometime soon. Visual art is gentle and such a nice life-enhancement. It doesn't assault the senses like some forms of music does. THE CULTURED CURMUDGEONⓒ will publish future posts on 'acceptable' music but will never abuse viewers with indulgent instrumental solos particularly from percussion instruments. Thank you.

FAMILY BUSINESS

We have a couple of nice paintings I bought separately some time ago.
I bought them for their individual characteristics which I liked at the time and which seem to have become stronger as they suit the house we now live in so well.

The first is by Wayne Sinclair and is a small oil painting named 'Morning Glow - Matangi'.

It's aptly named as it positively glows even in low light conditions. He's captured the morning sunlight lighting up the forest really well. We keep this in the lounge  on a small pedestal on the hearth. It really adds something to the room.

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The second is a much larger painting by Robyn Barclay named 'Tuscan Sunflowers'.

This is stunning and we keep it in the kitchen where it catches the sun during the morning through to late afternoon and generates a warm and happy feeling. I love it when artists can create and enhance moods.    

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The family connection is that Sinclair and Barclay are husband and wife - a relationship that I was unaware of when I separately purchased the paintings .                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

DIVA

I watched Jean-Jacques Beineix's film DIVA today.
It is 36 years old and still as stunning and fresh as when I first saw it.

DIVA-(trailer)

I was spurred on to watch it again because I heard Anna Netrebko singing   Ebben? Ne Andro Lantano from Alfredo Catalani's opera La Wally when Lynn and I went to the Aotea Centre on Saturday night.

See here:  I'M A HAPPY CHAPPIE

The La Wally aria features strongly in the film (sung by Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez) and I must admit may have been the trigger for my love of opera after I saw this film in about 1982.

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DIVA was one of many outstanding French films of the 1980s. Films like The Last Metro, Betty Blue, Bolero, Subway, etc were my first choice for viewing and are still watchable now.  Directors like Malle, Truffaut, Godard, Rohmer, Besson, Beineix and the like had an edginess and incredible style about them that endures and leaves behind the Hollywood crap of the day.

(Jean-Luc Besson who directed Subway, a couple of decades later directed The Fifth Element which had a strong operatic theme as well.)

BRANCUSI 'MUSE' REPLICA

The Old Girl has a nice replica sculpture of Brancusi's Muse. It sits nicely on an old kauri sideboard in our main living room. We bought this from the Guggenheim museum in New York some years ago. It was a bit of a fankle carrying it home with us. The museum staff packaged it up nicely and safely but it got roughly unwrapped by a moronic US customs official at the airport going from NYC to LA. See excerpt here from a blog post I wrote in November 2010:

"New York (Kennedy) in 2007 we were on our way to LA to connect to NZ and I was stopped at the barrier as I had a large box. It was a Brancusi sculpture copy of the Muse that The Old Girl had bought at the Guggenheim. When I showed it to the guard he did a double take as the material used is a bit like solid plasticine. He probably thought it was semtex or something. As the fool was fumbling and having trouble with opening the box properly I moved up to him and started to do it for him. I got the old "Step aside Sir" routine with the hand on the gun. These bozos must watch too many cop shows on TV. He called up someone else who came with a magic wand for detecting explosives and ran it over the statue, the box and me.

When we arrived in Auckland later I declared it to the Customs Officer and asked if she wanted to check it for explosives. She just smiled and waved me through."

I seem to have problems with officious Customs officials and indeed anyone who delight in abusing their authority.

Never mind, the statue came home with us safely and looks really good.

To my eye it looks better than the original. See here:

'MUSE' BY BRANCUSI

ART FOR ARTS SAKE*

*Money for god's sake

OK, we've all heard the saying and many of us have been lucky to have heard that excellent 10 CC song from the seventies.

10 CC - ART FOR ART'S SAKE

Art in all of its forms, good and bad, is good for the 'soul' of society. It can be uplifting and rewarding or stimulating and frightening. Sometimes it's used for bad purposes (religious and political propaganda for example) but mostly it's used for the good. I don't really care if art - painting, sculpture, music etc is poorly executes as long as the artists are  trying to do their best.

My mother was a good painter and ceramic artist. I have skills in drawing and painting which I've never really followed up on because I'm too lazy. I studied art history at university and all of my life have been an enthusiastic follower of many forms of fine art and have been lucky enough to visit many galleries in New Zealand and around the world.

The Old Girl and I don't have much money but when we can we have purchased some interesting pieces (or artwork that is interesting to us) and have decorated our walls with them  We have so much in fact that we have to rotate them occasionally with the ones stored in the shed.

This sub-series as The Cultured Curmudgeon will be used to show some of the paintings, prints, drawings and reproductions we have that decorate or homes and enlighten or lives.

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Post number one: Stephanie McEwin.

McEwin is a Christchurch artist who has been doing rather well recently.


I purchased a matching pair of large canvases of hers some years ago after we had modernised our house in Auckland and had a large blank wall that needed something dramatic. On relocating up north this has found a place in the snooker room where the garish colouring distracts rival players.

The paintings work quite well in this room.

We have another McEwin which is one of my favourite paintings. This is The Blue man.
I don't know anything of the background to this but it struck me when I first saw it.

The blues and orange work well together and I can see this painting drawing in viewers if it was hung in a gallery.