Art Sunday: Marie Bracquemond – Under the Lamp — Random Writings on the Bathroom Wall (Reblog)

Marie Bracquemond (1 December 1840 – 17 January 1916) was a French Impressionist artist, who was described retrospectively by Henri Focillon in 1928 as one of “les trois grandes dames” of Impressionism alongside Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt.  Her frequent omission from books on artists is sometimes attributed to the efforts of her husband, Félix […]

Art Sunday: Marie Bracquemond – Under the Lamp — Random Writings on the Bathroom Wall

*Impressionism radically changed the way we view the world.

Painting: Blakeney, North Norfolk, England

Copyright Francis Barker 2020

Painting: Fenland Sunset

Copyright Francis Barker 2020

Original Oil Painting: ‘Dark Landscape No 1’

Link to painting in my portfolio

This one was a bit of a departure for me. I haven’t done much abstract style painting but I will certainly try to do more.

This one is of a dark, brooding landscape straight from the imagination.

IMG_0198

copyright Francis Barker 2019

Do We Ever Know Our Parents?

dadearth2

My father has been dead a long time now, but I’ve never stopped missing him.

I was brought up in an agricultural community of intensive farming, but with just enough ‘real nature’ around us to appreciate the clean air (usually), the silence, the freedom. I virtually grew up on a bike and cars were relatively rare down our road.

Through all that time my father seemed to be in the background, always there, but quiet, shy. He’d had various jobs before retirement, a butcher, farm labourer mainly, but he was an intelligent man of few words.

And I feel I never really knew or understood him.

I wish I’d asked more questions, about his early life, his family. But we never know or ask enough, do we? We take it for granted that our family are there. For us.

Then one day, one of them is not. It’s too late. Yes, of course, I’m stating the obvious, but most often we ignore the obvious all around us, don’t we?

My abiding memory is of my father on his piece land at the back of our house, digging, simply digging the rich soil, surrounded by the vast fertile fields and eyed by hungry, inquisitive birds.

Thanks Dad.

copyright Leofwine Tanner 2019