Rhine River cruise #5

I want to move along with my photos, several smaller towns, a surprise private violin concert, and castles along the Rhine River. The next, and final, blog will finish up in Frankfurt and any thoughts I might have missed along the way.


New Art:

This is the first of paintings from photos taken during the trip: Zaandam, Netherlands is where most of their windmills are located, approximately 30 minutes NW of Amsterdam. It is 8 x 10 oil on stretched canvas.

click on image to enlarge photos

From my Colorado trip this spring, views of Estes Park.

small oil on board

12x4 Boathouse, City Park, Denver CO

Another view of range south of Estes, at sunset

Driving past Clayton NM, small oil on board 

More from our trip...

4x4" miniatures also from Zandaam area

Old Art:

A while back I displayed a piece I created for a specific show at the Alliance For The Arts in FtM. The subject is Dia de Muertos. The Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico, in particular the Central and South regions, and by people of Mexican heritage elsewhere. The multi-day holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died, and help support their spiritual journey. I titled it Anhelo. It is a juried show and I received the call today, it was accepted in the show. 

16 x 20 oil on canvas board

Revised Beige done earlier, like this version better

From my art collection: 

Grabbed a book from the library on H Daumier. In it, were photos and discussion of prints (lithographs) I purchased years ago in Paris. Someone still hold the plates and continues to print. They are from a series he did on their court system and attorneys, and clients. The book had two of my three with descriptions, and photos of watercolors he did of the prints. Fun.

Example of description of prints featured in the book

One of my three

another

Humor:

Found a fun site: Babylon Bee. They parody just about anybody, anything. Recent fun articles were: NASA Scientists Patiently explain to President Trump that the universe does not revolve around him; Millions of Americans take to streets to celebrate end of World Cup; and White Sox attendance now lower than average Episcopal church service.


Listening To:

While painting, listening to Marvin Gaye, Al Green, William Ackerman, Dave Brubeck double live album, Spacecraft, Rachmaninov: Vespers, and The Robert Shaw Festival Singers. If you like quality electric guitar work, I recommend Pipeline recorded by Stevie Ray Vaughn with Dick Dale...just outstanding cover. 

Rhine Cruise, continued:

Collage of castles along the Rhine River

Scenes from inside one of the castles

Low river level, at one point 14" clearance for the boat

Extremely steep Riesling vineyard

Collage of photos from my back yard next to the preserve:

Diet Advice: 

In closing, here is how you lose 5 lbs in 2 hours:

Before tennis

After, whew!

Will finish the cruise pictures next blog.

Rhine River #4

New Art: 

6" x 4" oil of neighbor's flowers

Art Purchased: You might remember this from our fall re-positioning cruise. Purchased from a waterfront kiosk in Malaga, Spain, the birthplace of Picasso. This fan was done by a local artisan in the style of Pablo Picasso. Finally got it up on my wall in the studio. The "other artists" wall. 

Art Found: 

This was one of my first attempts when I started to paint again after moving to Fort Myers. An acrylic on water color paper, approximately 4 x 6. Wanted to learn how to paint palm trees. Recently had a chance to photograph it when visiting a friend. 

Reading:  Just finished The Widow Spy - period biography of the first female CIA case worker in Russia. But first, her CIA husband was shot down in Laos during the Vietnam War. Interesting journey, light read (meaning not as intense as A Secret Life). Started 12 Rules For Life by Jordan Peterson. I love his uTube interviews; however, the book, for me is really dense, meaning I need to re-read some of the analytical paragraphs 2 and 3 times. Started Apostle, not sure if I will stay with it. The Pope Speaks, Pope Pius XII - I have the book because it has a photo of when the Harlem Globetrotter made their first world tour; my Uncle Joe was on one of three college all star teams that traveled as part of the tour and the book has a photo of the team with PP. You can see Joe in the back right, the blond flattop. Since I had it, I read several sections of his writings that interested me. One in particular was: (and remember that this was written prior to 1957 when the world seemed to be a much tamer place: "To breathe in the corrupt atmosphere of great modern cities and live a Christian life without absorbing their poison, one needs a profound spirit of faith and the strength and resistance of martyrs". Couple of art book re-reads such as John Sloan 1871-1951 - you can see his influence on my Mizzou teacher, Frank Stack; Painting In Oils, and Drawing on the Artist Within.

Remember, you can enlarge/open up the photos by clicking on it. 

Listening To: Italia by Chris Botti; Unmasked - The Platinum Collection - 4 discs of Andrew Lloyd Webber songs; Queen's Live Magic - mostly so I could hear Radio Ga-Ga; and The Crown Jewels - a collection of duets between Aretha Franklin and guest artists. 

Rhine River Cruise:  Continued. During WWII, when you look at strategic cities such as Amsterdam, Cologne, Koblenz, Frankfurt, approximately 80 percent of the structures were destroyed by Allied bombs and in combat. Not only by Allied armies but the Germans destroyed, for example, bridges so they could not be chased. I expected to hear negative comments by the tour guides, it didn't happen, but it dawned on me that rebuilding Europe provided jobs for the survivors for the next 30 years, and we paid for it. Moreover, I, the amateur psychologist, think that it provided survivors the opportunity to think that the old structures were the "old" Germany and they were the new generation, not like "them".  Nevertheless, in these cities there is little of the old Germany. Some buildings were built "in the style of" their predecessor, a few were duplicates of, say a 1935 version of a structure, and especially in Frankfurt, many "modern" styles were used. See the Cologne art museum. While Allied planes tried not to harm historical structures such as the Cologne cathedral, our bombs were not very precise. And, in this case, the cathedral was located next to the train station. Try as they might, almost no damage was inflicted on the train station but you can see in the photos what happened to the nearby cathedral. It was almost like they should have said "Whatever you do, don't aim for the train station!" In closing, I guess what I think is this is what happens when you attack our friends and millions of defenseless Jews, priests and nuns, gypsies, etc. 

Cologne:

Cologne Cathedral, one of the top 3 in the world

Goes up and up, reaches for the heavens

WW II destruction

Interior blown out

The old, and

The new - their art museum next to the cathedral

Koblenz: My father's mother, Dorothy Heidger, was raised in the Valmeyer, Il area. Her ancestors came over from Koblenz during their version of a potato famine, around 1854 according our my records. I found 2 meat market/butcher shops and one architectural firm with the Heidger name in this town of approximately 112,000. Hope to contact them to see if they are family. Long-shot, but hey, I'm retired and have nothing else to do. 

This is how small the town was when my ancestors left. 

Town square

I was the talk of the cruise when I re-boarded wearing my new shirt!

typical street

"Advent" building, each day in Dec they open another window.

Tribute to US troops liberation

Waterfront at conjunction of two rivers

Monument to ...

Next blog I will try to finish up the cruise, and should have many new pieces of art from my recent trips. Will be in Saint Louis in October, looking forward to catching up with friends.