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Vlaho Bukovac

30/1/2013

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PictureView from Atelier Window, Cavtat
I thought I might do an occasional blog piece about museums/interesting places I've visited that may not always get the attention they deserve. I mean, there's little or no point at all in me singing the praises of really well known tourist spots is there? Let's face it, finding out about somewhere that's well-known is a bit like trying to get a book about one of the top-twenty artists - basically, just pop along to any remaindered bookshop and I can almost guarantee they'll have books on Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Gaugin, Cezanne, Rodin, Vermeer and all the other usual suspects. However, the work of so many exceptional artists is often astonishingly badly represented on our high streets.

How about the work of Vlaho Bukovac for instance? Unless you've been to Dubrovnik you've quite possibly never heard of him. His family home was only sixteen km from Dubrovnik in the beautiful coastal town of Cavtat. He was born there in 1855 and from his earliest years showed a definite precociousness as an artist. In 1877 he went to Paris where he was swiftly accepted as a talent. He travelled widely in his lifetime, however Bukovac retained his link with Cavtat all his life. He took a post as professor of fine Art in Prague in his late forties and spent the final twenty odd years of his life working there before his death in 1922. He was prolific and produced over 2000 works of art in his lifetime.

PictureTwo Nudes From His Time in Paris
During his life his work attracted the interest of a couple of Northern British Industrialists, the LeDoux and Fox families of Liverpool and Harrogate. The National Museum, Liverpool and the Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate still have examples of his work which you can see by following this link http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/artists/vlaho-bukovac

There is however a feast of Bukovac's work in various churches and galleries around Dubrovnik. It's possible to see some very good paintings of his at the excellent Museum of Modern Art, Dubrovnik. But for my money, and best of all, is to see his work in his own charming house at Cavtat where you can enjoy a large number of his paintings from just about every period of his life (even childhood doodles!). His painting ability was really exceptional, somehow managing to combine a light impressionistic touch with an almost photographic quality.

PictureA Late Self-Portrait of Vlaho Bukovac



If you're not planning a Croatian holiday in the near future, then why not search images for Vlaho Bukovac on Google?

Definitely worth a look!


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The Magistrate

23/1/2013

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Picture
The wife and I have been fans of the actor John Lithgow for many years, probably since we took our son to see Bigfoot and the Hendersons when he was a lad. It's always a bonus to discover this actor's in the cast of any movie we're about to watch. His TV sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun, in which he plays Dick Solomon, the leader of a group of aliens on an undercover mission to study human behaviour (invariably putting two and two together and making five!) remains an all time favourite of ours. So, when we discovered that John Lithgow was going to take the title role in the National Theatre's production of The Magistrate we were with child ( as the old saying goes!). We considered booking tickets and seeing a performance at the National Theatre itself, but eventually decided to watch it in the NT Live season. This was a wise decision as it turned out, because December and early January were pretty hectic for us and, as I've said before, being able to see great live theatre transmitted onto our local cinema screen is to my mind a wonderful opportunity.

The Magistrate, a farce by Arthur Wing Pinero (1855 - 1934) was written in 1885. Although hugely successful in his day, with over fifty plays to his name and being only the second person to be knighted for services to British theatre, his popularity had already waned somewhat by the end of his lifetime. I have only ever seen one other Pinero play myself, his comedy Dandy Dick which I saw at the Churchill Theatre Bromley many years ago and which featured my late father-in-law James Hayter among its cast.

This NT Live performance of The Magistrate was truly a delight from start to finish. Lithgow and Nancy Carroll, who is equally comic as his wife Agatha, are supported by an excellent cast in this enjoyable production, directed by Timothy Sheader. The set is designed like a pop-up book and works very nicely along with some quite exotic hair designs and costumes. The scenes are introduced by a chorus of strangely stylised characters who look like they've escaped from a Gilbert and Sullivan opera, singing lyrics written by Richard Stilgoe. This was the National Theatre's Christmas show and it is very much meant to be enjoyed. It seems unsurprising to me that farce is firmly back in vogue again - in these economically fraught times, we all need something to give us a good laugh! We watch the characters in Pinero's play wriggle and squirm and attempt to extricate themselves from the little white lies they have told, which instead of disappearing, simply multiply and grow.The great artifice of the farceur is to make one error/misjudgement build into a house of cards that defies gravity as it increases in size to monstrous proportions and deliciously teeters in mid-air before our very eyes. Farce is a theatrical-form that the German word Schadenfreude ought to have been invented for!

We watched this show last Thursday evening at the Odeon, Tunbridge Wells, Kent. It was quite unusual, but a real joy, to hear, all around us, the normally reserved Tunbridge Wellians roaring with laughter. The Magistrate is still on at the National Theatre until 10 February and will be broadcast to cinemas around the world at various times over the next few weeks. My Twitter pal, Susy, has booked to see it in Brisbane shortly. She hadn't realised that the NT Live performances extended outside of the UK, and when she checked on their website she was pleasantly surprised to find a venue nearby. I'm sure they'll enjoy it. I can highly recommend it!


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Mixed media!

16/1/2013

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Picture
Last week I made a comparison between a recent film version of a well loved children's classic and its book. The film of The Hobbit compared unfavourably in my view. The book is an acknowledged children's classic, a humorous, imaginative and richly entertaining read. The movie, despite being available to watch in 3D, I must confess to finding fairly one-dimensional and rather long-winded. A shame, because I'd loved Lord of the Rings and I've been a fan of Peter Jackson's since his low-budget horror days.

This week I'm doing the same thing again - looking at a film and a book - but with a grown up thriller this time - Headhunters by Jo Nesbo. This time, I liked the film of Headhunters slightly more than I did the book. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed reading the book, although I did have several strong reservations about it. I completed it last September and this is the brief review I left on my Goodreads Book Page:

Enjoyable, escapist read. A little difficult at times to suspend my disbelief because so many bad things happen so swiftly to the protagonist - but a great deal of fun! A little slow and awkward I thought initially.

I recall finding the first fifty pages quite difficult to read. Roger Brown, the book's protagonist, is not an immediately likeable character, although by the end of the book I'd acquired a certain admiration for him. Fifty pages is normally my cut-off point; if I'm not enjoying myself I simply put the thing down and pick up something else - I decided some years back that life's far too short to muddle through books I don't like! However, this was an occasion when I read on simply because I trusted the brand. Jo Nesbo has invariably seen me through to the end of each of his books with a smile on my face - sometimes a grudging or rather bemused one if I feel he's used a sleight of hand that wandered too far below the belt - but really and truly, who cares? This isn't Marcel Proust! I'm not reading it to improve my understanding of the human psyche. Nesbo is a thriller-writer at the very top of his game. With Headhunters I continued beyond my own fifty pages rule, reading about a protagonist I didn't much care for, simply because I believed Nesbo would pull it off - and he did! ... But only just!

I think the film (watched on DVD) was in many ways more engaging than the novel. I suppose one of the major differences between a book and a film is that a tale requiring fifteen thousand words to establish itself, can in a film be adequately explained in just a few minutes of visual shorthand. This was definitely the case with Headhunters. The movie has a terrific pace, also the plot alterations they'd made were in my view entirely for the better, successfully making Roger Brown (the main character) far easier to sympathise with than he ever was in the book. The producers also managed to instil quite a few moments of humour (usually dark) into the unfolding story. The violence in the film is done well too I think, and to my mind wasn't simply gratuitous. However, if squeamish, be warned it does contain a few brief but gory images, necessary to the development of the plot.

I think this was the first movie I've ever seen in Norwegian!


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The Hobbit by J R R Tolkien

9/1/2013

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PictureOur well-thumbed copy!
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien, or to give it its full title, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, was first published in 1937. It has remained popular ever since and rightly deserves its position amongst the classics of children's literature. I started reading it (third time) after seeing the film version shortly before Christmas. I can't remember exactly when I first read it, but I think it was quite possibly after I'd already read The Lord of the Rings (I know, not in the right order!), so I'd have been in my late teens I suspect. The second time I read it was aloud to my son Tom when he was seven or eight as a bedtime story. Once we'd finished it he declared it was the best story he'd ever heard. This success had bitter-sweet consequences for me, because once his imagination had been fired-up, for a couple of years afterwards my services were required to assist in the figure-painting of dozens of dwarves, elves, goblins, trolls and orcs. I even went on to read the whole of The Lord of the Rings to him (he was twenty-three by the time I finished - only joking!).

On reflection though, I think he probably got by far the most out of The Hobbit because the story is so satisfyingly child-sized. I can still recall his whoops and giggles of delight when Gandalf confounds the Trolls, Tom, Bert and William, who are most satisfyingly none too bright, by imitating their voices. They are misled by the wizard into a series of entertaining arguments about how they should prepare and cook their captive thirteen dwarves and one hobbit, but he tricks them into staying up too late, so when dawn arives they get turned to stone. From a child's perspective, the story of The Hobbit must be a highly rewarding experience. Its reluctant hero, Bilbo Baggins, is the size of a child and initially doesn't consider himself a likely candidate at all to be involved in a great adventure along with bigger folk. Yet, after a difficult journey with many set-backs, he discovers himself to be not only resourceful but also loyal and brave. Bilbo is required to apply his wits in many dangerous situations and he goes on to rescue his companions and save the day on more than one occasion.

I was surprised when I learnt that the story had been made into three films. However, I really loved The Lord of the Rings trilogy, am a big Peter Jackson fan and therefore looked forward excitedly to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. But I have to say I am one of those, and I believe there are quite a number, who were not entirely delighted with the result. I thought Martin Freeman and the cast were excellent by the way, and the film itself always looks superb. However, I don't like the way The Hobbit has been converted into a three part prequel to The Lord of the Rings. As I sat in the cinema, an expression widely sported by journalists and politicians a few years back kept springing to mind - the term is 'Sexed-up'. It's actually a phrase I didn't like then and one that I still don't like, but I have to say it seems appropriate here. If the vastly more complex three books that comprise The Lord of the Rings could be made into a satisfying trilogy, then to my mind, there is no compelling reason, artistically at least, for extending The Hobbit into three parts. It made me feel a little sad, because a small gem of children's literature has been made (at its best) into a fairly predictable Hollywood blockbuster, and at times descends into being little more than an expensive trailer for a computer game.

I guess to a movie mogul my views would be considered irrelevant and probably naive. The film version of The Hobbit is already one of the highest grossing films of 2012 and will no doubt eventually take its position as one of the most successful film trilogies ever made. I doubt they'll lose any sleep over the tickets I shan't be buying for parts two and three. But if you want to do your kids or grand-kids a big favour - read the book to them before they get to see the film - believe me, the pictures are far more various and colourful in a child's imagination.


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Resolutions!

2/1/2013

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PictureSt Leonards seafront - 1 January, 2013
I don't do New Year resolutions. Throughout my twenties and thirties I vowed every New Year's Eve that from 1 January I'd give up smoking and amend my ways in whatever areas I felt I needed some correction. I generally survived as a non-smoker to about lunchtime, however my determination to wrestle my shortcomings was seldom abandoned so lightly - firm-jawed and with an iron-like resolve, I would stay the course - invariably I made it til at least tea-time!

In my experience, resolutions simply don't work.

I did eventually manage to give up smoking I'm pleased to say, once I realised I had to get some help with it. I think that was the secret - seeking the necessary help! I can't say that I've personally ever got far by utilising 'will-power' to get rid of any of my bad habits. It's more a matter of coming to terms with the problem, and being willing to raise the white flag of unconditional surrender. You see if I believed that it was 'will-power' that saved me from being a smoker, then that same 'will-power' might easily convince me (just as it did for over two decades!) that being in control of my own destiny I could take 'just one puff' any time I chose with total impunity. It is my firm belief that willpower alone is the addict's enemy, and not (as is often believed) his ally.

So what's all this about resolve and determination got to do with my first blog post of the New Year? Simply this, that I know better than to make any personal prophecies about what is going to happen in 2013. It's certainly my aim to continue writing both in novel form and in my blog, I hope to sell some more books and mean to bring out Roadrage very shortly. However, que sera sera - whatever will be will be (better add a note here - a chap can easily give the wrong impression by quoting the lyrics of Doris Day songs!) - but seriously, what I'm trying to say is that how things evolve in this life is, to quite a large extent, out of our control. I plan to get up each day in 2013 (just as I did in its ancestor 2012) and do whatever work lies before me. However, I feel a lot more comfortable when I don't also take on the role of the deity and concern myself too much with the outcome of my endeavours - that happens to be the Universe's business, not mine!

I spent 2012 building a platform for my writing, here on my website as well as on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Shelfari and other places on the internet. And I could probably get extremely discouraged if I looked back at how much effort that has taken in comparison to whatever small gains I've made. I read something this morning on Facebook that was posted by a fellow indie author who was bemoaning her fate. I can appreciate her frustration; she has received literally dozens of glowing reviews for her books of women's fiction, yet continues to trail behind the kind of 'fluffy trivia' the publishing houses can be relied upon to churn out and hard-sell for Christmas. If I'd set myself an over-ambitious target at the start of 2012 I'd almost certainly be pretty down-hearted at this time. As it is, I feel pretty much okay about things. Yes I'd be delighted if I'd managed to sell out a couple of print-runs and done a hundred thousand downloads or something exceptional like that! However, being realistic, up until eight months ago, nobody (not even the people who know me) had ever read anything I'd written. In less than a year, with a lot of help from my wife, my son and a few generous individuals, I have actually published my first book and managed to become a small (albeit an infinitesimally tiny) literary presence. Thanks entirely to the internet I have now been read by people who would never have even heard of me before, right across the globe. Frankly, isn't that just totally incredible?

Thank you for dropping by my blog, and for taking the time to read this post. I sincerely hope you'll want to return here again. I wish you and yours good health, happiness and prosperity throughout the forthcoming year.

May 2013 bring peace, hope, kindness and reconciliation in our often troubled world!


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