Art

When I first set this up I joined some directories and not really knowing what I was doing, stuck in "art, photography, music" to the profile details. Cos they're my "hobbies", ahem. Except not really. They're just things I like and am interested in. I don't know how to write about them. Now folks in Ohio or Tokyo keep showing up here in search of art, photography and music and I feel like I'm short-changing them.

This is a long introduction just to say, here is a post about "art", please feel free to skip it and come back tomorrow, when I will have thought of some interesting gossip to entertain you.

So, Klee. He's my favourite painter. He was Swiss, yet not boring. He painted forms and colours, often in watercolour. He was a great draughtsman, and described his pictures as "taking a line for a walk." The Nazis said his art was degenerate, and banned him, there can be no higher praise.

What is interesting is that his pictures are pretty much abstract, but I defy anyone to stand in front of them and not have an emotional response to them. One of our favourite books when kids was the Magic Fish, and I was happy to discover later Klee's painting which must have inspired it. Every place I've lived has had some Klee poster or other up on the wall, it helps make me feel at home.
A while ago there was an exhibition of his work at the Hayward Gallery, I can't tell you how it felt, after years of seeing reproductions in books, to see these paintings in real life for the first time.
Gives you an almost indecent amount of pleasure
(especially Harbinger of Autumn).

Here below is The Tightrope Walker and a poem I wrote about it years ago - strangely enough this picture expresses how I feel right about now.