Monday Morning Art #2 - Mondrian

Before Mondrian developed his trade-marked geometric shapes and colours, he created some striking landscapes and recognizable depictions of the Dutch landscape.

This piece is "Small Farm on Nistelrode" and was completed in 1904.

I like how his colours and contours hint of his later geometric creations.

These two pieces will be readily recognizable to all, surely.  Even if you don't know the name "Piet Mondrian" you'll recognize the pattern.  Whether you saw it on the packaging of some personal-care product or food item or wall-paper, this imagery has crept into all corners of our world since he first started experimenting with colour and line more than 100 years ago.

Interestingly, the designs are so timeless, that the patterns are still exploited to give products or clothing a 'modern' look even today.

It's also interesting to compare the three pieces shown here and see how Mondrian's observations and interpretation of the world around him evolved to find pleasing combinations without having to retain the 'representational' element.

He echoed this in naming approach as well, giving the pieces simple names like "Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow" or Tableau.  Later though the names reference locations of inspiration like, "Broadway Boogie Woogie," "Trafalgar Square," and "Place de la Concorde."
These geographical names point out how his roots in painting the landscape continue to inspire, even when he's representing the places with only geometry and colour.

Well there are lots of places for you to read about Mondrian - and my yammering is not going to bring anything new to the discussion.  Take a look at the Mondrian body of work on WikiArt if you are so inspired.

Monday Morning Art #1 - Monet

On a weekly basis, check my twitter feed for a Monday Morning Art posting.  I endeavour to bring a bit of art, be it interesting, beautiful, unexpected, or maybe even all three, into our day.

Monday seems like the perfect timing for this.  And while Twitter is particularly quiet in those first few hours of a Monday morning, I'm thinking what better time to enjoy a noteworthy piece of art than when things are quiet.

I was inspired to share a few tidbits from the history of art, after coming across this Monet work, called "the Chapel Notre-Dame de Grace at Honfleur."

We probably all know Monet, and many of us have seen much of his work, whether hanging in various galleries around the world, or in books we've browsed, or in poster-form on your friends bachelor pad.  That's why I was surprised and elated to come across this piece, which I had never seen before.

Further to this picture of Monet's brilliant painting, I found the same location on Google's StreetView, and had to do a side-by side comparison.  How fun is that? 
Forgive the slightly-oversized-for-the template issue, but it seems worth it for the comparison view. The left is Monet's painting, 150 years before the photo on the right.

A little artistic license, but it's still quite true to reality. Nice to see that the space is appears to be still relatively intact as a pastoral green space, even if there is a paved road running through it now.

Hope to share a few more pics from artists well known and perhaps a few obscure ones too.  There's a lot to chose from, so I'll enjoy browsing through the rich wealth of art history to chose a few gems.

A great resource to browse, if this has put you in such a mood, is the WikiArt site at this link.  Happy browsing.