Art collection

A selection of articles about art taken from the viewer’s perspective. Plus some short stories about art or inspired by works of art.

Perspectives on art

Looking up at art one: Constable

First part of a series of articles - Looking up at Art - discusses how we can look more closely at paintings and learn more about the story behind the picture. Constable, The Cornfield, provides the example

For selection of stories from other contributors please see below

Looking up at art two: Francis Bacon

Part two in the series considers love, loss, alienation and meaning in Bacon's enigmatic Triptych August 1972

The Hands

Barbara Hepworth is best-known for her signature sculptures of the human form abstracted in organic, polished stone, wood and other materials. She was also a painter and this article takes a closer look at her study of figures preparing for a surgical operation: The Hands

Exhibitions

Barbara Hepworth: Art and Life

Hepworth exhibition at Tate St Ives in Cornwall, South-West England brought together sculpture, painting, archive film with her theatrical costumes and set designs. A truly remarkable event.

Short stories with an artistic theme

A very messy bed

A homeless man escapes the hazards of the streets of London, finding himself wandering around the Tate Britain museum at Millbank, drawn to Tracey Emin, My Bed, on display there in 2016. What does he see in this controversial installation?

The picture of Elizabeth Moody

A young student, fascinated by a Gainsborough portrait of a mother in the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London, meets a mysterious older woman who shares his interest. Where can it lead?

When Piet met Hilma

A mysterious meeting in an unreal place. A story inspired by an art exhibition at the Tate Modern in London - Hilma af Klint & Piet Mondrian: Forms of Life. The story was written on an iPhone while surrounded by the inspirational abstract works of these two artists.

Hilma af Klint was a Swedish painter who was perhaps the first modern abstract artist. Dutch painter Piet Mondrian is best known for his abstract work, but began his career, as did af Klint, as a landscape painter.

Losing my Cezanne

A young man visiting a Picasso exhibition muses on the meaning of one of the artist's self-portraits, and how it reflects his own life and a recent brief affair with an older man and mentor

The Night Watch

A security guard at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam uses his position to carry out an audacious robbery of the priceless painting

Naganandi

A little verse, an acrostic. Distraction, obsession, oblivion and just a hint of Caput mortuum

Where the hell is Edgar?

No, not a Eurovision entry but a tricky murder mystery, a nod to Edgar Allan Poe, and a great excuse to include the following fabulous illustration by Harry Clark, public domain courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. From a frontispiece for Poe's Tales of Mystery and Imagination

The new Art community for Vocal contributors

Congratulations and well done to the Vocal team for launching the new Art community "where words and visual expression intertwine". I haven't yet had a chance to read through all of the great articles on offer but here are a few that caught my attention. If there is any interest, I will post some more reviews of fellow contributors' work.

Thanks! ... Ray

I have posted more reviews of:

Vocal Media creators work in Art community here

My first mention just has to go to The Art of Love: Dads, by J. Delaney-Howe. What better combination: art, love, children, parenthood? Congratulations to the author for a well-deserved top story award.

Thru the Eyes of Ruby by Naomi Gold features this stark image by Norman Rockwell. A little girl, smartly dressed for school, "It wasn’t no parade, but I can pretend. I can pretend they’re celebrating me. Maybe someday they will." I hope they are now Ruby! Looking at the story and its accompanying painting, I have to wipe a tear from my eye. Thanks for sharing, Naomi.

This one caught me eye too, when I first looked at Vocal Art. We don't see enough de Goya, and so I am grateful to Roderick Makim for sharing his contribution Dark Muse: The whispering voice behind the Black Paintings. Another well-deserved top story slot and a great choice of painting to inspire fear and give anyone the creeps.

I was also attracted to this one, another top story, My daughter is an artist from Mariann Carroll. This delightful tale features another heart warming account of children, art and love. Well done!

That's all for now folks. I can't spend the whole morning looking at Vocal Art creators. Well done for all the other great Art stories and, if there is any interest (comment if you would like me to continue), I will do some more reviews, looking deeper than the top slot.

Ray Taylor - July 2023