Belgium is western art too

DEATH OF MARAT BY DAVID

TIN TIN

MANNEQUIN PISS

ART DECO

SURREAL MAGRITTE

DEATH OF ICARUS

Belgium is the history of European art in many ways.  At the Royal Museum of Fine Art in Brussels, it is all laid out for you.  It is almost too much to fathom.

Vasari, the historian of painting, credits Van Eyck with the invention of oil painting.  He certainly made it legitimate and popular.  He was Flemish.  Bosch and Bruegel are there.  Rubens and his star pupil Van Dyck.

Jacques Louis David, (top picture) painted his famous Death of Marat in Belgium, and there it hangs still.  Old Jacques was a true revolutionary and like Robespierre and the other naughty boys, he got too cosy with the workings of the guillotine.  He would have been for the chop too but the French hated to waste a good painter, so they sent him to Brussels.  Karl Marx ended up there too.

Tin Tin was invented in Belgium along with surrealism and Art Deco.  The photos above chronicle a little of it.

The peonies bloom, it must be spring

I have always associated peonies with spring.  It was one of my mother's favourite flowers.  Therefore, peonies have way too many Proustian connections to fathom.

They are an heroic memento mori for me.  They burst forth with far too much glory and have heads that they can barely hold up.

And when it rains, as it inevitably does, they fall gloriously to the ground, overburdened, sparkling with wet and full of life as they fade to the end.

England .....6: The Ancients

North Americans often feel the ancient vibes from Europe.  Even though we can stand at the edge of the Rocky Mountains or the Grand Canyon, both millions of years old, we still feel a different vibe from the ancient signs of human habitation in Europe.

Two things struck me that way most profoundly on the recent England trip: the ancient trees at Windsor Castle, and Stonehenge.

Some of these ancient trees pictured above on the estate at Windsor Castle, were there when Henry VIII and Ann Boleyn flirted in the fields while riding.  Some of these most ancient oaks and elms may have seen Magna Carta signatories, or even watched William the Conqueror ride by as he mused that a castle might be good here in Windsor.

And of course, Stonehenge!  I blogged earlier about feeling the vibes from the place: air like pure oxygen and tingling fingers.  It changed me.

These are the processed images from those places, with the intensity I felt.

God save our Queen....5: in motion

OK.  The theme of "in motion" in this blog title may be inscrutably thin for the Queen's jubilee theme.  But I had some cool shots that are part of festive Britain, jubilee style that I didn't know where else to put.

Included here are a McLaren formula one car (on a wall in a store front no less!), a person running, a person cycling, a cab through our hotel lobby, and a couple of monumental sculptures to keep the jubilee theme alive: one is an over sized gold thing in Kensington, to Albert, Queen Victoria's dead love and the other is the most fun orange wooden sculpture woman I saw on the trip (in a humble pub).  Finally, there is a tube stop that just seemed festive too!

Long live our Queen....4: Windsor Castle

No jubilee would be complete without the castle.  Here is Windsor, home of the British monarchs since Bill the Conquerant broke ground in 1066.  It is the oldest continuously inhabited real castle on earth.

Pictured here are the train station, views of the castle, the moat garden, a few rooms and of course, the loo.  How many of you can say you used the Queen's loo?  Put up your hands.

Long live the Queen....3: the people

Of course the people celebrating Britain are the Brits (and everyone else who's in town).  I was struck by the positive attitude and festive mood.
 
The colour crimson/purple seemed to be everywhere.  It cropped up in more of my pictures than I could believe.  I don't know if there is an official colour to this jubilee, but I know I've got my version.

Here are some folks being....well.....Brits.

Long live the Queen....2

I had processed many of my images from Belgium, France and Amsterdam; they fell into place nicely, sepia, sombre, symbolic.  But I hadn't a clue about England.  I enjoyed London so much this trip.  It was colourful, lively and festive.

Then the key to the images dawned on me: GIVE E'R.  So I did.

Long live our noble Queen

In all the excitement of getting home, I nearly forgot to mention the diamond jubilee of Queen Elizabeth.  We were there the week before and London looked splendid; flags and festive colours everywhere.  It was in the air.

I love the queen: she is a safety valve against prime ministers who can't tell democracy from dictatorshit.  If push comes to shove, she can be a real ally when you're under pressure from some cheap trick who has nothing but disdain for parliamentary democracy.

But enough of that.  Party on Britain. No one does it better!

Who knew Bruge was so .......huge?

On the recent Europe trip,  I was literally like a kid in a photographic candy jar,  right in, up to my eyes, with delight.

Here are horses, main square, grand canal, church with Michelangelo statue (commissioned by the town) and I presume the air plane is modern art and not drunk vicar/bad landing.