Falling Water

A photo feature of Falling Water, an architectural marvel.

Frank Lloyd Wright represents some of the most evolved thinking in western architecture. His minimalist style and grand inclusion of space and openness particularly appeal to me.

Falling Water is the beautiful house created by Frank Lloyd Wright the famous American architect, known for his landmark buildings all over the US. Apparently Wright visited the stunning location of the waterfall and after accepting the commission to design the house, did nothing for 3 months. At the end of that time he sat down and began to draw--in a matter of just 3 hrs he had put down in complete detail the entire floor plan of the house, with all the levels, the connecting bridge and space that it would occupy just above the waterfall! He even knew the exact location of each tree and rock that was found on the site and included them in his drawing.Every aspect of the house including the furniture and art pieces were personally designed or selected by him and placed in a specific way.
 The house is till today a masterpiece of architecture--conceived with the idea of living within nature, as part of nature. He purposely left out a view of the waterfall from the house--he did not want the owners to take the magnificent waterfall for granted! In order to view the falls, one has to trek a little while into the forest to be able to see it fully, with the house cantilevered above it as though it was carved out the rock itself.
See below also an animation of how the house was created.

Peacocks and Foliage

Some photos of  peacocks I took recently. Majesty personified! Click on the pic for larger view.

Pictures that speak a thousand words

So we have all heard this expression before. Pictures do often speak much more than words can. In some cases, such as in illustrated books they enhance the story so much that they become identified with the tale. Good, imaginative illustrations that we see leave an imprint on our minds for ever. We can then never think of the story without the pictures flashing on our inward eye!

Children's classics are a special category of story-telling that I am especially fond of. I remember thinking as a child that I would never tire of some of the stories I read--I vowed that I would keep them on my shelf (under my pillow?) for ever and never allow the "grown-ups" to replace them with serious reading material.
I remember reading "Treasure Island"--a small illustrated one which I pored over till it was in tatters. Classics have the capacity to bring a whole world of rich adventure, fantasy and dreamland within our reach. For those of us who love children's literature, we can never forget the simple joys of childhood or what it means to be a child--and in some sense we never grow up--just like Peter Pan.

I bought a rectangular little book which caught my eye several years ago at some book exhibition--I think for second-hand books. I could not take my eyes off the cover page. Such detailed, evocative and beautiful colours and textures--the picture of a brownish kettle-like sailboat with tiny little people trying to board it to go to sea seemed lovely, gentle and quite extraordinary. Nothing like I had seen before--and certainly I had seen a lot of children's books by then! I immediately bought the book.
I always thought of it as a treasure.

And what do you know--Robert Ingpen, the illustrator who made this picture is one of the world's best! An Australian, he has won the Hans Christian Andersen Prize for Book Illustration--a very prestigious recognition. His contribution to the world of children's illustrations is enormous--he has lent his talent to at least a 100 of the most well-known classics in the western world--and brought his own extremely sensitive and imaginative reinterpretation of these stories to them.

 Just a very few of his illustrations below. I am sure you can guess the first story. Those of the kettle and the little people are adapted from an ancient Peruvian myth to do with the Hairy Peruvians who set out on a voyage to Austraila and it is called "The Poppy Kettle Papers". Every year in Geelong, Victoria, one of the towns in Australia an entire festival is held around this tale! It is attended by young children who participate in a parade, wearing costumes associated with the story. What fun.


Can you guess what the last illustration is about--if you guess the name of the story I will try and get the book for you! Click on the pics for a larger view!

An Inward Glance--Works of Gao Xingjian

 

The paintings by Gao Xingjian which I just discovered by accident, strike such a chord of deep meaning as far as I am concerned. I am astonished by their fluid, expressive and dreamlike nature---they seem to exist at the edge of reality, touching upon moments of illumination and the innermost depths of the human condition. Gao Xingjiang believed that the our world cannot be explained rationally--he therefore looked within, at the source of the inner light.
I am gratfiied to find that he is the Chinese Nobel Prize winner of Literature in 2000 and has written equally haunting, poetic plays and essays. His works are banned in China since one of his plays is set in the Tianenmen Square.
Xingjian uses Chinese rice paper and ink and brush to paint very pure black and white pictures which straddle abstract and figurative themes. One can see figures which appear as in a mirage, landscapes and a beautiful effulgence of piercing light emerging from deep somnolescence---just as though one were waking from deep slumber. The brush strokes are tender, understated and poetic, yet firm in their conviction. His is a modern mind, but one which captures the universal yearning of man for a state of purity, of being one with a great Truth. Watch this video for more images by him:

The brilliance of Escher

Day and Night 


 
Three Worlds

 
Sphere Spirals in black, yellow and pink: woodcut
 
 Waterfall

 M.C. Escher, was a Dutch graphic artist who conceived of unbelievable worlds. He made hundreds of drawings, etchings, linoleum prints and woodcuts. We see in his works a mathematical precision, a preoccupation with contrasts of light and dark, and a perfection of execution rarely found anywhere, in any medium. He played with planes and shapes, so as to achieve impossibilites as revealed in his works Ascending and Descending and Metamorphosis. He was preoccupied with interlocking shapes that could be reproduced to infiinity. Using highly detailed technique and with a mind for perfection, he produced extraordinary and wonderful woodcuts and drawings. He largely made works that depended purely on his imagination--even his works of still life, self portraits, buildings and architecture such as of Rome and the Roman countryside are a testimony to his skill in putting together such involved and complex imagery as to boggle the mind!
























Contrast (Order and Chaos)

 

Relativity


The Sixth Day of Creation

 
Castrovalva (lithograph)

 
The Bridge 

 
 Hand with Reflecting Sphere (lithograph)
 
 
The above two are from his Symmetry series.
 
Self-portrai: woodcut
 
 Self-portrait in Linoleum with shades of grey, light blue and black.
 
Sea shell:woodcut

The Wow factor in the photographs of Ansel Adams

 Tetons and the Snake River
 Words fail when one is confronted with this image--captured for all eternity by the master of light--the American photographer and champion of wilderness and conservation--the great Ansel Adams. This and several thousands of such extraordinary photographs that he took enrapture all who view them. Photography as an art form has never been the same after his time--everyone began to view the medium differently--as something that could hold a place of its own in the world of the best of fine art. Ansel Adams was taken with a profound passion for the great parks and expanses of natural beauty--such as Yosemite. Besides producing a colossal output of writing and trying to make a living as a commercial photographer,  he spent enormous energy travelling around America making exquisite records of lakes, mountains, trees and landscapes--all of which resonate with an ennobling, uplifting spirit. Don't know about you but I simply can't get enough of them! Just a few for sampling below.
The last one is a unique picture (not taken by Adams) of two of my favourite artists together--guess who the weathered, stately woman is...
Vernal Fall


Jeffrey Pine, Sentinel Dome


Frozen Lake and Cliffs


White House Ruin



Ansel Adams and Georgia O'Keefe, photo by Alan Ross

Starry starry night

 

It is not possible to talk of anguish, pain and suffering in the artistic world without at once thinking of Vincent Van Gogh. The swirling colours, the deep and strong lines and the vivid images he created are eternal testaments to the beauty only an artist with a great emotional connection to the world could recreate. The irony was that in spite of Van Gogh's obvious lust for life and an abiding compassion for other poor souls, he was still destined to lead a largely lonely existence. But the vitality, the sheer vividness of his vision finally got the better of him--and he took his own life--unable to get a hold of his inner demons.
This lovely song is a poetic tribute to him, composed by Don Maclean