The Beauty of Art, part 2

In the Beauty of Art part 1, I shared a painting that made many of you feel harmony, calmness and alive.

Earlier this year when my husband and I visited Museo Thysssen Bornemisza in Madrid, there was an exhibition that included a painting that invokes completely different feelings - at least for me. The painting we saw was one of four versions of the below painting.

Just like in part 1, I ask you a number of questions about the painting and I will provide the answers in a later blogspot.

What is the name of the painting?

Who painted it?
What is this type of art called?

Where can the original painting be seen?

How does this painting make you feel?

Let me know what you think - I will provide the answers in my next blogspot!

Goodbyes and gratitude

"Parting is such sweet sorrow that I shall say good night till it be morrow"

This quote from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is a good description of our lives right now, when we are down to our two last weeks in Spain after two lovely years in this interesting and beautiful country. 

The sweetness comes from all the great times we have had and from the fact that we make our goodbyes as great as we can with parties (fiestas!) and  meetings of different kinds.

There are times when we do not get a chance to say goodbye, because we did not know the parting would come so soon. We may lose loved ones unexpectedly (Liv och död, I wanna die old,  Only life knows its length) and it is hard to find sweetness in such sorrow.

James Dean supposedly said:

"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today."

It's a great quote and maybe this approach may reduce the sorrow of partings, but preparing for your own or a loved one's death on a daily basis has practical limitations.

What I apply myself is Daily Gratitude.

Each morning when I wake up, I feel gratitude - not for waking up, I am still at an age where I take that part for granted - but for all the great things I have in my life; my husband, our children, our pets, our extended family and friends. 

It only takes a minute or two but it can change the entire day, your entire life.

There are studies that show that people who pray regularly handle sorrow and disappointment better than those who do not. Since I am not religious I did not use to pray, until a wise man opened my eyes for the obvious.

“You can pray without being religious.”

My praying is not directed to any God. When I feel gratitude, I express my gratitude to life, in whatever form that may be.

This habit ensures I do not take the people and things around me for granted.

When you feel gratitude that a person is in your life you are more likely to let them know, making each meeting with them vibrate with happiness and energy.

If life decides that it is time for parting, your gratitude will have made you more prepared so that even in deep sorrow, you will be able to see the sweetness about having had this person in your life – and having let them know how much they mean to you.

"Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others." Cicero

The beauty of art part 1 - the answers

In a previous blog spot, I showed this painting:

and I asked you a number of questions. 
Thanks for your comments - here are the answers!

• Do you know the artist?
• Yes - all of you did. He is an artist that many persons, also those not particularly interested in art, know of: Claude Monet.
• The name of the painting?
• This one was trickier, since Monet often painted the same theme many times to show the different impressions the same view can give, depending on different lights or seasons. Some of you thought it was this painting:

Which is the same theme, but still a different painting called Bridge over a pond of waterlilies, or, in Claude's language: Pont au-dessus d'un bassin de nymphéas.

The painting I posted has a very similar name in French: Nymphéas et pont japonais; in English called: Water lilies and Japanese bridge.

• What is this type of art called?
• That was another easy question, you all recognized that this artform is impressionism - the name comes from Monet's painting: Impression, soleil levant (in English; Impression sunrise):
  

Impressionism has been described as: "writing what you see, not what you know is there".

• In what museum can the original be seen?
• Le bassin aux nymphéas / water lily pond hangs in The Art Museum Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA. Claude's art is spread all over the world though, and you can of course see a lot of his paintnings in Paris - where I saw original paintings by  Monet for the first time.

• How does this painting make you feel?
• There is no right or wrong answers to this one of course. The answers you have given are, related to harmony, calmness, feeling alive and feeling well.

It turns out several of you enjoy Monet and his art just as much as I do. :-)

There is also a Part 2 of the Beauty of art, if you are curious you can find it here.