Art and Words

Yellow Roses in a Vase

Gustave Caillebotte: Influenced by Manet and Monet

This overblown bouquet of roses by Gustave Caillebotte features a cascade of petals, each one deftly built with just a few brushstrokes of thickly applied paint, scattered across a marble surface. Caillebotte’s choice of a marble tabletop, set against a scumbled, or thinly painted, black ground, may be an homage to Édouard Manet’s final series of floral still lifes.

However, the intensity of color at the center of the bouquet points to Caillebotte’s familiarity with the complex, densely worked surfaces of Claude Monet’s flower paintings. The reason that Caillebotte was so familiar with Monet’s style was because the two artists shared a Paris studio during 1882. In fact, Caillebotte purchased one of Monet’s floral still lifes.

Caillebotte kept his work Yellow Roses in a Vase throughout his life. At his postmortem sale, the painting was purchased by Edgar Degas, who also held onto the cherished painting until his death.

"In a tranquil pond, where waters lay still, A secret world thrives, quiet and chill. 'Neath the sun's gentle kiss, lilies bloom bright, cradling whispers of dawn's early light. Upon a green pad, a frog finds its throne, In this hushed haven, it reigns all alone. Its croak a soft melody, under the sky, Where water lilies and dreams never die..."

Emily Verse, Serenade of the Frog and Water Lily

Art: Tranquility by Suzanne Wilkins

She Sent

By Donna Ashworth

She sent me a book with a page turned down I barely had strength to read it but I knew with my knowing that she also knew there was something in there my heart needed.

And as I began to take the words in tears found their way to my cheeks the lump in my throat let forth a soft howl I’d been keeping inside for some weeks.

Like floodgates thrown open a storm was released a bottled-up genie set free all of the magic I’d kept trapped inside and all of those versions of me.

She sent me a book with a corner turned down she sent me the key to my cage all of her love and all of my pain let loose with the turn of a page.

Illustration by Jungho Lee

“Reading is a gift. It’s something you can do almost anytime and anywhere. It can be a tremendous way to learn, relax, and even escape.” ~ Richard Carlson

📕Art: Easy Genre by Valentin Ivantsov

“Sometimes you want to say, “I love you, but…”

Yet the “but” takes away the ‘I love you’. In love their are no ‘buts’ or ‘if’s’ or ‘when’. It’s just there, and always. No beginning, no end. It’s the condition-less state of the heart. Not a feeling that comes and goes at the whim of the emotions. It is there in our heart, a part of our heart…eventually grafting itself into each limb and cell of our bodies. Love changes our brain, the way we move and talk. Love lives in our spirit and graces us with its presence each day, until death.

To say “I love you, but….” is to say, “I did not love you at all”.

I say this to you now: I love you, with no beginning, no end. I love you as you have become an extra necessary organ in my body. I love you as only a girl could love a boy. Without fear. Without expectations. Wanting nothing in return, except that you allow me to keep you here in my heart, that I may always know your strength, your eyes, and your spirit that gave me freedom and let me fly.”

~ Jamie Weise

Photograph: A Love Story by Kim Hojnacki

Old Books Are Best

By Beverly Chew

Old Books are best! With what delight Does "Faithorne fecit" greet our sight On frontispiece or title-page Of that old time, when on the stage "Sweet Nell" set "Rowley's" heart alight!

And you, O Friend, to whom I write, Must not deny, e'en though you might, Through fear of modern pirates' rage, Old Books are best.

What though the print be not so bright, The paper dark, the binding slight? Our author, be he dull or sage, Returning from that distant age So lives again, we say of right: Old Books are best.

Art • Still Life with Book • Mykhailo Sherman

Portrait with Still Life

Artist in oil and pastel, born in Greenock, Renfrewshire. He studied at Glasgow School of Art under Fra Newbery and James Dunlop, then lived for a time in Canada. After marrying in 1906, returned to Scotland in the early 1920s, where he was associated with the Colourists. Exhibited extensively at Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, also RSA, in London, the provinces and in Paris. Glasgow Museum and Art Galleries, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and other galleries hold his work. Lived at Kilmacolm, Renfrewshire, then in Edinburgh.