Art

Recently I visited the Burrell collection to have a look at the artwork kept there. I was there years ago when I was on holiday in Glasgow to see all the exhibits but couldn’t really appreciate it at that time because I was quite young, so I was glad to go back and loved it there. Sir William Burrell and his wife, Constance, Lady Burrell gifted his collection of over 9,000 works of art to Glasgow in 1944. The city acquired one of the greatest collections created by one person. William Burrell had been an art collector since his teens, and the collection is made up of a vast array of works of all periods and from all over the world. I chose the painting “The Empress Eugénie on the Beach at Trouville” by Eugène Boudin.

The painting was done in 1863 and for that time shows a new uncomplicated vision which was the basis of impressionist thinking. There are no grand gestures, complicated compositions, or hidden messages- it is a straight to the point recording of what was being seen which I like. From looking at it, you couldn’t tell that the empress is there as you can make out there are ladies on the beach, but it is quite vague and you wouldn’t be able to pick out which one she was.
It is set on a beautiful summer day with a bright blue sky and calm sea on the beach. The real subject isn’t the people, but the morning light and sea breeze which draw the eyes to it. There is a building that could be a summer house or hotel in the near background, and objects in the painting include two on-lookers sitting on a bench under a lamp-post, a boat in the distance, two dogs, and the group of regal people. It is a relatively small painting at 34.2X57.8cm but it looked like just the right size for it as in a bigger version, the people would maybe have become lost.

The colours in the painting are very well put together to create a happy, joyous, relaxed mood. The sea looks so tranquil because of the perfect turquoise used, and the main landscape of the sand and sky show the foundation stones of impressionism with a lightening of the palette. This makes the day look nice and bright and shows how sunny the weather is. There are nice contrasts too with the on-lookers painted with dark colours which make them look poorer than the group of people who are wearing bright summer colours, so straight you know who is the most well off.

There is quite interesting use of line as they are all very soft, and the only obvious straight ones are on the building and the lamp-post which have to be straight. The rest of the painting has quite soft brush strokes that almost look smudged and create a hazy look. It may not be on purpose, but the haze adds to the effect of it being a warm day.

The main shapes that stand out are the ladies’ skirts and umbrellas. Even though there is no great detail and you can’t make out their faces, or even their hair, the viewer’s eye is drawn to them when looking at the objects because they stand out.

"A painter paints the appearance of things, not their objective correctness, in fact he creates new appearances of things." -Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

The piece is still very easy to look at though and not hard on the eye as there aren’t a lot of intricate things to be taken into account, so it’s easy to enjoy it rather than pour over every detail.

To conclude, I really like the painting as I can connect with the artist and see why he was in such a good mood when working on it. Where the piece was amongst the other French paintings in a light, airy part of the gallery which suited its mood, it stood out to me because it reminded me of what it feels like to be at the beach on a beautiful summer day.

Arts within our lives

From doing the elective and going to experience music, drama, and art I feel like I have found out the importance of arts everybody’s life. Before the experiences I was aware that the arts were a large part of our culture, but I didn’t really realise how much they fill our lives;

“The arts enrich our lives, make them more worth living. A significant number of the people we learnt about in school or through the media, as significant contributors to our national and global cultures, are artists-writers, painters, sculptures, musicians, composers, and dancers throughout the ages…in testament to their continued impact and importance, the modern societies have built museums and developed technologies so generations of humanity will forever be able to enjoy, experience, and learn from their work."
http://docushare.hsd.k12.or.us

I have realised that from an early age people are using arts to learn all the time, not necessarily learning about the arts; although it is also important sometimes. People are learning about arts and artists on a daily basis, but they are sometimes not aware of it. For example, there are always people who say they hate anything to do with the theatre including acting and drama, but every day they watch actors and performers on TV in soaps and adverts. Music and art are present all the time as well to make programmes and adverts more appealing and if there were none of the arts our lives would be very boring! They are not just about showing our culture, they are for our enjoyment and pleasure also.

The Arts are a way for people expressing themselves and showing others how they feel. If it is a tune that has been written, a play, or painting you can look at it and understand what the creator or performer was thinking which helps you to think about the bigger picture around you. Different pieces can make you feel different feelings and emotions, for example a painting of an orphan may make the observer feel sad or puzzled, whereas a song written by a Scottish composer may make you feel patriotic and proud.

However people feel about the arts they cannot deny that they make an impact on the world. For example, music is everywhere. It is on the radio, TV, internet, adverts, iPods….so it’s always around you. It can also bring people together from all over the world with thousands if not millions of people each year coming together for concerts and festivals. An example was Celtic Connections this year when Glasgow was invaded by music fans from all over the world for three weeks. I went to the festival club one night where artists and music enthusiasts could play, mingle and share their love for their music and culture, and totally loved it! There was such an exciting atmosphere, and everyone was thoroughly enjoying sharing their passion.

The same goes for artwork and theatre. People come together and share experiences to learn about other people’s thoughts, and just to enjoy themselves. When a piece of artwork is put on show, hundreds and thousands of people could look at it and try to take in how the artist was feeling and what the story is behind it. Similarly, millions of people tune in for soaps on TV and generally gossip about the characters and their lives to their friends. They think they really know the characters and could almost forget that it is acting. Similarly, many people visit theatres each year for pantomimes and shows which become nice family nights out for a special treat.

To conclude, from my experience of the elective, I have found that I have learnt more about arts within society than I did before. They are all around as, and we learn about them more than we realise half the time. I think it’s important for the younger generation to know how important they are for our culture as well as enjoyment, so I think I will try to incorporate that into my teaching in future.

Theatre

In March I went to see the comedy “How do I get up there?” as part of the Magners Comedy Festival in Glasgow. I have always enjoyed going to the theatre and have been involved in a few productions myself, so I didn’t need a second bidding to go along! A quote that sticks in my mind because of my love of theatre is from Oscar Wilde:

“I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.”

I think what he says is true because even from going to this comedy performance, I learnt about the characters and about how society is moving on and will always be changing around us, along with peoples changing views.I found the production to be very effective on the audience as there was hardly a time through the whole thing that there wasn’t someone laughing or else left dumbstruck by the hilarious performances of the actors/comedians. Because it was the performers who wrote the piece, they knew exactly how to put it across. I will talk about the venue, set, lighting, costumes, props, and audience reaction to the script to try to get across what the experience was like.

It was performed in the Britannia Panopticon Music Hall. I had heard that it was the oldest surviving music hall in the UK and there is a lot of history behind it. Founded in the mid 19th century, the hall was the most popular place of entertainment and 1500 people would cram in for every show. It was hard to believe that the night we were there as it was an intimate audience of only about 60-70 people. What I couldn’t get over was the atmosphere in the building. The walls were all peeling and we were warned that the ceiling might fall down on us (literally), but the building has real charm and personality, and I think it had the right mood for the piece.

The set and lighting were very basic. The set was left as it is in the Panopticon with decor which showed what it meant to be British. It looked quite old-fashioned and retro which fitted in with the buildings history and there were little union jacks draped around. The stage was empty with no objects, but sometimes chairs were brought on to represent things such as benches or cars. The minimalist set worked very well I thought, as it drew attention to the action and the actors who were entertaining enough in their own rights.

The costumes and props were also kept to a minimum, with the actors wearing black throughout mainly and only bringing on the odd prop or outfit, for example when they first came on they were wearing monks robes which was part of a hilarious sketch about Bucksfast. Some props that were used were bamboo for the pandas, and a bucket of water. I liked the fact that there weren’t too many props in it as it was left to the audience’s imagination and there was a smooth transition between scenes as the actors didn’t have to change their outfits of rummage around for new items.

The script itself was genius I thought and it was aimed at today’s audience. I spoke to the three performers/writers after the show and they said that they weren’t sure how some of the jokes would go down as they are used to performing to largely young audiences and some of the jokes were quite risky, but the standing ovation at the end was surely enough to tell them that they got it spot on.

Music

During the Celtic Connections festival 09 I went to see the final of the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year Final 2009. Celtic Connections is a massive winter festival held in Glasgow which attracts 100,000 people to events all over the city centre. When the festival is on there is an exciting buzz in the air with 300 events taking place in 14 venues over 18 days. As the artistic director says it is “more than just a folk festival” it “has touches of jazz, rock...” - http://celticconnections.com and music from all over the world. I am really glad I went to see the event because it was even more exciting than going to some of the other amazing concerts in the festival as there had to be a winner at the end, so there was an extra dose of nerves for the competitors, and the audience could sense that.

The event was presented by Mary Ann Kennedy and was broadcast live on BBC Radio Scotland. There were 6 competitors from all around Scotland: fiddlers Ruairidh Macmillan, Jack Smedley and Daniel Thorpe, Gaelic singer Kenneth Nicolson, Piper Lorne MacDougall, and Singer/Guitarist Adam Holmes.

The City Halls provided the venue for the showcase of young Scottish talent and I loved the atmosphere there. It is a really grand place with a high ceiling and the sound seemed to fill the space around the audience. I had been to the Old Fruitmarket before in the same area, but it was my first time in the City Halls and I was pleasantly surprised by what a large space it was and how the BBC Scotland and Celtic Connections drapes hanging from the roof symbolised what a big deal the event was.

You could tell that all competitors were nervous but it was obvious how excited they were to be there and how excited the audience was too. Being a traditional musician myself and having played in the festival in 2006 in 3 of the festival venues, I found it particularly enjoyable to be back in the buzz of Celtic Connections. The festival itself is an amazing celebration of music from Scotland and all over the world, and the particular concert I was at showcased just how talented Scotland's up-and-coming musicians are.

The quality of their music was inspiring. They all had completely different styles which contributed to 6 unique performances. I didn’t envy the judges having to pick a winner out of the cream of the crop of Scotland’s young traditional musicians. The songs were all sung from the heart, showing the audience how much the experience meant to the artist, and the sets of tunes played were arranged to perfection with seamless transitions between tunes. It was very exciting waiting for the result and eventually the winner was chosen live on radio: fiddler Ruairidh Macmillan from Nairn. You could see how much it meant to him to win and the audience went crazy when he played a victory set of tunes.

Personally I think the event was well worth going to see, not just for the performances, but for the excitement of the competition. When waiting for the result I was on the edge of my seat like the other members of the audience and the event reminded me of the young talent that Scotland has which sometimes people might forget about. I spoke to some people I knew that were also in the audience and they thought the same as they were blown away by the performances saying they were even better than they thought they would be.

I think music is of great importance all over the world. In Scotland it is about enjoyment, but also about showing our culture and showcasing what we have to offer the rest of the world. Proof of how big an impact Scotland has in music is Celtic Connections itself with hundreds of musicians and thousands of people coming to experience the magic of the festival.

One thing that I think is particularly successful is the education programme which lets 13-14,000 school children experience Scotland’s music scene by coming to workshops and seeing concerts with world-acclaimed artists. I experienced the children’s excitement myself back in 2005 when the group I was in played in did one of the concerts for them in the Royal Concert Hall. Their excitement was overwhelming and you could see that they were gaining respect for traditional music and gaining knowledge about their culture. It is really important for the younger generations to be proud of their heritage, in particular the music of their country.

"Traditional arts are a vital component of Scotland's artistic landscape and the Scottish Government is committed to ensuring there are adequate arrangements in place to support them, allowing the traditional arts to fulfil their role in Scotland's culture, heritage, economy, education and community life." -Linda Fabiani