“DE LA ILUSTRACIÓN A LA MODERNIDAD, EL SIGLO XIX, EL SIGLO DEL RETRATO
By Francisco Bravo Cabrera
(escuchando Ludovico Einaudi “Una mattina”)
Mariano Benlliure Gil/Imagen Museu de Belles Arts de València, Comunitat Valenciana)
Bueno, la expo comenzó el pasado febrero y seguirá en CaixaForum Barcelona hasta el 4 de junio de 2023. La temática es el retrato y habrán muestras de todos los tipos: Pintura, escultura, medallística, miniaturas, acuarelas, aguafuerte, fotografía, litografía, daguerrotipo et cetera… Esta exposición es la quinta que hace el Museo Nacional del Prado con la Fundació La Caixa. Así llega esta interesantísima expo a la CaixaForum Barcelona. El Comisario es el Sr. Javier Barón jefe de Conservación de Pintura del Siglo XIX del Museo Nacional del Prado.
La expo se divide en ámbitos destinados a esclarecer los diferentes tipos de retratos. El ÁMBITO I: “La imagen del poder.” Aquí están los retratos de los…
(Image property of FBC/Omnia Caelum Studios Valencia/All Rights Reserved)
This fine art print of one of my paintings (now in a private collection) is available only through Fine Art America. This is the framed print, but there are many more styles of prints, including on canvas, wood and metal, to choose from among other items. Check out my unique gallery at Fine Art America.
(image property of FBC/Omnia Caelum Studios Valencia/All Rights Reserved)
On a search… amidst a journey… I seek communion… I seek favours… I seek answers… I look for a hand, the hand that reaches out from the gray, amorphous smoke of all the cigarettes in the city, the one whose touch will form my thoughts, restore my strength, restore my mind,
and free this imprisoned body with a voice that thunders through the daylight sky and calls those in the darkness to come forward, because things do change, things are changing, flowers bloom where once metal rotted in ditches because there is a way, a clear bright way to get to where clean waters flow,
because it is impossible to forget the child that grew within you, impossible to forget a tender touch, impossible to forget when someone frightens you to your very soul and then blows kisses to the wind directed at you… It is impossible to forget you.
This is a “Euro-Ku,” a style I, Francisco Bravo Cabrera, invented on 02 FEB 2022. I did it for my love of the traditional Japanese Haiku. A Haiku is a poem with strict regulations and syllabic counts that adheres to the philosophy and the psychology of the Japanese people and perhaps as well to others from the East. But I was born in the West not to be an Easterner but with admiration for the art and philosophy of the East. Therefore I have adopted, freely, the spirit of the Haiku and converted it to fit my Western mindset. So there are rules, naturally, and they are quite simple: Three separate verses, but no syllabic count, they can be as long as they need be to express a concise, direct and cohesive idea or message; an original, unedited photograph/image that bears some resemblance to the written word, that the author has created, either digitally or by hand. That is all.
I would invite one and all to try one and I would certainly wish and appreciate that the explanation above be included and a link be posted to VALENCIARTIST:
«Strawberry Fields Forever» has always been one of my fave Beatles songs. Why? Simply speaking, it’s a song that kicks bollocks for sure and at the end, when it gets jazzy, freaky and solid, John says, in this magical voice, «I buried Paul.» Doesn’t he? Have you heard it clearly, slowly and loud? Well, if you haven’t take a listen.
The Beatles released «Strawberry Fields Forever» in February 1967. John Lennon wrote the song (of course it is attributed to Lennon/McCartney) thinking of his childhood when he played in a playground called Strawberry Fields, which belonged to the Salvation Army in the outskirts of Liverpoo. Although the song was to be included in the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album, it was instead released as a double A sided single with «Penny Lane» and later included in the EP Magical Mystery Tour in the United States.
A curious note that shows how The Beatles were always engaged in the search for an artistic aesthetic in their music is that in «Strawberry Fields Forever,» besides the use of the Mellotron (a primitive synthesiser), George plays a swarmandal, a special type of sitar used in Indian music with a capacity to play many notes. So, there you have it, some of my reasons why this kick arse song is and has always been one of my favourites.
Now for the strange phrase at the end, well, you tell me…
(At my favourite neighbourhood bar/Bodo Vespaciano/All Rights Reserved)
Was Matisse right when he said that a drawing was a painting with less resources? Maybe, and I do agree, there are less resources in a drawing than in a painting, that fact is quite obvious…
I say that a drawing is the essence of art, the beating heart of a drawing. A drawing is…perhaps…en route to becoming a painting, but it need not go totally in that direction. It’s soul carries the spirit of the times as it is a child of its age.
My love of art came from drawing. I want to share a few with you…
(Image property of FBC/Omnia Caelum Studios Valencia/All Rights Reserved)
This is actually one of my latest paintings, so I’ve decided that it should become a fine art print so that it can be available to any and all who love original art and who would like to share their wall with her. This is the «canvas» print, but Fine Art America, the company I have entrusted with my images, can make different types of prints for you. You choose. They handle the entire transaction and ship quickly. While you are there you may want to check out my gallery at Fine Art America. Check it often as I change the images from time to time.
Fine art prints truly capture the essence and the power of the original, especially if the print is done on canvas or on the quality paper used for the art print, as seen here:
(Image property of FBC/Omnia Caelum Studios Valencia/All Rights Reserved)
