On 11/4/06 11:01 AM, "LizardGumbo" wrote:
Thanks - I kept remembering Mary, and for whatever reason (possibly the many dirty martinis of last night at the bad hockey game) I couldn't remember the last name. How embarassing.
And just the other day - the precocious 17 yr old goddaughter, I and her mother were discussing perceptions of art, color, light, and differences in painting techniques, etc. First we talked about pointilism (Georges Seurat - Sundayin the Park...), then were talking about how light works and the different ways of painitng materials and how light affects what you see, how different people see differently (we are science geeks) and why. I was telling her about a Renoir painting that I'd only seen as a print for many years (the girls at the piano, which a neighbor/friend - the most geeky person I knew until college, had over her piano when we were in jr hi, high school. I hated that picture - it just seemed flat, boring, etc. Then I was telling her about my first trip to the Musee d'Orsay (where the Impressionists live in Paris), the museum was arranged chronologically rather than just by artist - helping to see the development of the movement. Anyhow - up in one of the upper floors is a room with several Degas paintings - the dancers, the quite famous little dancer bronze, and in that room - IIRC- some Renoirs (might be next room). And on the wall - that painting of the girls at the piano. I was completely awestruck - it was amzing - and seeing it in person so to speak completely overwhelmed me - and threw on some light in my head about the ability of an artist to use light. The difference between my friends framed print, and the original - it was night and day. It just amazed me - and honestly is one of the things I remember that affected how I would study, look at art. But, to the point of Mary Cassatt - we were actually talking about the Impressionist salon, and Mary Cassatt was one of the topics - so - thanks for the remembering.
ellice