Sunday 20 January 2013

Tempus Fugit

'Road Home to Wharfedale'
iPad Painting
by
Glenn Marshall
Click for full details

Well we survived the end of the world, Christmas and the New Year celebrations...and here we are three weeks into 2013 already!
It's a strange time. We are expected to be optimistic about our fresh start while still suffering the holiday hangover.
Years ago New Years Eve wasn't such a big thing - OK a good old booze up and  "Auld Lang Syne" at midnight - but that was it. Back to work the following morning unless you lived in Scotland that is. Now the whole country shuts down for about a month!
But that's not a bad thing and is a good example of people power. You see so many  of my generation (me included!) couldn't be bothered or were simply still too inebriated to be able to go to work on New Years Day that eventually the government caved in and decided they might as well make it a bank holiday. That's another reason to say thank you to the 'sixties' generation....I'm waiting.
I daresay that 'tempus fugit' for the Victorians.
It certainly did for John Atkinson Grimshaw my favourite artist. He had a large house, flats in Scarborough and London, coach and six horses, servants as well as a wife and children to provide for. That's why he started to paint moonlights or nocturnes as his friend Whistler later called them. Because he didn't have to put so much detail in, he could finish a painting quicker. This turned out to be great career move as he is now remembered as the greatest painter of moonlight and its effects ever!
Apparently there is a major exhibition of his work planned for one of the top London galleries sometime this year though I don't know the details yet. I shall definitely be there so 2013 is already shaping up as a special year.
Make the most of every single day because before you know it we will be celebrating 2014...yes tempus certainly does fugit!
Happy New Year everyone.