Finding Beauty in the Beast of Winter

Oh, what a bone-chilling winter it has been! I won’t sugar-coat it, it has been miserable. This has been the winter of never-ending snow, ice, freezing rain, sleet, and more snow here in the Northeast U.S., as well as parts of the South, the Midwest, and reaching into Canada. In fact, due to a weather condition called a polar vortex, many places around the globe have seen severe weather. 

The frigid cold around here has set records. Many mornings, I've awakened to temperatures in the single digits; the other morning, the thermometer read a mere 8 degrees. It was warmer in Alaska that day! Some people like the cold, some people like snow, and I respect that. But for me, winter is definitely not my favorite season. 

Still, despite the drabness and chill of it all, there is an assured beauty to winter, a serenity in the silence of new fallen snow. So to cheer things up while waiting for spring, I'm sharing photos taken around my home this winter, followed by winter art that I hope you'll enjoy. 

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I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently?
And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt;
and perhaps it says "Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again."
~Lewis Carroll
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass 

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The birds of winter around my home  

Blue-gray gnatcatcher 

Robin in the snow (we see robins here all year-round)

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The Cardinal stood out like a picture fair,
As snowflakes struck its body there.
Upon a branch of the winter tree,
Nestled among the needles proud and free.
~Joseph T. Renaldi

In my area, cardinals are only seen in the winter months. 

Cardinal sitting pretty on a snowy morning

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The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.
~ Robert Frost

Crow (taken with a long lens)

Crows on a snowy roof

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Coco loves the snow!

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Winter Art

Looking at winter through the eyes of an artist, you can see the majesty and beauty in the season. (I enjoy looking at the season much better than I enjoy being in it!)

Snowy Landscape at Arles ~Vincent Van Gogh 

Train in the Snow at Argenteuil ~Claude Monet

Beneath the Snow Encumbered Branches, Scotland ~Joseph Farquharson

Winter Afternoon, Norway ~Hans Gude 

Whitehall England in Winter ~Paul Maze

Winter Coast, Prout’s Neck, Maine ~Winslow Homer

Snowy Monday in New Hampshire ~Lilla Cabot Perry

Skating in Central Park (New York 1934) ~Agnes Tait

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Spring briefly visited the other day and brought lovely weather with temperatures in the 50s. Everyone smiled at Spring and then Winter got jealous, roaring back with gusts of freezing cold winds and dropping temperatures. As I’m typing this, it’s 19 degrees outside! There are local weather reports of a possible late March snowstorm next week. Winter is not leaving quietly this year! But Winter’s days are numbered. I saw a lone daffodil bravely poking her head out from a small patch of snow, a welcome sight. Spring is just around the corner!

©2014 JerseyLil’s2Cents all text and photos
Paintings in public domain (from WikiPaintings, WikiMedia Commons and Google images) 

Nice Piece of History with an Outside Toilet!

Hackford House in London where Van Gogh lived.

I am a big fan of Vincent Van Gogh so when I read that the London boarding house where he lived from 1873 to 1874 was sold at auction I just had to know more. It seems there was not much in Vincent’s life without drama, and the year he spent living on the top floor of the three-bedroom Victorian on Hackford Road at age 20 was no exception. He earned a nice income working for art dealers on Southampton Street, had outings with friends and wrote cheerful letters to his brother, Theo. It's also where he experienced his first crushing heartbreak. 

Before delving into Vincent's romance, a little bit about the house. As you can imagine, it sold very quickly at auction for over half a million dollars. I would have loved to own that piece of history but I’m afraid the few bucks I offered as a down payment were politely rejected. I tried to sweeten the deal by throwing in photos of my beautiful dogs, along with a lifetime supply of chocolate, but alas, no deal. Perhaps I should have offered dark chocolate!

The property at 87 Hackford Road on the south side of the Thames River was once in a fashionable district but has since gone downhill. The house is in need of repair and has certainly seen better days, but it still retains the original cast iron fireplaces and an ever-so-handy outside toilet!! (If I owed the place, I’d decorate that outside toilet with both Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” and “Landscape Under a Stormy Sky,” very fitting, I think!)

There’s an English Heritage blue plaque on the outside of the house honoring the artist. According to letters he sent to his brother, Theo, Vincent spent some of his happiest days at Hackford House. He loved that house so much he even made a sketch of it.  

Van Gogh’s sketch of the Hackford House

Young Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent was a starry-eyed romantic and this house is where the 20-year-old artist fell deeply and hopelessly in love for the first time. He was smitten with the landlady’s 19-year-old daughter, Eugenie Loyer. He offered her a passionate marriage proposal but she declined. Some say Van Gogh’s subsequent mental breakdown can be traced back to the heart-wrenching rejection of his tender love for Eugenie. (Well, at least he kept his ears at this point!)

Perhaps Van Gogh was too intense for Eugenie. Can you imagine the guy out on a date sitting at a café...“Those flowers on the table are not brilliant enough. Hand me my paints, I’ll fix that!” Or strolling along under the stars at night…“My dear, these stars are much too pale. Where’s my canvass? I shall paint a truly starry night befitting your beauty!” "Oh Vincent," Eugenie may have said, "I only wanted a nice stroll along the Thames and a cup of tea."

Eugenie Loyer

I searched but was unable to find any sketches or paintings Vincent had done of Eugenie. But I am certain he sketched or painted his love. How could he not? The guy was full of emotion and young love! Perhaps he tore them up or painted over the canvass, unable to bear the heartbreak. Ever the romantic! We may never know.

Vincent eventually moved away, paintbrushes in hand and both ears intact. Ah, the pain of unrequited love! But he went on to do some of his best work. Brilliant, talented, sensitive, and perhaps mentally unstable, Vincent Van Gogh has left us beautiful, vibrant artwork, and a life so full of emotion and drama that you can write endless tales about him. Thank you, Vincent! I hope the new owner of your London home will honor your memory, fix it up and turn it into a museum for art lovers. I’d like to suggest a space dedicated to young, aspiring artists, like Vincent was when he lived there. And I will gladly visit and bring the chocolate!

Video tour of the Hackford house before it went on auction. Shows the top floor where Vincent lived, the garden and outside toilet.

© 2012 JerseyLil’s 2 Cents.

159 Candles for that Birthday Cake!

Van Gogh Self Portrait

March 30th was Vincent Van Gogh’s 159th birthday. Happy (belated) birthday, Vincent! Today Van Gogh is the most famous artist of the Impressionist period, his paintings sell for millions at auction, but he died alone and penniless in Arles, France in 1890 at age 37. But did he, in fact, kill himself as has always been the theory? Perhaps not.

Bedroom in Arles

A new book published in Oct 2011, "Van Gogh, The Life," presents an intriguing counter theory that Van Gogh did not kill himself but was accidentally murdered by a teenage French punk visiting the scenic town of Arles with his friends, who thought it great sport to tease the eccentric painter. The teenager was playing with a gun, teasingly pointing it at Van Gogh, then bang...Van Gogh was fatally shot and the kid fled the scene! Fascinating, huh?

Still Life with Sunflowers

This sensational theory is not just wishful thinking (or a ploy for book sales and a movie deal!). The authors, Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith, previous Pulitzer Prize winners for a biography they wrote on the painter, Jackson Pollack, spent years researching Van Gogh. They uncovered notes by the physician treating Van Gogh suggesting that the fatal wound could not have been self-inflicted, and references to the teenagers (sons of well-to-do parents...hmm...) visiting the town and harassing Van Gogh as he painted. And here's a fact not widely known: although Van Gogh's gunshot wound was thought to be self-inflicted, no gun was ever found near his body. What, was Van Gogh a magician as well as an artist?! How does someone fatally shoot himself and then lose the gun? Smells fishy to me.  

Wheatfield with Crows

I won't do an entire book review here but check it out if you're interested. At 953 pages (whew, heavy reading!), the book covers Van Gogh's life, not just his death. It has excerpts from letters he wrote and lovely color photos. And really, how can you have a book on Van Gogh without lots of color?! 

The Night Cafe

Although Vincent Van Gogh never made a dime in his life, and he may or may not have actually killed himself in a moment of tortured passion, he sure left us some beautiful paintings! Seems that many talented artists are right on the edge of sanity/insanity. Perhaps that’s what makes them so brilliant.

Wheatfield with Cypresses

Now I understand what you tried to say to me

How you suffered for your sanity, how you tried to set them free

They would not listen they did not know how,

Perhaps they'll listen now.” ~Vincent (Starry Starry Night) by Don McLean

Starry Night

Vincent, I understand!

Video of Don McLean’s song with a slideshow of Van Gogh’s work done for patients at Mississippi State Hospital. Complied by artist Anthony DiFatta, who teaches art to adults suffering from mental illness. 

Dedicated to Mom.
©2012 JerseyLil’s 2 cents.