Day: March 21, 2022

La Femme au Canapé by Kees van Dongen

~ JezzieG
La Femme au Canapé by Kees van Dongen

La Femme au Canapé
1930
Portraiture
Oil on canvas
Musée de Beaux-Arts de Montréal, Québec, Canada

‘La Femme au Canapé’ reveals van Dongen at the height of his career as a society portraitist. In alliance with Paul Poiret, van Dongen was working the circles where money was paid in making others look good. The unidentified sitter, enveloped in fur, her bird-like features and androgynous frame epitomizing the feminine allure of the 1930s. her head is thrown back as if she is in a moment of private fantasy and her relaxed hand and fingers brushing the decollate add to the auto-erotic ambiance.

Kees van Dongen

Kees van Dongen
Fauvism, Expressionism
Born: 26 January 1877, Delfshaven, Netherlands
Nationality: Dutch-French
Died: 28 May 1968, Monet Carlo, Monaco

Van Dongen was a painter and one of the leading Fauves. His early work was often influenced by the Hague School and symbolism evolved in a rough pointillist style and became more radical in the use of colour and form. Van Dongen is known for his sensuous, sometimes garish, portraits of women

Talking to the Trees – Ash

~ JezzieG

Nion (N), the Ash tree, is the fifth tree of the Ogham

Ash Energy

The Ash is the key to universal truth and understanding to the spiritual warrior, Every deed, every thought forms part of an endless chain of reactions and events, The Ash interlinks the circles of existence, and whatever is done in the physical world has an effect on the other levels of existence. Abred, Gwynedd, and Ceugant (loosely translated as Past, Present, and Future), the three Celtic levels of existence encompass the physical, the mental, and the spiritual as well as the forces of confusion, balance, and creativity

These three levels of existence are so interwoven together that whatever is done on one level it is inevitable that it will have an effect on the other two.

Talking to the Ash

Considered in Druidry to be one of the five sacred trees, the Ash is not hard to find with its distinctive features of smooth twigs and black velvety buds. For myself sitting with my back against the trunk of an Ash was a deep spiritual moment of enlightenment as if I was breathing in the trees wonderful wisdom. It was also the first tree I dared ask to give me a twig to start my Ogham sticks – the resounding positivity I felt was my yes.

In love and light
Raven )O(

Minute of Enlightenment

~ JezzieG

Minute of Enlightenment
Form: Free Verse
Theme: Identity

Youthful meanderings
of being the odd bit in a jigsaw
with no place to fit
not blue enough to make sky
not pretty enough to flower
the picture was never complete
as pious voices whispered of sin
and the news heralds another army officer
disgracing his rank for a skirt
and I buried the hurt deeper within
with never a chance
to stand as myself
wishing away the classic pencil skirt
for the rough caress of denim jeans
and loose t-shirts filling the emptiness
of lost youth
as time rushed on
the clock ticking seconds into years
years of denying
becoming
evolving
striving towards a minute
of enlightenment
an awareness of him
of me
of living and laughing
released to be free
to dance in the wild abandonment
without love restricting who I can be

©JGFarmer2022