Alphonse Mucha Exhibition

Last weekend, I finally got to the Alphonse Mucha Exhibition, ‘In Quest of Beauty’, at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. I’d almost forgotten about it and it ends mid-February. As many of you will know, I love art as well as music and literature, and it often inspires my writing, plus I’m always happy to visit one of my favourite venues in Glasgow.

Czech-born Mucha became famous in the latter part of the 19^th century when he began designing advertising posters for the famous actress Sarah Bernhardt. The exhibition has a wonderful selection of Mucha’s art which inspired the beautiful Art Nouveau style of images and design.

After returning to Bohemia in 1910, he started creating his many paintings that made up his Slav Epic, some of which are on show. I was surprised to discover, however, that his work was hidden away during WWII and Mucha was largely forgotten until rediscovered in the early 1960s.

As well as the art work hanging on the various walls, a few glass fronted cabinets contained other items from the period, such as original perfume phials and a Houbigant perfume bottle from 1899. I was fascinated by this as I remember loving Houbigant Quelques Fleurs many, many moons ago, although I don’t remember the actual scent now!

Another cabinet held an original copy of Mucha’s Documents Décoratifs portfolio from 1902 which contains 72 plates of his decorative art, showcasing his varied design work. But it is his tall Art Nouveau images of beautiful women that draw the eye, such these four paintings that each depict a different flower: Rose, Iris, Carnation and Lily. They were seemingly inspired by the popular Victorian book, The Language of Flowers.

There was even a little fun boudoir-style area where visitors could don some of the clothes and jewellery and recline on the sofa. I thought it perhaps resembled the kind of dressing space Sarah Bernhardt once enjoyed. Unfortunately, my husband had gone off for a wander outside so I would have felt mighty silly dressing up with no one to photograph or laugh at me. Shame as I love dressing up when I get the chance!

All in all, it was a lovely start to our 2017 weekend outings as husband then took me into Glasgow for a delicious Chinese meal at one of our favourite restaurants. Hope the year continues as it began!

Rosemary

Ekphrastic Writing Challenge

As most of you know, I love taking my own photos, especially for illustrating the blog or on other social media - safer too as there's no copyright issue. My writing is often inspired by the art and photographs I view in galleries and it seems there is quite a long tradition of one inspiring the other.

Front of Kelvingrove

The best example in my own case was a challenge our writing group was set many years ago on a visit to the wonderful Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow, which I've no doubt mentioned before. The lovely lady and member of our writing group who led the session passed away a few years ago but we've never forgotten this challenge.

We were all given a piece of paper on which was written a single sentence suggesting the kind of inspiration we should seek from any of the paintings. Mine was to find a villain. In the end, I chose a wonderful portrait of a woman who became my villainous female main character in a short story The Artist's Wife. While waiting for everyone to choose, I sat down on  nearby chair with my pen and notebook and the words started flowing. The story eventually went on to be the winner of a national competition.

It's not the only time art has inspired one of my stories, articles or poems and it won't be the last, but this was the most meaningful and I'll always be grateful for such an inspiring day.

So here is an online publisher, Rattle, that offers an Ekphrastic Challenge each month for poetry, if anyone wants to have a go - you even have the chance of winning a small monetary prize! Some photos and illustrations will be more inspiring than others but even if you don't write poetry, it might suggest the start of a story for your own use.

Good luck and let me know if art or photography inspires your own writing.
Rosemary

A Century of Style at Glasgow Kelvingrove

Husband and I managed a quick visit to the wonderful historical fashion exhibition at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow with promise of lunch at the end of it, although he went for a walk in the nearby park while I enjoyed a glimpse into the past. A Century of Style: Costume and Colour 1800-1899 is running until 14th February and the venue itself is one of my favourite places as it's such a stunning building filled with great art.

The exhibition did not disappoint, although it was predominantly Victorian style with the odd Regency outfit included. I took loads of photos for future research and made sure it was okay to include some on my blog. It was fascinating reading about the different colours and materials used and they even provided little samples of fabric for us to examine here and there. They also provided information on the dyes used throughout the period, with the relevant clothes arranged in colour-coordinated sections. 

It was equally fascinating to imagine these sumptuous outfits being part of well-to-do life in Scotland at one time - some of the cards accompanying the outfits told us to whom they had belonged and when they were worn.

Here a few of my favourites

Regency dress and spencer

Silk dress

Cotton print dress

Victorian dresses with crinoline

There are too many to show here and some of the accessories were also interesting - mourning outfits for instance included everything in black from the corset to the jewellery. I'm so glad I didn't miss this as there's nothing quite like seeing original costumes if writing historical fiction!

Rosemary