Visual Arts

The Starry Night: A Language of Color

August 20, 2023

At dusk and after nightfall, find a location where artificial light is absent and immerse yourself in the drama of the nocturnal skyscape. This iconic painting is the expression of van Gogh’s language of evocative color and passionate mark-making. The Museum of Modern Art says: “The whirling forms in the… Read more

Constable – Sky as the Chief Sentiment

August 20, 2023

In his “Letter from Hampstead, October 23, 1821,” the great landscape painter, John Constable, writes about the great communicative capacity of the skyscape: “That landscape painter who does not make his skies a very material part of his composition, neglects to avail himself of one of his greatest aids. Sir… Read more

View of Toledo by El Greco

August 20, 2023

Eerie, evocative clouds that feel like the energy and passion you find in the work of the Abstract Expressionists. Even more amazing when you consider that El Greco painted this in the 16th Century! View of Toledo by El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos) Date: ca. 1598–99. Medium: Oil on canvas View… Read more

London from Hampstead, with a double rainbow by John Constable

August 20, 2023

The transcendent quality of this work is communicated after, what the British Museum calls, “careful and specific observation of the weather.” They say that a few years prior to this work, Constable had suffered the loss of his wife, Maria, and that he, “occasionally considered a rainbow to be a… Read more