Reviving the Spirit

In an effort to rehabilitate my Mother's spirits as her health improves, we went to the Dallas Museum of Art to see the 'largest and most comprehensive retrospective ever held in the US of the career of J.M.W. Turner(1775-1851).' It was a huge-140 works- amazing exhibit. I was most drawn to his seascapes and historical events. I could not resist buying a print of 'Keelman Heaving in Coals by Moonlight' exh 1835.

This image does not really do it justice, but it gives an idea of the painting. I became fascinated that in nearly all his seascapes, Turner included a bit of debris-an anchor, a broken mast, a barrel, etc, in the lower left hand corner. This feature does not detract from the paintings, but seen again and again, it became bizarre and fascinating for me.

The boys did a bit of painting themselves in Grandma's studio. They began painting a jug of sunflowers. Niall stayed with it, but Leith decided to paint spaceships after a while. Niall made a last minute addition of a corn dog in the foreground of his painting. We will see if this continues as a motif in all his paintings as the shipping debris does in Turner's work.