art, landscape, nature, photography, travel, world

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge 232: “Looking back”

This week, Sophia is our host for Lens-Artist’s photo challenge. The new year inspired her to look back and recognize what changed over time.

When I read her inspirational post yesterday, I started considering how to respond.

In the beginning, many millennia ago, our farthest ancestors took water and clay or mud in their mouths and either sprayed the substance against the walls and ceilings of caves or used fingers and twigs to apply it. They created iconic images from animals around them and from themselves or sprayed negative shadows of their hands. Unfortunately, I can’t find an example of these taken nearly 40 years ago on an analog slide film when I was visiting such a cave.

Then, painting seems to be not important for thousands of years until it got rediscovered by some whimsical people. As their ancestors, they had to create their paint them. They used minerals, saps, and different kinds of clay and mud to create different colors and reinvented the art of painting.

Nowadays, we can simply go to a grocery store and buy watercolors, crayons, or felt pens. Artists instead,  go to special stores to buy the raw materials for their paints to have the highest possible quality to express their imagination.

choose the right pen

 

Find your style!

 

work carefully

 

regardless if your model sits or stands right in front of you or creating a painting from a small photo

 

some artists invent something new like painting with coffee

 

even the style of painting developed over time. From simple lines to complex scenes and even capturing certain lighting situations

In recent times, another new style developed: street-art

The first paintings were assumingly intended for religious purposes. About 500 years ago, religious and political leaders started demanding portraits created showing themselves. Starting from the 18th century painting found their way to the houses of the common people. By the middle of the last century, a new kind of art came even closer to all common people’s lives: street-art, art in the streets, sometimes covering a complete wall of a large house or building. While the first pieces were considered as daub and scribbling, over time the technics developed further and even the acceptance by people as long as the artists got permission in advance of creating their paintings. Now you can find some of these paintings in many cities.

 

Although, some of the quite modern pieces seem to remind of their roots millennia ago.

 

lines
and hands

This is also quite old kind of painting: street painting. I can remember to have seen such artists in the pedestrian areas of bigger cities when I was a child. They were painting on the boardwalk to collect money to make their living. This one was taken during the street art festival I visited last summer.

afraid of water

 

Maybe, I was able to inspire you to dig in your archive and find some images, you can publish your images on your blog and set a link to Sophia’s inspiration post. Don’t forget to tag it with LENS-ARTIST, so we can find it.

Take care!

art, culture, leisure, meeting, nature, people, photography, review, street, summer, travel, vacation, world

Throwback Thursday: Street Art Festival (pt. 2)

As proposed last week, I’m continuing with a few images taken in the schoolyard, which we stumbled upon accidentally.

I’m glad, we followed the sign leading us in the narrow street. Fortunately, the painting from the first image in the gallery below was visible from the place where we found the sign. So we went for having at least a brief look. At the end of the street, we found the schoolyard. Full of people (painters and their company), a DJ, lifting platforms, compressors, and a lot of ladders were here. The artists were working on their paintings or talk shopping. Some of them were already done while others even have not yet started.

 

Take care!

art, culture, leisure, meeting, nature, people, photography, review, street, summer, travel, vacation, world

Throwback Thursday: Street Art Festival

Last Saturday, we finally met again: monthly photographers roundtable. After nearly one year without a common trip. The past 2,5 years were hard and now it has to become routine again. But, I won’t complain. Despite the overall situation, I was out quite often. And, to be honest, there were a few meetings without a camera, simply for having a talk or celebrating a birthday. But, I missed the regular common photography trips. They are often challenging because you have to leave your comfort zone and face unknown places as well as unknown photography topics. So, this time street photography and art photography from a nature and wildlife photographers perspective. Once started, you have to find your flow first and work on the perspective. Consider, what you want to show. Are you keen enough to photograph strangers? And don’t forget the legal regulation!

Although only 3 of us met in Geldern, a small town near the Dutch border. Each year (with interruptions – sic) on the last weekend of the state’s summer holiday they organize a Street Art festival. This year it was held for the 42nd time. I got notice last year from our newspaper but wasn’t aware of being a regular festival. Unfortunately, it was canceled on very short notice. So, I was very happy one of the other photographers had it on her list and was planning to go (even alone). So, my destination was also found and we would either have a meeting of 2 in Geldern and another one elsewhere with the others. but, it came out that only 4 of us were available that day because of vacations and one had to cancel with short notice. So, there were three of us in Geldern.

All of the painters created their pieces of art with colored chalk. In between, some street musicians presented their skills; fortunately, only very few booths offered drinks or food. I was quite surprised to see so many female artists painting. I guess, 80% of the painters were female as well as many of the solo musicians.

The festival starts on Saturday morning and lasts until Sunday noon. So, the species of art are not supposed to be ready on Saturday evening and you can view them creating their paintings. It’s really fascinating.

The only downside was, that some musicians were too close to each other while playing, although there was plenty of room. So, their music overlapped and it was not nice listening to that noise carpet.

On our way back to the cars, we discovered another interesting site by following a sign in the streets: a schoolyard was decorated by talented graffiti artists. But, I leave that for next week.

Take care!

leisure, photography, seasons, summer, vacation, world

Throwback Thursday: Shona-Art

 

A few days ago, I was scouting a location. When I arrived, I was welcomed by a number of stone sculptures, like the one above. In size, they ranged from about 1 meter small up to the gorilla above in nearly life-size. I was impressed by the material, the details, and the kind of craftsmanship.

All of the sculptures were made of only one single serpentine stone. One of the artists was working on one of the sculptures. He was working on the glossy black part of one sculpture with a paste  (similar to shoe polish)and a gas burner. Thus, I talked with him. Because black men are quite rarely seen here, I asked him about where he’s from and why he’s here. The answer was quite simple, he’s a member of a community of artists from Zimbabwe and in Germany on invitation for a couple of months to present their art. As I only saw those sculptures standing in the parking lot, he directed me to the inner part of the building, the atrium, where a lot more was presented and offered for sale. Pieces of art made of stone, driftwood, old and rusty metal, as well as from metal sheets were there.

According to a leaflet I got, the relationship lasts already for a number of years. In 1966 a former tobacco farmer who had serpentine stone on his land, founded an artists colony. While the artists initially only worked with serpentine stone, other kinds of art emerged. The artists keep their legacy, spiritualism, legends, and myths alive in their art. It is called Shona-Art after the predominant people living in Zimbabwe.

I was really impressed by their artistry and craftsmanship. I loved also their sculptures. Unfortunates, nearly all of them are too big to set them up at home.

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Take care!

culture, travel, work, world

Suffering form a virus? – Room travel trip #4

In German below the images / In Deutsch unter den Bildern

This post is part of the room travel challenge of Puzzleblume. After skipping two opportunities to participate, I’m in this time again for the letters “H” and “I” for hobby and Iceland! Here, you can find my first room travel where I also noted the rules for this challenge. Have a look and participate! I also have certain tags for this challenge: “roomtravel” and “Zimmerreisen“.

You know, last year I was in Iceland again. On my flight back, I watched a documentary on my mobile “Leben anderswo – Island – Von strickenden Männern und Pullovern (Living Elsewhere – Iceland – Of knitting men and sweaters)”. The documentary was about a knitting man in his mid-30s from Reykjavik who started investigating the source of Icelandic wool and the tradition of knitting sweaters. We were also introduced to his (nearly) all-men knitting club and the general information, how popular knitting in Iceland still is. We were also introduced to wool production and dying and a company giving work to women who make their living from knitting. These women get the wool from the company and making sweaters from them. In the end, they get pain per sweater minus the wool costs. It was said, you can get these hand-made sweaters in many places in Iceland.

In the documentary they also showed, all kids in Iceland are learning knitting: boys and girls! When I was in school, I also had to learn some basic knitting, sewing, and crocheting. I wasn’t talented for this kind of craftsmanship (crocheting was the worst of them). Despite this, I feel sorry for these topics aren’t taught anymore at school. Also, many of the now-parents don’t know how to do it and usually, the grant-parents are not nearby to take over (usually the women). Much of the culture and abilities are about to get lost. Because people have to move to keep their work, family structures are destroyed and no one steps in (to be honest, most of the kids don’t have any interest in learning this, when being forced to – nevertheless, they should at least have tried this before becoming a teenager as well as painting or acquiring abilities in mechanics or wood-working). So, either you’re eager to learn it from books, magazines, an already experienced friend, or from videos on youtube.

I liked the documentary very much and was eventually able to persuade my wife to watch it, too. (she hates documentaries in general, regardless of the subject).

After these 45 minutes, she was eager to start knitting an Icelandic sweater herself. After a couple of minutes of googling the internet, she found an online shop dealing not only with dyed Icelandic wool but also knitting packages containing all necessary wool and the pattern for about 40-50 different sweaters and jackets. One of those packages was ordered quickly. Because of the summer holiday of the shop and the pandemic, the delivery lasted quite long. But by mid-August, the package was delivered.

About 6 weeks after the delivery she finalized the jacket. Wow! During the final phases of the first jacket, another package was ordered to make a jacket for herself. Next, our youngest son got one (he’s 21). Seeing this, our grandson (he’s 4 1/2) also asked for a jacket. But, this one should get buttons instead of a zipper as the others have. While waiting for the delivery of the wooden buttons, (2-3 weeks of delivery), my wife started a fifth jacket (a second one for herself). Until the end of February, she knitted 5 Iceland jackets in 6 1/2 months. Wow! She only knitted in the evenings while watching TV to have something to do for her hands and she even knitted and crocheted a few other things like sponges for washing dishes or egg-warmer (Amigurumi) as well as a woolen VW Bulli for a friend as a birthday gift. And there are already plans for two further jackets to start after finishing the current project: a crocheted shopping bag.

Tell me, is she suffering from a virus? Maybe an Iceland-fever-virus despite she never was there?

Dieser Post ist Teil der Zimmerreisen von Puzzelblume. Nachdem ich zwei mal pausieren musste, bin ich diesmal wieder dabei. In meinem ersten Post findest Du die Regeln, um auch selbst mitmachen zu können. Meine Posts hier im blog kannst du mit den Tags “roomtravel” und “Zimmerreisen” finden. Diesmal sind “H” und “I” die Buchstaben. Für mich heißt das “Hobby” und “Island“.

Letztes Jahr war ich ich wieder in Island. Auf dem Rückflug habe ich an meinem Smartphone ein paar Dokus gesehen. Eine davon hieß “Leben anderswo – Island – Von strickenden Männern und Pullovern”. Wie der Name schon sagt, handelte sich von strickenden Männern in Island. Der Haupt-Charakter, ein Mann mitte 30, aus Reykjavik und Mitglied eines Strick-Clubs starte eine Reise zu den Ursprüngen der Isländischen Wolle, dem Färben, und was sonst so damit zusammen hängt. Er stellt uns auch seinen Strick-Club vor, der sich regelmäßig zum gemeinsamen Stricken in Reykjavik trifft. Fast ausschließlich Männer! Aber auch eine Firma, für die Frauen im ganzen land die Handgestickten Pullover aus gestellter Wolle erstellen. Man soll diese Pullover wohl an vielen Orten auf und In Island kaufen können.

In der Doku wurden auch Isländische Kinder gezeigt, die in der Schule stricken lernen: Jungen und Mädchen. Als ich in der Schule war, musste ich auch stricken, häkeln und nähen lernen. Allerdings war ich dafür nicht sonderlich talentiert (Häkeln war das schlimmste davon). Meine Kinder hatten das nie in der Schule. Und auch in meiner Altersgruppe war das eher die Ausnahme. Auch wenn ich es nicht mochte, finde ich es gut, dass das Kindern nahegebracht wird. Wie Sport und Malen sollte auch Handarbeiten und Werken erlernt werden bevor sie zu Teenagern werden. Wenn sie es mögen, können sie später darauf aufbauen. Wenn sie es nicht mögen, haben sie es zumindest probiert. Eltern und Großeltern können so etwas heute nicht mehr leisten. Beide Elternteile müssen arbeiten (wenn überhaupt beide Elternteile da sind), und haben es in der Regel selbst nicht mehr gelernt. Großeltern müssen ebenfalls noch arbeiten oder sind weiter weg. Die heutige Notwenigkeit der Arbeit hinterher zu ziehen zerstört leider solche Familien-Strukturen. Und Schulen fehlt die Zeit, das Lehrpersonal und die Fähigkeiten bei den Lehrkräften, Handarbeiten anzubieten. So bleiben für wirklich interessierte Personen das lernen ahand von Büchern, Magazinen, erfahrenen Freunden oder Youtube-Videos. Schade!

Ich fand diese Doku so interessant, dass ich meine Frau überzeugen konnte, sie sich ebenfalls anzusehen. Normalerweise schaut sie überhaupt keine Dokus. Aber nach 45 Minuten war sie nicht nur begeistert, sondern angesteckt, selbst einen Island-Pullover zu stricken. Nach weinigen Minuten suchens im Internet fand sie einen Online-Shop, der nicht nur original Island-Wolle anbot, sondern ganze Pakete mit Wollzusammenstellungen für komplette Pullover und Jacken. Etwa 40-50 verschiedene Modelle waren im Angebot. So wurde ein Paket bestellt. Aufgrund von Sommerferien und Pandemie dauerte die lieferung zwar etwas, aber Mitte August war das Paket da.

Etwa 6 Wochen später war die Jacke fertig. Wow! Während der letzen Phase wurde schon das nächste Paket geordert. Dann ein weiteres für unseren jüngsten Sohn. Dann wollte unser Enkel auch eine Jacke haben. Diesmal sollte die Jacke aber Knöpfe statt eines Reißverschlusses bekommen. Wie haben tolle Holzknöpfe gefunden. Leider aber wieder eine längere Lieferzeit. In der Zeit wurde die fünfte Jacke begonnen, ebenfalls mit Holzknöpfen. Fünf Island-Jacken in 6 1/2 Monaten. Wow. Und sie hat nur in den Abendstunden beim Fernsehen gestrickt, um eine Beschäftigung für die Hände zu haben. In der gleichen Zeit wurden auch noch andere Dinge gestrickt und gehäkelt: Eierwärmer, Spülschwämme (Amigurumi), ein VW Bulli für einen Freund als Geburtstagsgeschenk. Und es gibt schon Pläne für zwei weitere Jacken wenn das aktuelle Projekt fertig ist: eine gehäkelte Einkaufstasche.

Hat sie sich ein Virus eingefangen? Vielleicht ein Island-Fiber-Virus obwohl sie nie dort war?

Take care!

 

architecture, art, culture, photography, travel, world

Monochrome Madness 4-41

As the theme for this weeks Monochrome Madness is “Street Art” or “Grafitti”, I have a gem from Lissabon for you: this mural by Pixel Pancho.

You know, I love these kind of art and so you can find some on my hard disk. But, nearly all of these murals come to live by the colors, it’s hard to find something looking good in monochrome, too.

This is my contribution to Monochrome Madness organized by Leanne Cole. Look at here site on Wednesday (Australian time), to see many more monochrome images created by many other talented photographers from all over the world.

While Leanne changed her counting from the year and week scheme to a simple counter, I stay with the old numbering. So, don’t feel confused, when checking here site 🙂

I’d also encourage you to participate. The conditions are  published in each of her Monochrome Madness posts.

Take care!

architecture, art, food, General, landscape, nature, photography, travel, world

WPC: Ornate

600_7439-e_wThis week’s topic for the weekly photo challenge by “The Daily Post” is “ornate”

Who is the one, who owns the crown in being a genius of decorating architecture way over the top? Antonio Gaudi!

 

Take care!

(as usual, you can see the photo enlarged, when clicking in it)

food, General, landscape, nature, photography, travel, world

WPC: treat

This week’s topic for the weekly photo challenge by “The Daily Post” is “treat

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Clean water, clean environment, healthy food as well as physical and mental health. These are the true treats. Preserve and patronize them!

Take care!

(as usual, you can see the photo enlarged, when clicking in it)

art, landscape, meeting, photography

A kind of art?

Today I want to show you three photos, also taken last week during our monthly photographers roundtable, but they are very different from the photos I usually put here in my blog. Although they are so different, there is no post-processing in them. Only landscape, light, my camera and I.

I came up with a new idea and when looking on the camera screen I liked the result. When looking on them at home on the the big computer screen, I still liked them. What do you think? I’d like to read your comments in the box below.

Although I put them here in a slightly bigger size in the post, they are at the same size as all of my other photos. As always, just click on them to see them bigger 🙂

Take care!

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architecture, art, culture, history, people, photography, travel, world

The Barcelona Cathedral

600_6551-s_wThe cathedral of Barcelona is located at a huge square in the old town, but it is jammed between other houses and stands behind in the dark. On the stairs in front of the portal are the usual suspects: beggars, tourist guides with umbrellas and other funny marks to get the attention of their groups to get them all together, artists and musicians. All in all, a very unpleasant environment for a cathedral.

Even the inside is kind of crowded. Many visitors walking slowly up and down the aisles, chatting and taking photographs. Beside the altar the choir impressed me most. It is completely segregated from the rest of the cathedral, just like a church inside the church. Only monks and priests are allowed to take their place inside the choir (and tourists as part of a guided tour). All the others can look inside through the grid at the altar side of the choir (photo above).

When inside, pay attention to the carved hand plates between the wooden chairs in the choir. As far as I was able to see them, each one is different from the others. I included some in my gallery below.

Once the cathedral was part of a monastery. Although the buildings still exist, but, as far as I know, their isn’t any monk living anymore.

As you can see from the building style, the cathedral is quite old. It was founded back in the 11th century and is donated to St. Eulalia, the patron of Barcelona and a martyr in late roman times. She is buried under the altar and her martyrdom is engraved above the door of the choir. The Legend says, she was killed 4 times in a row.

You can also visit the cloister (I’ll show you the hidden secret of the cathedral in an other post) and the roof.

Visiting the roof costs you a small fee. Depending on the visiting time, you also have to pay an entrance fee for the cathedral itself. Visiting the choir also costs you a fee, but, I don’t know, where to pay.

To give praying room to the believers, there is a separate chapel right behind the main entrance on the right.

Now, feel free and look around by using my photographs.

Take care!

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architecture, art, photography, technic, technical, travel, world

Weekly Photo Challenge: Object

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This weeks photo challenge is quite hard: object!  Finding a tangible subject, that inspired me and is still the subject of my photo. 

I took one photo out of my series of abstract architecture, taken last summer. I guess, I didn’t show any of that series here.

Enjoy!