I've been noticing lately how one word often keeps cropping up repeatedly. Right now, for me, that word is "limpid". This is *not* a word that I am especially fond of. I somehow get a mental picture- if the word is used as "limpid blue eyes" - of someone with a vacant stare. Must be the "limp" part! I prefer to use "clear", "translucent" or even "pellucid". .. Anyway, this "limpid" keeps cropping up in a book I am reading about the Impressionists. The current one is a history - but, before that I read "The Swan Thieves", a novel by Elizabeth Kostova. The novel is about an imaginary woman painter during the time of the Impressionists but there are actual historical references too - such as the Prussians destroying hundreds of Pissaro's canvases. An interesting novel. I enjoy reading *real* art history and also historical fiction. I liked Susan Vreeland's "Luncheon of the Boating Party" - all about Renoir and the painting of his masterpiece. Some other glimpses of Impressionists were in a few of the stories in her "Life Studies" too. Thankfully, neither Kostova nor Vreeland were addicted to the use of "limpid". I'll post a painting that was in the recent show at the Federation Gallery - Roman winter- are the colours "limpid"? I think of it as clear winter light...
Monday, May 31, 2010
"Limpid"
I've been noticing lately how one word often keeps cropping up repeatedly. Right now, for me, that word is "limpid". This is *not* a word that I am especially fond of. I somehow get a mental picture- if the word is used as "limpid blue eyes" - of someone with a vacant stare. Must be the "limp" part! I prefer to use "clear", "translucent" or even "pellucid". .. Anyway, this "limpid" keeps cropping up in a book I am reading about the Impressionists. The current one is a history - but, before that I read "The Swan Thieves", a novel by Elizabeth Kostova. The novel is about an imaginary woman painter during the time of the Impressionists but there are actual historical references too - such as the Prussians destroying hundreds of Pissaro's canvases. An interesting novel. I enjoy reading *real* art history and also historical fiction. I liked Susan Vreeland's "Luncheon of the Boating Party" - all about Renoir and the painting of his masterpiece. Some other glimpses of Impressionists were in a few of the stories in her "Life Studies" too. Thankfully, neither Kostova nor Vreeland were addicted to the use of "limpid". I'll post a painting that was in the recent show at the Federation Gallery - Roman winter- are the colours "limpid"? I think of it as clear winter light...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment