Introduction and Welcome

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Friday, December 13, 2013

Rosa Bonheur - Deer in the Forest, Arcangelo Corelli - Trio Sonatas Opus 3, John Oxenham - What Can a Little Chap Do?

This painting by Rosa Bonhuer is done in pencil, watercolor and gummy arabicum (a bonding agent used with watercolors).  It would be fun to try in colored pencil.
Here  again is the link to the paintings we will be studying this winter by Rosa Bonhuer in case you want to print them ahead.  

If you want links to biographical sketches of our new artist, composer and poet please look at last week's post.  


File:Rosa Bonheur - Cerfs dans la forêt de Fontainebleau.jpg




Here is a link to about 8 hours of music by Arcangelo Corelli.  We've been listening to it as background music all week and enjoying it.

I've chosen Trio Sonatas Opus 1 for this week's featured piece.  It is one of the pieces included in the above link - you can listen to it here.  It is long - over an hour so you may want to use it as background music for other activities.  It is lovely and peaceful. 


Today's poem by John Oxenham would be a wonderful piece to memorize...


What Can a Little Chap Do?
What can a little chap do
For his country and for you?
What CAN a little chap do?

He can play a straight game all through;-
That’s one good thing he can do.

He can fight like a Knight
For the Truth and the Right;-
That’s another good thing he can do.

He can shun all that’s mean,
He can keep himself clean,
Both without and within;-
That’s a very fine thing he can do.

His soul he can brace
Against everything base.
And the trace will be seen
All his life in his face;-
That’s an excellent thing he can do.

He can look to the light,
He can keep his thoughts white,
He can fight the great fight,
He can do with his might
What is good in God’s sight;-
Those are truly great things he can do.

And-in each little thing
He can follow the King.
Yes-in each smallest thing
He can follow the King.
He can follow the Christ, the King.
That’s the very best thing he can do.

If you want a holiday post - you can check out the one from last year, December 6, 2012 "Celebrating the Birth of Christ".  

7 comments:

  1. This is a magnificent poem to memorize, Patti, just as you stated! This is going straight into our family memory binder. Just perfect for my young boys. Thank you yet again for exposing me to unknown beauty.

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    1. Dear Dawn: Your comments are always an encouragement and a blessing - thanks for taking the time!!

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  2. Very nice post - Do you happen to have the names of these paintings? I was not able to locate them.

    Also, when you noted that this artist (Rose) used the gum base with watercolors, I thought I would add that gum arabica is also what makes up most "gouache" - which is fun to use for some painting because it has a nice flow with a matte finish -(I added a link below that has a nice tutorial on it) anyhow, it looks like this artist may have been making her own gouache back in 1869!
    http://www.winsornewton.com/resource-centre/product-articles/understanding-gouache/

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    1. Dear Mrs. Prior: This week's painting was marked "Deer in the Forest" where I found it - I'm not sure if that is the official title or not.... If the title was on the painting where I found it, I will try to post it in the weekly title at the top of the post. Thank you for the interesting information and link!!

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  3. What a lovely watercolor! We saw deer on a recent nature walk. I will have to ask my daughter's watercolor teacher about this technique! Thank you for sharing the work of an artist new to me!

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    1. I'm glad you enjoyed the painting!! If you learn anything interesting from your daughter's watercolor teacher, it would be interesting to hear about it. Thanks for taking time to comment!

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