Robert Bateman - Above the Rapids

Even though the grizzly bear in this painting by Robert Bateman is in the background - he stays the center of our attention.  Love those detailed rocks and the reflective water even in the mist and of course the seagulls in motion.

Above the Rapids - © Robert Bateman

Following is a link to our  Picassa Web Album of Robert Bateman Paintings. These will be the paintings we will be viewing this summer.  Though they are copyrighted we have been given permission to copy them for educational use.  
Books of paintings by Robert Bateman 
 
Summer is busy - I hope you're finding time to squeeze in a few of these wonderful parts of the Creation oratorio by Franz Joseph Haydn -   Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8omYmytYvlo&feature=related
Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S03cwGuw43s&feature=related  there are two places with nude artwork that you may want to minimize the screen for and just listen, from 04:28-05:15 and 06:33-06:48.  
Part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=JYvdjGzlNYc
Part 4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=ucr4VikNxQw
Part 5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=WFs18ayIg5Y
Part 6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=-ul_KX2AV1U
Part 7 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fQ0_HnJYuc
Part 8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=JZFeA-INyV4 (Part 8 does include lots of nude artwork depicting Adam and Eve from about 00:32-04:15. You may want to minimize the screen and just listen.  Also footage of a Lion attacking a Wildebeast which might be too graphic for young or sensitive children - you could minimize when the lions start stalking at about 07:45 and continue to listen until this part is past- about 08:12).
Part 9 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRlL_0rTgsM&feature=related
Part 10 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKIYumIqvBQ&feature=related  (01:55-02:12 includes a piece of artwork of a person without clothes)
Part 11 http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=5lhp86YCQUQ (Part 11 from minute 06:52-08:05 focuses on a drawing of Adam and Eve without clothes - if this bothers you, just minimize for that minute....)
Part 12 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJXb2H4J268&feature=related

On Imagination

By Phillis Wheatley

Thy various works, imperial queen, we see,

    How bright their forms! how deck'd with pomp by thee!

Thy wond'rous acts in beauteous order stand,

And all attest how potent is thine hand.

    From Helicon's refulgent heights attend,

Ye sacred choir, and my attempts befriend:

To tell her glories with a faithful tongue,

Ye blooming graces, triumph in my song.

    Now here, now there, the roving Fancy flies,

Till some lov'd object strikes her wand'ring eyes,

Whose silken fetters all the senses bind,

And soft captivity involves the mind.

    Imagination! who can sing thy force?

Or who describe the swiftness of thy course?

Soaring through air to find the bright abode,

Th' empyreal palace of the thund'ring God,

We on thy pinions can surpass the wind,

And leave the rolling universe behind:

From star to star the mental optics rove,

Measure the skies, and range the realms above.

There in one view we grasp the mighty whole,

Or with new worlds amaze th' unbounded soul.

    Though Winter frowns to Fancy's raptur'd eyes

The fields may flourish, and gay scenes arise;

The frozen deeps may break their iron bands,

And bid their waters murmur o'er the sands.

Fair Flora may resume her fragrant reign,

And with her flow'ry riches deck the plain;

Sylvanus may diffuse his honours round,

And all the forest may with leaves be crown'd:

Show'rs may descend, and dews their gems disclose,

And nectar sparkle on the blooming rose.

    Such is thy pow'r, nor are thine orders vain,

O thou the leader of the mental train:

In full perfection all thy works are wrought,

And thine the sceptre o'er the realms of thought.

Before thy throne the subject-passions bow,

Of subject-passions sov'reign ruler thou;

At thy command joy rushes on the heart,

And through the glowing veins the spirits dart.

    Fancy might now her silken pinions try

To rise from earth, and sweep th' expanse on high:

From Tithon's bed now might Aurora rise,

Her cheeks all glowing with celestial dies,

While a pure stream of light o'erflows the skies.

The monarch of the day I might behold,

And all the mountains tipt with radiant gold,

But I reluctant leave the pleasing views,

Which Fancy dresses to delight the Muse;

Winter austere forbids me to aspire,

And northern tempests damp the rising fire;

They chill the tides of Fancy's flowing sea,

Cease then, my song, cease the unequal lay.

Most of the following were unknown to me so I looked them up - 

"Helicon" - (this from Wikipedia)"Helicon was briefly mentioned in some stories of Orpheus. After he was killed by some of Dionysus' followers, the women tried to wash their hands clean of the blood spilt. The river sank itself so as not to become tainted with the murdered man's blood."

"Sylvanus" - (also from Wikipedia) "Silvanus (Latin: "of the woods") was a Roman tutelary deity of woods and fields. As protector of forests (sylvestris deus), he especially presided over plantations and delighted in trees growing wild. He is also described as a god watching over the fields and husbandmen, protecting in particular the boundaries of fields.

"Tithon" - (Wikipedia) "Eos, the Goddess of Dawn, took Tithon (Tithonus), son of Laomedon to be her lover. She asked Zeus if Tithonus could be made immortal, but forgot to ask for eternal youthfulness as well. Tithonus lived forever but grew more ancient and wrinkled, eventually turning into a grasshopper." and more here.  Shakespeare makes mention of Tithon's bed in a couple of his plays. 

 "Empyreal" - Belonging to or deriving from heaven. 

"Flora"(Wikipedia) is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animal life is fauna.