Albert Namtjira Facts - 1

General

• He was a famous Indigenous painter
• His medium was watercolours Born 28th July 1902
• Mother Arrernte woman called Ljukuta. Father Arrernte man named Namatjira

Inspiration

• Inspiration included Rex Battarbee and John Gardner. Rex a Australian, John unknown.
• In 1934 Rex and John held an exhibition (2 days) at the Hermannsberg. Albert's missionary close to the exhibition.
• About 300 Aborigines came to see the paintings. Albert was 32 when he got to see this inspiring exhibit.

Early Life

• Arrernte customs say that the boy's name would not be given to him until he had been initiated.
• This changed when Albert's parents became Christians in 1905.
• Both were renamed and remarried to Jonathan and Emelia.
• Son was baptised Albert
• Grew up in a mission
• Although in a mission and attended church and school, mum and dad still taught him Arrernte.
• Taught him his country, his language, palce in Arrernte society, who he could marry, how to survive on land and other things to live responsibly as an Arrernte man.

Albrecht Dürer

Albrecht Dürer was a German painter born on the 21st of May, 1471. He is a renowned painter and printmaker but died on the 6th of April, 1528 at the age of 56. Dürer became famous when he was in his mid-twenties and because of this, his life has been well documented by several sources.

After a few years at school, Dürer started learn a bit about goldsmithing and a bit of drawing from his father. He showed such a talent for drawing that although is father wanted him to continue goldsmithing, he let him become a apprentice to Michael Wolgemut at the age of fifteen. Wolgemut was a leading artist at that time in Nuremberg and owned a large workshop that produced many different types of art. The one in particular was woodcuts for books.

The great artist of the Renaissance looked as if he painted in watercolours and oils but engraving was the thing he was most famous for. A particular favourite of some is a watercolour painting called A Young Hare. Although the idea of a hare bores some people Dürer has added great detail to this work to make it a boring hare look like a piece of artwork.

With a lot of his works in great detail, he did not get to finish some. When he died he left a career that many would have loved to have. Although the person is gone, his spirit still lives in some of his paintings.



A Young Hare

Edgar Degas

Hilaire-Germain-Edgar de Gas was a French born artist and famous for painting, sculpturing, printmaking and drawing. Born on the 19 July ,1834, he lived for 83 years and died on the 27 September ,1917,. If he was alive today then he would be 174 years of age but althoug his age changed I don't think that his love for art would have ever changed.

He was born into a family of three boys and two girls and Degas was the eldest of them all. He changed his last name to Degas some time later when painting his works of art.

At the age of 18, Degas had turned one of his rooms into an art studio but although his love for art showed, his father wanted him to go to law school. His studies for law at the University of Paris were vain as he took little interest. In July 1856, Degas travelled to Italy which was the place where he would stay for another 3 years. There he drew and painted copies of pictures done by Michelangelo, Raphael and other famous artists. During this period he succeeded in the technique of classical art.

Degas used a couple of artistic materials. From what I can find he used oils, pastels and he had to use something to make sculptures!

I am really infuriated by the fact that wherever I go to find something on the Web that it always turns out to be in complicated English. This is what I find a lot on Wikipedia and since this is the only site I can find details on his life, I have to stop here. Wait a minute! One last thing. I am personally very attracted to the painting called The Dance Class. With the detail and beatuy of the picture, it gives you a wonderful feeling to go and dance with them.


The Dance Class

Harper Lee - Author of 'To Kill a Mockingbird'

Nelle Harper Lee is an American author well known for her work, To Kill a Mockingbird. While born on April 28th, 1926, she made her book in 1960. At the age of 82, she lives with her 94 year old sister Alice.

Lee was the youngest child of Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances Cunningham Finch Lee. Truman Capote, another famous American writer, was a neighbour and a friend in those early years and on. She lived in a southwestern Alabama town called Monroeville but first studied in Huntingdon College in Montergomery, Alabama. She then went on to do a law degree in the University of Alabama and spent one year overseas at Oxford University, England. Before she became a writer, she worked as a reservation clerk for Eastern Airlines in New York City until the late 1950's. Lee lived a inexpensive lifestyle, travelling only to her original home in Alabama to look after her father, and her cold-water-only apartment. She now worked in Holcombe, Kansas, as a research assistant for Truman Capote's 4th novel 'In Cold Blood' .

Harper Lee published her first but only novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, in 1960 after a two year period of rewriting and revising under the advice of her editor. Her book was so successful that it won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize despite the fact that her book had many different critical views. In the book she had put in her own experiences as a child in Monroeville. The book was a best seller by selling more than 15 million copies and was made into an outstanding film.

As I have said at the top, she now lives with her sister Alice and I am sure that she is living a very happy life.

Harper Lee

Sidney Nolan

Sir Sidney Robert Nolan is a renowned Australian painter for his arts on Ned Kelly but was also known for his printmaking. Born on the 22nd of April, 1917, He spent most of his life as a painter even as a child. If he still lived today he would be 91 years of age but died on the 28th of November, 1992 in London.

Nolan was the eldest of the four children in his family. He was born in the suburb of Carlton in Melbourne but later moved to the bay side St Kilda, also in Melbourne. He left school at the age of 14 to attend Prahran Technical College, Department of Design and Crafts to do a course which he had already begun by part-time correspondence. When he was 16, he started to work for Fayrefeild Hats and Abbotsford by making advertisements and display stands with dyes and spray paint. In 1934, when he was 17, he attended night classes, in no particular order, at the National Gallery of Victoria Art.

He was close friends with John and Sunday Reed who were art patrons or art supporters. His involvement with the Reeds ended up breaking his relationship with his first wife Elizabeth Patterson but married again to John's sister Cynthia after being refused to marry him by Sunday Reed. His last marriage was to Mary Boyd.

He is most famous for the Ned Kelly Series in which some he painted in the Reed's living room. In most of his paintings you can see that he has not put in Kelly's head or eyes but in every scene he painted, Kelly was always wearing his suit of amour.

In 1950 Nolan moved to London where he stayed until his death. Some of his paintings are now in the National Art Gallery of Australia. From my perspective, I think that they look very simple but sometimes just a little can do so much.

The Trial by Sidney Nolan

Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt was an Austrian painter. He was born in Baumgarten, Vienna July 14, 1862 and died on the 6th of February, 1918. He was one of seven children and all three brothers had an artistic talent and Gustav was lucky to have this talent of painting famous works.

His early life was poverty and most of his life was but he married Anna Klimt (née Finster) but in the early 1890's he met Emilie Flöge who became his life companion. He was also said to have fathered fourteen children during that period with Emilie Flöge. In 1892 his father and brother died which had an effect on how he painted for the rest of his life.

Klimt took annual summer holidays with the Flöge family and drew a lot of his pictures there. His work is distinguished by the elegant gold and the type of decorations he puts in his work. I would have a lot more to say but due the fact that the English language can't be simple, I have to stop here. To sum up all of this, I have decided to note that if you look on the 100 euro gold coin, you can find Gustav with two unfinished paintings.

The Gustav Klimt

Berthe Morisot & THRASS

Where did she live and paint?

Berthe Morisot was born in Bourges, Cher, France. From my sources, she painted in France.

What is her style called?

Her style was called Impressionist. Many famous artists did this including Claude Monet.

When did she paint?

She painted when she could. Her career was an artist and her sister was also one too. By the age of 20 she had met a few famous people too.

What is your favourite painting and discuss it.

I like 'The Cradle' or 'Le berceau'. I chose this because of its colour and who was on the picture. The way she mixes her colours and the I don't get it how she was able to make that veil type thing over the baby's cradle.

shout
lash
crash
hash
fresh
leash
sheet
sheer
should
shocking
astonishing
shop
shelf
relish

In the tree house I saw some big blue-green birds singing songs which was quite astonishing, a mini faded shelf with a small pink tea set on top, a fresh hash brown which I relish and and extra large sheet concealing all the money in my piggy bank!

Poem - The Owl and the Pussy Cat

The Owl and the Pussy-Cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea-green boat:
They took some honey, and plenty of money
Wrapped up in a five-pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
"O lovely Pussy, O Pussy, my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!

Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl,
How charmingly sweet you sing!
Oh! let us be married; too long we have tarried:
But what shall we do for a ring?"
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the bong-tree grows;
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood,
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.

"Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
Your ring?" Said the Piggy, "I will."
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.

By Edward Lear

Edward Lear is a renowned poet but is also know for his skill in being an English artist, an illustrator and writer. Most of his literacy is nonsense but nevertheless, it still enchants readers today.

Born on the 12th of May, 1812, he was the 20th child in his family and was raised by older sister Ann. They left the family home together and set up a new one together as well. He started work as a serious illustrator and published his first work at the age of 19. From my sources, he had 22 works throughout his lifetime.

Lear was not a healthy person. He suffered from seizures which is when the body sort of moves in a sharp way. To add to the list was asthma, bronchitis and when he was older, partial blindness. Yet, from all this, he still had one of the most famous poems in the world. Neither did this stop him from teaching Queen Victoria for a time!

He died on the 29th of January, 1888, but he would be happy to know that his work still lives on and is being read by generations of children.





The Edward Lear and the Owl and the Pussy Cat

Poem - Dust of Snow

The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.

By Robert Frost

From what I read, I think the poem means the way the crow flies or the way the crow does things gave Frost a thought. From a certain tree snow fell down and he describes the look as if it was dust. This dust like snow has given his heart or feelings a change of mood and saved some of the pity he gave.

Robert Lee Frost was born on March 26th, 1874 and died 88 years later on January 29, 1963. He is renowned as a famous poet and many of his poems live on to this very day.

In his adult years he proposed to Elinor Miriam White and were married at Harvard University where Frost studied for two years. He had six children but only two outlived him as three died of illness and one committed suicide. In 1894 he sold his first poem, "My Butterfly: An Elegy" and gained 15 dollars for it. This was just the beginning of his career and wrote some of his best works in England.

To sum up, I have put one of Frost's famous quotes:

"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life

— It goes on"

Shakespeare Challenge

William Shakespeare is renowned as a playwright but was also a poet and actor. He is regarded by many people, as the greatest English writer in the English language He was born 444 years ago in Stratford-upon-Avon in England, sometime in April, 1564 while the exact date of his birth is not known he was baptised on the 26th of April and died 52 years later on the 23 of April, 1616. Though he is dead, his famous works including Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet and The Taming of the Shrew, still live on.

He was most famous for his 38 plays but he wrote sonnets and poems too. One of his sonnets is called Sonnet 18.

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimmed,

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,

Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Here is a version of Sonnet 18 describing the poem in modern English:

Shall I compare you to a summer's day?

You are more lovely, pleasant and more even tempered,

Rough winds do shake the little buds of May:(Spring in Australia)

Summer doesn't last long,

Sometimes the sun is too hot,

Often it's cloudy,

Everything that is pretty becomes less prettier,

Becomes less prettier by chance or the changing of the seasons,

But you will stay like a summer's day forever,

You won't lose your prettiness,

You won't die,

You will live forever,

As long as people can live and read,

As long as there are people existing they will be able to read this poem which is about you and so you will stay alive.

His plays are categorised in tragedies, comedies and histories. The Taming of the Shrew is known as a comedy. It is about how a rich noblewoman, named Katherine, who is a very bad tempered scold who meets a fortune hunter man named Petruchio. He decides to 'tame' Katherine by embarrassing her in a number of ways and makes her an obedient wife. The story ends happily as Katherine is no longer rude and as always, they lived happily ever after. This is one of the many great stories written by William Shakespeare.

In his plays, Shakespeare has made some famous quotes. Here are a few:

'To be or not to be - that is the question...' Hamlet

'I have done nothing but care for thee,
Of thee, my dear one, thee my daughter...' The Tempest

'A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!' Richard III

'What's done is done' Macbeth

'All the world's a stage' As You Like It

'O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?' Romeo and Juliet


Whether it is tomorrow, decades or centuries, William Shakespeare's work will live on forever.





Painting of William Shakespeare from the National Portrait Gallery, London.