Mixed bag of emotions

Why do previously communist controlled countries want to return to it? Everything I’ve read over the years has nothing good to say about communism. For instance, Stalin killed tens of millions of Russians during his reign and in the name of communism. And Mao was almost as bad in China. It is obvious that freedom ceases to exist under this type of communism, so I do wonder why people seem to want it. This afternoon I was listening to the World Service programme, World Questions – Czech Republic. Apparently they believe Russian propaganda and wish to live lives under oppression.

I was listening as I washed up for the umpteenth time today. I wasn’t sure what was happening with the return of Mirinda and so I made a shepherd’s pie which we could either eat or leave till tomorrow. I also made some gazpacho soup given the unnaturally hot weather.

As it turned out, she was delayed and forced to change her plans from one station to another. She also misplaced a purple bag which meant missing a connecting train. She found the bag but then had to wait another hour (almost) for the final leg home.

Because of this, I was at my art class when she returned home. At least she had the girls to welcome her.

This week, we looked at Post Impressionism, Pointillism and how Degas didn’t like either. In fact, he was quite adamant about it given his devotion to Impressionism. But he was fighting a losing battle given how art always moves forwards, changing style and creating new influences.

We looked at Cezanne who, Dr Amy said, was largely responsible for the art world’s journey towards the abstract. His painting, Bathers, was a step in this direction.

He painted a few different versions of the painting as did quite a few other artists. I mean, other artists didn’t paint different versions of Cézanne’s painting, rather they painted different versions of their own works. Van Gogh, for instance, painted lots of self-portraits and the scene out of his window.

(Incidentally, we have seen the scene outside Vincent’s window and it didn’t look as good as his paintings of it. That was in 2017 when we visited St Remy.)

But, returning to Pointillism…a few of the Impressionists ventured down the route of playing with colour and how to daub paint. Claude Pissarro, for instance, went full on for it. In the final Impressionist exhibition, he wanted to exhibit his new style but the leading Impressionists decided that this new form of art distracted the viewer too much from the ‘true art’ of their works. Pointillism was pushed into a corridor away from the main room.

As I asked Dr Amy during Q&A, wasn’t this just like the Paris Salon ignoring Impressionism?

Actually, lots of artists wanted to exhibit at the Impressionist exhibitions because the Paris Salon just wasn’t that popular in the latter parts of the 19th century.

Before I leave this week’s art class and head across to the World Cup, I would just like to highlight the art of Marie Bracquemond whose husband was so insecure that he made her give up painting to look after the children, in fear that she was a better artist than him and his fragile ego just couldn’t take that.

This from her Wikipedia entry: “Indeed, Pierre Bracquemond, their son, stated that his father was jealous of Marie’s work, belittled her ambition, and refused to show her paintings to visitors.” What a sad pathetic man he was.

Anyway, leaving the Impressionists behind, tonight saw England play Argentina in the second semi-final of this year’s World Cup and, obviously, I was watching it.

Nicoline can stop reading now

(Can I just say that this may be the final time I have to use the heading above.)

It was obvious that Argentina was going to try and bash the England team into submission. The first ten minutes of the game consisted of them pushing, shoving, punching, slapping and generally acting like inadequate children on the pitch. Fortunately, this did not distract the England team who preferred to play proper football rather than cover up their inadequacies.

England scored first and the crowd went a bit mad. Mind you, I think this guy was a bit mad to start with.

Face painting aside, it was an excellent goal that came out of nowhere and asserted England’s dominance on the game. They then sought to deny the Argentines any access to their goalmouth.

And, to be fair, the defence of both teams was amazing. Like buzzing flies, each attack was deflected by at least three players. It felt like both teams had twice as many players as they should have. Overall, this aspect of the game was exemplary and a great lesson in how to defend.

Unfortunately, these things don’t last for long and, eventually, Argentina scored one back. Then, deep in injury time, as it looked like they would be heading for extra time, the inevitable happened. Argentina scored again. And that, as they say, was that.

So, that’s it for me. I’m really not interested in Spain v Argentina and watching the fight for third place (France v England) just feels like a money making exercise by FIFA. I’m now looking forward to the Euros in 2028.