Sarah Jarrett | Pop Surrealism painter

Sarah Jarrett is a collage artist and illustrator based in Norfolk, UK.

She is fascinated and inspired by the human relationship with nature and the natural world.

She loves plants, flowers, and color.

Jarrett's ladies are frequently surrounded by flowers, birds and branches, which gives them a lovely surrealistic impression.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir in Guernsey, 1883

Between late summer and early autumn of 1883, Pierre-Auguste Renoir spent over a month on the Channel Island of Guernsey, lodging at no. 4 of George Road, St. Peter Port.

The beach of Moulin Huet, and the nearby bay at the east end of the island's rocky south coast within walking distance from his lodgings, provided the inspiration for approximately fifteen paintings, including Rochers de Guernesey avec personnages (plage à Guernesey), alongside Moulin Huet Bay, Guernsey (in the National Gallery, London) and Enfants au bord de la mer Guernsey (in the Barnes Foundation, Pennsylvania).

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Rochers de Guernesey avec personnages (plage à Guernesey), 1883 | Christie's

Hayley Lever| Impressionist painter

Richard Hayley Lever (1876-1958) was an Australian-American painter, etcher, lecturer and art teacher.

His work was part of the art competitions at the 1928 Summer Olympics and the 1932 Summer Olympics.

Richard Hayley Lever was born and brought up in Adelaide, Australia.

He trained as an artist there under the guidance of James Ashton, an English born seascape artist whose son he was later to befriend in St Ives. In 1894 he set sail to Europe to finish his art studies.

Whilst in Paris he studied the human figure under Rene-Francois-Xavier Prinet but showed a natural inclination for open-air subjects and marine pictures.

Anton Chekhov: "Only one who loves can remember so well"

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov / Антон Павлович Чехов (1860-1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer.

His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics.

Along with Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg, Chekhov is often referred to as one of the three seminal figures in the birth of early modernism in the theatre.

Chekhov was a physician by profession.

"Medicine is my lawful wife", he once said, "and literature is my mistress".

• "Il ruolo dell'artista è porre domande, non fornire risposte".

• "The role of the artist is to ask questions, not answer them".

Monument to Anton Chekhov and Lady with the Dog | Yalta, Crimea, Ukraine

Ivan Malinowski | Adesso è il momento..!

Adesso è il momento di fare ciò che ti piace.

Non aspettare lunedì, non aspettare domani.

Non fare allungare davanti a te la carovana

di sogni calpestati. Non aspettare.

Non frenarti per paura o viltà.

Non posporre la vita con altra morte,

e non aspettare niente dalla sorte

che non sia più della tua tenacia e della tua energia.

Marc Chagall

Fred Appleyard (1874-1963)

Fred Appleyard was a British artist known for his landscape paintings, portraits, classical subjects and allegorical compositions.

He had 41 works exhibited during his lifetime by the Royal Academy and painted the mural Spring Driving Out Winter in the Academy Restaurant.

Appleyard was born in Middlesbrough, England on 9 September 1874, the son of Isaac Appleyard, an iron merchant. His uncle was the sculptor John Wormald Appleyard.

Edmé Bouchardon | Cupid cutting his bow from the club of Hercules, 1750

Cupid cutting his bow from the club of Hercules (L'Amour se taillant un arc dans la massue d'Hercule) is a marble statue created by the sculptor Edmé Bouchardon (French sculptor, 1698-1762 in 1750 and currently preserved at the Musée du Louvre.

Born at Chaumont, Edmé Bouchardon became the pupil of Guillaume Coustou and gained the Prix de Rome in 1722.

Resisting the barocchetto tendency of the day he was classic in his taste, pure and chaste, always correct, charming and distinguished, a great stickler for all the finish that sandpaper could give.

Edmé Bouchardon | Cupid cutting his bow from the club of Hercules, 1750 (detail) | Musée du Louvre

8 Notable artworks at the Cleveland Museum of Art

The Cleveland Museum of Art is renowned for the quality and breadth of its collection, which includes more than 63,000 artworks and spans 6,000 years of achievement in the arts.

The museum is a significant international forum for exhibitions, scholarship, and performing arts and is a leader in digital innovations.

One of the top comprehensive art museums in the nation, recognized for its award-winning Open Access program and free of charge to all, the Cleveland Museum of Art is located in the University Circle neighborhood.

John French Sloan | A woman's work, 1912 | Cleveland Museum of Art

Trained as a journalist, the young John French Sloan (1871-1951) explored social issues more vigorously than most of the painters of his time, portraying working-class urbanites engaged in ordinary activities.

He observed this particular scene through a rear window of his Manhattan apartment.

Perched on a narrow fire escape, a woman hangs fresh laundry to dry on clotheslines strung between tenements.

As evidenced by the painting, the labors of American women at the turn of the 1900s were most often confined to the domestic realm. | Source: © Cleveland Museum of Art

John French Sloan (American, 1871-1951) | A woman's work, 1912 | Cleveland Museum of Art

Paolo Sala | Veduta painter

Paolo Sala (1859-1924) was an Italian painter, mainly of vedute and genre scenes.

He often painted dal vero, that is, en plein air.

He was also known for his ability to paint animals in rural scenes.

He founded the Lombard Association of Watercolor painters in 1911.

Margaret Mead | Remember me / Ricordati di me

Years ago, American cultural anthropologist, author and speaker Margaret Mead (1901-1978) was asked by a student what she considered to be the first sign of civilization in a culture.

The student expected Mead to talk about fishhooks or clay pots or grinding stones.

But no. Mead said that the "first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur (thighbone) that had been broken and then healed".

Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die.

"You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink or hunt for food.

You are meat for prowling beasts.

No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal.

A broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery.

Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts", Mead said.

Margaret Mead | Remember me

To the living, I am gone,

To the sorrowful, I will never return,

To the angry, I was cheated,

But to the happy, I am at peace,

And to the faithful, I have never left.

Dame Laura Knight | The Dark Pool, 1908-1918

Hermann Hesse | In the Fog / Nella Nebbia / Im Nebel

Strano vagare nella nebbia!

È solo ogni cespuglio ed ogni pietra,

né gli alberi si scorgono tra loro,

ognuno è solo.

Pieno di amici mi appariva il mondo

quando era la mia vita ancora chiara;

adesso che la nebbia cala

non ne vedo più alcuno.

Julius Von Leypold | Wanderer in the Storm, 1835 | Metropolitan Museum of Art

Wisława Szymborska | Il poeta ed il mondo

Descritta dal comitato per il Nobel come il "Mozart della poesia" ma con "qualcosa della furia di Beethoven", Wisława Szymborska (1923-2012) è stata insignita del Premio Nobel per la letteratura nel 1996 "per una poesia che, con ironica precisione, permette al contesto storico e biologico di venire alla luce in frammenti d'umana realtà".

Il discorso della poetessa Wislawa Szymborska alla consegna del premio Nobel

7 dicembre 1996

(✔en) In un discorso, a quanto pare, la prima frase è sempre la più difficile.

Ebbene, la prima è comunque andata.

Ma ho la sensazione che anche le frasi successive - la terza, la sesta, la decima e così via, fino all'ultima parola - saranno altrettanto difficili, perché si suppone che io parli di poesia.

Pawel Kuczynski

Wisława Szymborska | The poet and the world

Described by the Nobel committee as the "Mozart of poetry" but with "something of the fury of Beethoven", Wisława Szymborska (1923-2012) was awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature "for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality".

Wisława Szymborska | Nobel Lecture

December 7, 1996

(✔it) They say the first sentence in any speech is always the hardest. Well, that one's behind me, anyway. But I have a feeling that the sentences to come - the third, the sixth, the tenth, and so on, up to the final line - will be just as hard, since I'm supposed to talk about poetry.

I've said very little on the subject, next to nothing, in fact. And whenever I have said anything, I've always had the sneaking suspicion that I'm not very good at it. This is why my lecture will be rather short. All imperfection is easier to tolerate if served up in small doses.

Jonathan Wolstenholme

Peter Falk (Lieutenant Columbo), the painter

Peter Michael Falk (September 16, 1927 - June 23, 2011) was an American film and television actor, singer and television director and producer.

He is best known for his role as Lieutenant Columbo on the NBC/ABC series Columbo (1968-1978, 1989-2003), for which he won four Primetime Emmy Awards (1972, 1975, 1976, 1990) and a Golden Globe Award (1973).

In 1996, TV Guide ranked Falk No. 21 on its 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time list.

He received a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2013.

Keishi Sakurai, 1974 | Romantic painter

Keishi Sakurai / 桜井 敬史 graduated from the Tokyo University of Arts in 1999, with major in Nihonga (Japanese Painting).

Keishi applies natural mineral pigments, rock paint, natural stone and hide glue on Japanese paper to create his paintings.

Keishi’s works depicting scenes from Japan, Europe, Asia, and bring a gentle feeling of serenity, viewers experience a blissful sense of tranquility when appreciating his works.

At present Keishi lives and works in Tokyo.

John Henry Henshall | Victorian watercolour painter

John Henry Henshall, usually known as Henry Henshall RWS (1856-1928) was a British watercolourist and etcher.

A favourite theme of Henshall's work is the contrast between the happy innocence of childhood, without cares, and the tribulations of old age.

He was not afraid to tackle uncomfortable subjects and his honest, realistic pictures of ordinary life were quite unusual for painters in the Victorian era.

Petra | La Geologia della città rosa del Medio Oriente

Presso la cittadina araba di Ma’an, nel sud della Giordania, sorge Petra, nota anche come la Città delle Tombe o la Città Rosa, l’antica capitale del regno dei Nabatei, dichiarata dall’UNESCO Patrimonio Culturale dell’Umanità.

Petra fu l'imponente capitale del regno nabateo dal VI secolo a.C. circa.

Il regno fu assorbito dall'Impero romano nel 106 d.C. ed i Romani continuarono a espandere la città.

Happy Birthday to Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer !

Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer - a French artist and a leading exponent of Symbolism and Art Nouveau - was born on this day, September 30, 1865 to a Jewish family in Algiers, French Algeria.

His works include paintings, drawings, ceramics, furniture and interior design.

In 1865, he began studying drawing and sculpture in Paris at the Ecole Supérieure de Dessin et de Sculpture in 1879.

He first exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1882 where he showed a small ceramic plaque.

Kevin Beilfuss, 1963 | Impressionist painter

Kevin Beilfuss is an American painter living in the Chicago area with his wife, Janice and son Drew.

He attended Illinois State University where he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in painting in 1985.

After working in an ad agency for a year, Kevin attended the American Academy of Art where he concentrated on painting and illustration.

Emile Claus | Il pittore Luminista

Oggi si celebra il 175° compleanno della figura più brillante del Luminismo, il belga Emile Claus (27 settembre 1849 - 14 giugno 1924).

Dalla sua casa idilliaca lungo il fiume Leie, Claus dipinse capolavori che continuano ad affascinare gli amanti dell'arte in tutto il mondo.

Émile Claus nacque in un piccolo villaggio delle Fiandre occidentali, sulle rive della Lys, sedicesimo figlio di una famiglia di commercianti rurali.