Berit Hildre, 1964 | Figurative sculptor

Berit Hildre is a self-taught artist, born in Aalesund, in Norway.

For Berit Hildre, the vocation is late, it is born from his meeting with the painter Louis Tresseras with whom she lives today in France.

- "I'm a Norwegian. Twenty years ago, I left my country to travel. I met Louis on Crete. I began to model the earth, just to try. I continued for pleasure" - Bérit

This exceptional sculptor offers us all the innocence of childhood.

Her delicate and graceful little girls and girls embody the state of grace that is childhood, but also its fragility.

Mikhail Lermontov | Demon, 1829 | Chapter I

Demon / Демон is a poem by Mikhail Lermontov, written in several versions in the years 1829-1839.

It is considered a masterpiece of European Romantic poetry.

Lermontov began work on the poem when he was just 14 or 15, but completed it only during his Caucasus exile. Lermontov wrote six major variations of the poem, and the final version was not published until 1842, after his death.

The poem is set in Lermontov's beloved Caucasus Mountains. It opens with the eponymous protagonist wandering the earth, hopeless and troubled. He dwells in infinite isolation, his immortality and unlimited power a worthless burden. Then he spies the beautiful Georgian Princess Tamara, dancing for her wedding, and in the desert of his soul wells an indescribable emotion.

The Demon, acting as a brutal and powerful tyrant, destroys his rival: at his instigation, robbers come to despoil the wedding and kill Tamara's betrothed. The Demon courts Tamara, and Tamara knows fear, yet in him she sees not a demon nor an angel but a tortured soul.

Eventually she yields to his embrace, but his kiss is fatal.

And though she is taken to Heaven, the Demon is left again "Alone in all the universe, Abandoned, without love or hope!..."

Tamara and the Demon | Konstantin Makovsky, 1889

Salvatore Quasimodo | Lament for the South / Lamento per il Sud

La luna rossa, il vento, il tuo colore

di donna del Nord, la distesa di neve...

Il mio cuore è ormai su queste praterie,

in queste acque annuvolate dalle nebbie.

Ho dimenticato il mare, la grave

conchiglia soffiata dai pastori siciliani,

le cantilene dei carri lungo le strade

dove il carrubo trema nel fumo delle stoppie,

Baldassarre Longoni (1876-1956) | Terre dorate d'Italia, Mietitura, 1940

Wassily Kandinsky | VII - Painting Theory

Concerning the Spiritual in Art, 1910

Part II: About painting

From the nature of modern harmony, it results that never has there been a time when it was more difficult than it is today to formulate a complete theory, or to lay down a firm artistic basis.

All attempts to do so would have one result, namely, that already cited in the case of Leonardo and his system of little spoons. It would, however, be precipitate to say that there are no basic principles nor firm rules in painting, or that a search for them leads inevitably to academism. Even music has a grammar, which, although modified from time to time, is of continual help and value as a kind of dictionary.

Pablo Neruda | Per tanto amore la mia vita.. / De tanto amor mi vida..

Per tanto amore la mia vita si tinse di viola

e andai di rotta in rotta come gli uccelli ciechi

fino a raggiungere la tua finestra, amica mia:

tu sentisti un rumore di cuore infranto

e lì dalle tenebre mi sollevai al tuo petto,

senz'essere e senza sapere andai alla torre del frumento,

sorsi per vivere tra le tue mani,

mi sollevai dal mare alla tua gioia.

Leonid Afremov (1955-2019) | Romantic Impressionist painter

Walt Whitman | Non lasciare che finisca il giorno senza essere cresciuto un po'..

Non lasciare che finisca il giorno senza essere cresciuto un po',

senza essere stato felice, senza avere aumentato i tuoi sogni.

Non lasciarti vincere dallo scoraggiamento.

Non permettere che nessuno ti tolga il diritto ad esprimerti,

che e' quasi un dovere.

Non lasciar cadere la tensione di fare della tua vita

qualcosa di straordinario.

Jon Bøe Paulsen, 1958 | The Blue Hour

Martha Walter (1875-1976) | Impressionist painter

Martha Walter was an American impressionist painter.

Education

A Philadelphia native, Walter attended Girls High School.

She studied art at the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art (now the University of the Arts College of Art and Design) from 1895-98 and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia.

She was taught by William Merritt Chase. She won the school's Toppan Prize (1902) and Cresson Traveling Scholarship (1908).

In 1909 she also won the school's Mary Smith Prize for the best painting by a resident female artist.

Giuseppe Faraone, 1954 | Impressionist painter

Born in Picerno (Potenza), Giuseppe Faraone attended the Art School of Potenza, before moving to San Donato Milanese on the outskirts of Milan, where he still lives and works.

Here he started his relentless pursuit of a variety of drawing techniques and the use of colors.

He understands the art of painting, having perfected his talent in Italy and abroad.

Faraone fined tuned his skills in the Impressionist style by painting in the same places where French Impressionism was born.