An Insight into our existence-1

"Do you remember Darwin, Sis"?
"Who?"My half asleep sis growled.She oftens reacts like this whenever I come up with questions like this.
"Charles Darwin, you know,the guy of theory of evolution"I said.
"Hmmm... What about Him!!" she yawned.Deciding to take it as a"Great! tell me more"I continued.

"You see, today the idea of evolution is very obvious.In schools, students are taught about origin of species,genetics etc.But the time when it actually was discovered it was very difficult to accept.There was huge uproar among people against Darwin's theory of evolution."
"Hmm....."She nodded.
"Darwin's father was a successful medicine doctor so obviously he sent him for medical college. But anatomy digusted him,hospital case-work filled him with horror so basically he couldn't fit in it, though he possessed scientific interests and love for nature.Second option;clergyman--not bad!. But churchman had to have degrees. During his stay in Cambridge he came across couple of eminent botanists and naturalists who broadened his outlook enormously."
"And then he received an amazing invitation---an invitation that would steer his life and career toward adventure.He was invited to go on a voyage around the world. British govt was doing a survey of South American coast and Pacific islands and they needed a naturalist who would observe,record and collect anything of interest in these lands.This request was overwhelming.He was just a beginner and moreover what about his dad. He was definitely not going to approve it. And as expected he refused it.Darwin didn't have the courage to argue so The end......."

"Oh god! What a luck?"Curiously my sis blurted out with wide eyes.

"Yeah, I know!" I agreed. "But then he casually told his uncle about the offer and to his disbelief he promptly spoke to his father and convinced him.And within days he was at plymouth to see "Beagle"----the ship that would take him round the world."
"WOW"! "What a luck!"I heard.

"On Dec 27,1831 the Beagle set off for the voyage into atlantic ocean. It would be five years before he would see his home again. Life on ship was not easy.It was a small ship for over seventy people. Anyways after sixty-three  days  at sea they reached South America.To his amazement the place was lush tropical forest with birds,insects,plants and animals all around him.he could feel the the strange heavenly perfumes in air along with                        chirping,rustling,darting.It was an experience of life time."

Heavenly flowers

I happen to visit a greenhouse flower garden last month. I have never seen such a marvellous collection of flowers and other ornamental plants.The color of flowers and their different shapes and sizes was mesmerizing.

A short walk into Art!

Most of us had 'Drawing' as a subject during our school days.It was compulsory anyways, we had no choice to make. Out of 100 most of my classmates used to get 40 to 70. I have started mine from 34(1mark less and I would be fail). Though i liked drawings and paintings --at least I thought so but no idea how to do it.Luckily one of our neighbours took pity on me as he saw my drawing book and taught me few steps ( He was an artist!!!).Perhaps he couldn't bear a neighbour like that.What soever happened but it gave me a new life and hobby. Soon I was getting more than 90 marks in drawing.I was going into competitions and so on.Actually he opened for me a whole new world of art.Everyone could see an artist in me now.I continued my journey for many years to come.Then I moved into more serious and demanding profession.Gradually I drifted apart from painting and drawing.Now it's been many many years that I have actually drawn anything. I have become more logical than intuitive or imaginative.I have always felt that void in me.


When we look at any painting anywhere we hardly appreciate it unless it is very clear and evident. Most of us would have never bothered to visit an art gallery. Actually its not our fault because most of what is there we don't understand and feel boring. I am also one of you.
Recently I was watching Young Indiana Jones.In one of the episodes I noticed a very famous artist --Picasso.Honestly I wasn't much interested because I thought of him kind of psyche and bewildered.

But somehow it inspired me to watch some special features in it. They were mainly about artistic revolution in late 19th century and early 20th century.What I was going to see would give me a whole new outlook of art!During 19th century the world was changing at very fast pace. Paris, one of the most modernized city of the world at that time was promising a new era. With modernized buildings,biggest steal tower (Eiffel tower)brightly lightened up,roads,railways it was attracting the world to visit french art. In big salons and art galleries there were paintings by famous artists who used to make beautiful paintings and sculptures of fairies,angels, castles, rich beautiful women, heavenly world,the things when we see will make us feel good. But everything was going to change.The world of art that we see today was completely unlike during that time.


Somewhere among the people of Paris were passionate young artists who did not appreciate what was shown in galleries. According to them the paintings depict myth and legends ,only perfect people in ideal conditions. They just glorified the past.Nothing was similar to real world.They considered them to be beautiful but irrelevant paintings.People cannot see themselves in them.They wanted to explore the art.Something to be new from within inside. They wanted to be free.
Gustave Courbet was one of them. He  challenged  the academics -the traditionals who control the art world and salons,galleries ,everything they know about art that existed at that time.He believed that art  should imitate real world.He never painted an angel as he had not seen one.But for traditional a painting was worth if it was uplifting and it portrayed a better and pleasant life than what we live in .          


He painted real pictures of people around him. One of his famous paintings till today is Stone breakers that depicted economic reality of that time. One could see big,solid men creating raw material for buildings,rails and roads.The picture was life size .People were blown away as they couldn't make difference between real life and painting.It was truth about their lives.
Then there was another revolutionary Edger Degas an aristocrat whose paintings unlike anyone else were  imaginative, persuasive.His paintings include jockeys,  Ball dancers in different poses,disrupted movements of  prostitutes etc. Anyone who would see the paintings thought that Edger was present there while painting but it wasn't true.He would first assemble in mind than on canvas.

Along with Paul cezanne,Claude Monet,Berthe Morisot to name few and other artists they are known to be the founders of modern art. Year after year the academics refused to accept the arts of these radical young painters. Fed up from the sorry state of french art these frustrated artists in 1874 organised the first group show of modern art. This was huge turning point. This group later on was named as impressionists. Impressionists is an umbrella term which means freedom of vision.Their independence to their own style. The brush stroke become a signature . Their was individuality in every painting. It opened a whole new world of colors. It not only transformed the style of art but also changed the  way of judging it. Our expectations from the art have  also revolutionized .Now it is obvious to expect new, something different,defiant,edgy. Now we expect and appreciate originality.Today it is the most popular style of painting. Traditionals thought it to be shocking and offensive.They didn't appreciate change and anything new. ---- Paul cezanne spend 15 years of his life living lonely in mountains just painting and experimenting  again and again. His paintings when were seen after  these years received a huge appreciation. It showed the tranquility,trauma of nature. They were complex, challenging and powerful pictures.

Then came Picasso and Braque collaboration-They were visual artists who discovered  cubist style of art, today what we call analytical cubism. They swept away whole Paris with their new style of art.George Braque would break his figures into geometrical designs. He used web like structures of lines to  bind his figures together and tied them to surface. It was totally different unlike anyone else had done before.Picasso in coming years rose to fame and became single most influential person in modern art.Braque chose to paint in his studio alone and was honoured by giving a state funeral at his death. 
I was so stunned by the struggle and hardships that these artists went through, that next time when I would see any painting I wouldn't just ignore it but would like to understand it or at least appreciate it.                                    
                                                      http://emptyeasel.com( The beautiful painting  above is by Braque )