Tory Women

This is Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, the woman in charge of the money.  She is standing there surrounded by the 'Three word slogan,' which is a 'must have' for politicians today as they know voters prefer a slogan to facts.  People, especially today, do not want long explanations they want an understandable slogan they can gather around,  'Fixing the Foundations,' is the one the Labour Party have chosen to lie to the people with.

Now, after 14 years of Tory corruption it is to be expected the foundations are indeed adrift.  Corruption, nepotism, graft, and incompetence have all led to the nations' downfall, let alone thousands of deaths for which they can just walk away freely.  However, the way to fix foundations is to tax the rich, change the Law concerning lies in the press, stop money being hidden abroad as a tax dodge, and spend on the NHS, prisons, probation service, social security, and housing, all this will generate wealth and improve the individual's life.  

But not Rachel.

She has bowed to the corporate and private equity world, her own world as it happens.  The world where they make money and you, the peasant, die!   So, she takes heating cash from those with little money, taxes rich pensioners, reduces payments to the unemployed, the disabled and of course the NHS.  The desire to kill off the NHS is clear, doctors are not being employed, just badly taught incompetents, probably all from Tory houses, in a move to force people into private health and kill of the NHS, all this for the corporate and private equity wealthy.  

You do not matter.

Just wait until all these 'Freeport's' and 'SEZs' get going, just wait until they see the whites of your eyes and steal everything they can from you without recourse to the courts.  

This from the Labour Party, once a party seeking the best for the lowest, now totally sold out to the wealthy.  How easily political elite own the rest of us.

 

Fuss has arisen because Keir has done something most thoughtful people would do, he has removed the portrait of Thatcher from Downing Street.  The fascist rags are up in arms, full of faux anger.  The woman who took away employment security, reduced the NHS budget and disorganised the whole enterprise, cut cash for schools, social security, prisons, police, and public libraries, and began the whole make the rich richer by starving the lower orders way of government, is their hero, as long as they are making money.  Today her children are continuing to destroy the nation by following her selfish policies.  Now, they fuss about her picture. A suggestion has been made that putting the portrait to auction and selling it off would fit her policies and must be tried.  I hope Keir considers this.

Normal Weather Today.

Weather normal today, rain most of the morning, no sun, and occasional dry spots, dank and dreich but warm, a normal Summer in Edinburgh that.  I dealt with this in the manner I grew accustomed to while in Edinburgh - I remained indoors.  
Here indoors with the aid of a newly obtained cheap bookcase I cleared lots of videos from the floor,  the floor they have been lying on for about 18 months since I painted the room.  Of course my delight at my bargain (huh!?) was somewhat dimmed as the videos are about an eighth of an inch (ask your dad) too tall for the immovable shelves.  However it cleared a space, bar the dust, and soon I will be sorting other items that have lain around for too long without being attended to.  
Well I may leave that until my exercise kicks in again.  You see I keep starting this exercise business and find it does me good, however there is always a problem interfering and I end up missing out and have to start again.  So tomorrow while the washing is churning around the machine, while I watch something interesting on TV or laptop, I will once again stretch, moan, lift and moan, stretch and follow the old order once again.  If successful I may become strong enough to lift Calvin's commentary on Genesis and begin reading the thing.

While awaiting the football this afternoon, the Heart of Midlothian won by five goals to nil as you may expect, I indulged an old habit, no not that one, I went looking for portraits.  I have not taken such photos for a long time, there are no girls around here, and I found myself in the mood to do just this while the rain fell outside.  So I perused the web stealing poses in which to imagine I may one day find someone daft enough to let me practice this art.  I have taken many attempted portraits over the past hundred years and three have been worth it, I think I need practice.   At least it gave me many ideas, some above my station, and one day I will have a model and maybe actually get the camera set properly, we wait in hope.

The Sunday Post

Yesterday, in a fit of early morning zeal, I got the bike out and cycled around for half an hour.  This was yet another attempt to lose weight and get some degree of fitness.  Today, I cycled the five minutes to church, ten minutes coming back against the wind and traffic, and see myself as ready for a long cycling adventure tomorrow, if the wind drops, it's quite strong at the moment.
Yes indeed I might rise early and race slowly up the old railway until my knees give way.  That should not take long.  The advantage is the Bank Holiday Weekend, this means many people are away and the last dregs of the school holidays begin to come to an end.  This week the schools return to be filled with happy cheery children, and miserable adolescents.  At the museum we have one more week of the kids, two days actually, then it is the grandparents and parents coming in to see what they missed when they came with the kids.  
As I intend to drop one day and work only Tuesday mornings for a while, so I can do the other things for the museum that lie awaiting on this computer, i will also be able to take more time on the bike and on the bus pass.  When the holidays are over I can get a holiday.  Or at least a day out on the bus!  How I need to be out and about a wee bit more, my mind needs refreshment and my body needs the following rest.  Already this week sees an improvement as I eat better and sleep more.  

I do, as some remember, like portraits.  This one here dates from the 1850's and I winder if it is from the USA?  Something about it speaks of east coast wealth, maybe that's just me.   Possibly because of the somewhat long exposure time the lady in the picture cannot avoid offering us a face full of stress.  However I note what looks like two wedding rings on her finger and wonder if she has been bumping off her men?  The outfit looks black, it is of course impossible to tell from the picture what the colour of the dress actually happens to be, but the dark beads round the neck, the crucifix and the general demeanor speaks of sad times.  Her dark bracelets also add to the doom laden image.
She appears to be no more than thirty years of age and it is perfectly possible in the 1850's to lose two husbands in short time, and if in the USA possibly through gunfire of course!  Her men may have gone west to make their fortune and failed to return, it is likely disease carried them away. 
Poor lass, if my guesswork is correct she will have had enough problems and need no more.  I wonder who she was, I wonder if she is just a model, I wonder if her husbands were rich and I wonder where did the money go....?  

Sorting Out files

Trieris, a replica of an Athenian ship.

Computers are wonderful machines, this wee laptop I use these days can be quite slow but it does the job.  I should say it may be slow but that is because I am listening to the radio at the same time and some things go slow.  One reason it is slow may well be the amount of stuff on it, therefore I have spent the entire day wandering through the files deleting things in preparation for downloading onto disc the items I wish to keep or don't require often.  I discovered the other day my pictures were somewhat messed up.  That is I had doubles and trebles of some, others had moved to other files by themselves, honest, and many left me completely baffled as to why they were put there in the first place.  

   Oxford Street 1897

Some of the pics were quite interesting, this one appeared from somewhere, who knows where, but shows a different view of Oxford Street than that seen today.  You will note some obvious similarities, rain, crowded pavements, shops, and generally dreary appearance overall.  The main difference I suppose it that the photographer can stand in the middle of the road and remain alive....if indeed he did remain alive!

Flitch Way

Some pictures reminded me that Spring sunshine is not far away, well in theory anyway.  I am also reminded that I used to cycle every day, now hardly ever. The weather is against it, icy cold today and looking likely to stay that way all week, the energy appears lacking and the desire also. As the mornings get lighter my desire will return.  Then I rise from beneath the duvet and seek the bright lights outside, unless it rains of course!  The cycling early in the morning, before dog walkers and folks heading for work arise, is enjoyable.  If I go out earlier all sorts of people block the way, hinder my progress and selfishly consider themselves entitled to be there, as if!  

   
This is a self portrait by Lady Clementina something or other, a lass who took to photography in the middle of the nineteenth century.  If I could remember more I would tell you what it is but my dim mind tells me she took pictures of her friends, and women dressed like that make very good photographs, but from her Kensington home she made the most of her hobby.  You had to be amongst the wealthy to be a photographer in those days.  The cost of the camera, the glass negatives, the time and staff required to develop the pictures all combined to make photography very expensive indeed.  George Eastman, and those like him, did the world a huge service by developing his 'Box Brownie' and other cheap cameras. The delight of seeing a successful photograph, no matter how inept to a professional, is just that a delight!

Most of my time however was spent amending the huge amount of Great War pictures that somehow got split into a variety of places.  So many duplicates, so many I canny mind obtaining.  The laptop is not the easiest machine for a hamfisted eejit to operate and the files kept disappearing into one another. This led to more confusion as I fought to get them back where they belonged only to find I had confused two similar files.  Like hitting your head on a brick wall it was so good when it was all over, at least I hope it is now.

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Too Slothful to Post, so.....

Here is a picture of a pretty girl by a window. (1862)

She is reading a book while waiting for the carpet fitter to arrive!

Representation of the People?

In times past I liked to take portrait pictures.  I must have taken hundreds of pictures of people and have at least one really good one and two I like.  Now I only have the wee camera, and no models, I don't take any, which is irksome.  However I always collect such portraits if I see any I like, either paintings or photos.  Today I found myself wandering through sites offering vintage portraits and I am amazed so many see the light of day.  There is something about these I like.  The attractive women, the clever way they have been posed, the expressions.  A good portrait offers you the real person, and the person does not always like what they see!  Some photographers have a way of making the sitter what the photographer wishes them to be rather than what they actually are, and this irritates.  There are those who put the sitter in a box, or with a background that makes them something other than themselves, these are often famous photographers, but the subject is not in my view themselves, just a mannequin.  

The use of light and dark, the background that forces the eye onto the light areas is very Rembrandt like.  I think it was Karsh, a famous portrait photographer, who was instructed to spend time in art galleries studying Rembrants work before he began his own.  It shows in what he produced.  Karsh made his name during the war with a famous 'bulldog' picture of Churchill.  He obtained this after the first pose revealed a smiling Prime Minister with an expression usually give to grandchildren.  Karsh stepped forward, said "Sorry Prime Minister," and grabbed his cigar out of his hand.  The resultant expression of disgust gave the world the appropriate picture.

One day when rich I will get a camera similar to the aged Zenith 'E' or the Minolta, scrape together a lens of around 105 -150 length and go find myself some willing (cheap) models.

Until then I trawl the net.

     

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Three Outstanding Portraits

Gladstone

Disraeli

Salisbury

I believe all by Millais and displayed in the Portrait Gallery London.

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Last Sunshine?

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I snapped this bright blue sky this afternoon as I suspect this may be the last hot day of the year.  They say the temperature will drop considerably over the next few days, that the remains of another US hurricane will be deposited over us, with the accompanying winds to boot!  It appears a proper autumn is upon us now.  I may not go out for the next six months!  

Lady Campbell

As some enjoyed the portrait of Reynolds I add another, Lady Colin Campbell painted by Giovanni Boldini in 1897.  I first saw this large impressive painting in the English National Portrait Gallery, which you ought to visit, and was very impressed by it. The impression I received is dimmed somewhat by the restrictions of a blog, but this is a marvellous portrait. 


Gertrude Elizabeth Blood, who married Lord Colin Campbell and joined a higher social society than that in which she was bred.  However he was a philanderer and appears to have passed on a nasty disease to her. The following divorce caused a sensation (yawn) and high society rejected her in spite of he being to blame.  Well they were all at it were they not?  They still are, no morals among the high society at any time.  She turned to literary work and mixed in artistic circles. She died in 1911 in her early fifties. 
Check the link for more.


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Joshua Reynolds

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I like portraits.  This self portrait of Sir Joshua Reynolds is particularly good I thought. Instead of the usual sidelong glance and hands akimbo that we often see here he has cleverly put his hand over his eyes and brought life to the portrait.  Very good indeed I say!


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Portrait of Louise Jopling

Sir John Everett Millais (1829 - 1896)

I love portraits. Once upon a time when I had friends I used to attempt to become another Karsh or Snowdon. It was not to be however I did enjoy it and have a few snaps that I like. Those portrayed often did not like the pictures funnily enough, and this became worse for them when others cried "Oh that's just you!" Funny how we rarely like to see ourselves as we are. Women especially are like this because they will see only faults, and usually faults no man will see, faults they expect another woman to notice, and faults which in the end do not actually determine whether she is worth anything or not - the personality outshines all cosmetic faults.
Some men share the dislike of seeing themselves. This has less to do with the cosmetic side, shout "Hoi Ugly!" to any group of men and most will turn round, then point to their mate! However if the male has an image of himself, good or bad, and the picture reminds him of this, or indeed corrects his assumptions,then he feels attacked and reacts in the time honoured male fashion, he gets either violent and yells blue murder, or he sulks like a nine year old. (By the way, I have no pictures of me on view!) None the less photographs of ourselves will continue to be taken and the rich among you may well have an oil painting or two on your wall of yourself or a loved one. This is actually a good thing because in spite of you being you people wish to have a record of your existence, something the minority in history could possess.

My failure to make the grade is not equaled by Sir John Everett Millais. He became one of the foremost portrait painters, and he was not even a Scot! Louis Jopling was a well known portraitist herself and modelled for this picture. Millais then gave her the portrait as a gift foe her son, his Godson. As a leading member of 'Women's suffrage' she was clearly a troublemaker, although when she applied for a commission (worth £150) she lost out to Millais himself, who then earned £1000! Well she was just a woman after all!

Read about both, they sound admirable, and rich, people. Then study their pictures and take photos of those around you!

Portraits

This painting is called 'The Beaver Hat' and is by the Scots painter Edward Arthur Walton.
I post it simply because I like it. In the days of long ago I used to attempt to take portrait photographs and became quite adept at this. In fact of the thousands of pictures taken I found three that were worth looking at! Sadly I have not succeeded in continuing this success story through a lack of models, although I have enquired about the availability of several lassies as they passed by. The ASBO hinders this somewhat now.

I like looking at portraits as they tell us so much, mostly indirectly. While we look at the individual shown we learn much about the society around them as well as the portrait painter or photographer. It appears to me that far too many today tell us more about themselves and little about the subject. This is very sad. 'The Beaver Hat' tells us that the date is pre-war, the 'Great War' that is, but says nothing about the lassie posing. Had she been important I suspect her name would have been well known in artistic circles, and a large fee paid for the painting. This must therefore be a model. Such hats were popular amongst the girls of the day, if they had cash, and kept many a trapper happy in the wild west, although they may well have been travelling by Model 'T' Fords by this time! This is a lovely picture, simple and straightforward, a limited background, (looks like some bedsits I have known, dull, dirty and dingy,) with the lassies face highlighted and standing out from the rest. I like it. I wonder how much this would cost in today's 'Credit Crunch' society?