JMW Turner at the AGO

Wow, I can't believe it's already Friday!  I meant to post this on Monday but this week has totally slipped away from me time-wise.

The past few Mondays I have posted my baking adventures in getting ready for Christmas but this Sunday I took a day off from "mom chores" and spent the afternoon at the Art Gallery of Ontario where they were having a special exhibit of JMW Turner paintings.  I'm a big fan of Impressionist Art and Turner always seemed to me to be that bridge between the staid conservatism and those renegade impressionists.  I have seen the movie "Mr. Turner", based on the later years of his life, and thought he was quite a character ... not always like-able and, arguably, not the best painter to ever put brush to canvas ... but he certainly has a firm place in the evolution of 19th century art.

My daughter joined my at the AGO and then, as has become our custom, we enjoyed Dim Sum afterwards, where the new fellow in her life joined us.  I guess she figured she's mellow me out with some art before I got to know this young man.

It was a nice day and (with apologies for my photography skills) I thought I'd share some of my personal favorites from the exhibit ...

His two "Goethean" colour theory canvases together, Shade and Darkness - The Evening of the Deluge, and Light and Darkness (Goethe's Theory)

The Morning After the Deluge - Moses Writing the Book of Genesis.

Close up of the corner of "Light and Darkness". Made me think Turner was about the atmosphere and people in his paintings were an afterthought.

 

 "Hurrah for the whaler Erebus - another fish"

 

"Peace - Burial at Sea". This one prompted some interesting discussion about framing.

My "Fave of the Day" ... "Sunrise with a Sea Monster"

Close up of the "Monster" ... I think he's a cute little bugger