Spirit Trees

Paul Cezanne told an admirer, "See that tree? Paint it the bluest blue that you can." Why not? It adds another dimension to an already riotous late fall scene, and just in time for Halloween. Barren trees cast stark shadows across grass wearing its pale winter colors. An explosion of yellow envelops surrounding canopies.

But what about the blue? Now we have a pair of twisted titans--one bent at the waist--reaching left as if to snare the unwary traveler. Lurid red light reflects from the nether realms. The only normal foliage, a clump of green brush at the right, seems to lean away from these aberrations. Brown shadow at lower right keeps the ground a warm hue. A touch of lavender at lower left contrasts with the sunlit yellow hillock. Dry blends predominate in keeping with the sere autumn weather. As with painting sky scenes, going all Cezanne isn't for the timid. Let those colors fly.

Author Highlights

Edgar Alan Poe




What really happened to him?  He lived to a young age of 40 during the 1880s.  We all know there were not very good medical technologies back then.  I always thought of him as a dark fantasy writer in a way, drawing upon areas where alcohol took its toll on his brain amid other possible illnesses in America during that time.  


I mostly read up on his poems and short stories during my young adult days and working on my writing craft.  Poe was one of a kind.    He was an orphan as well, so he probably had a lot to deal with finding where he belonged in his own life.   By reading on his biography, it seems that the best schools for writing and art were overseas in Europe and England as America nearing the Civil War in next couple decades.  His foster parents did not treat him well but saw his talents.  He married twice in his life time while enlisted in the United States Army as he could not support himself.   

Quite an interesting life he had short as it was.  From all the experiences he had, drew upon it for his stories and poems as it seems he was rather lonely in his life.  His biological parents were David and Elizabeth Eliza Arnold Hopkins who were actors, so I am wondering if he was a descendant from Anthony Hopkins?  Anything is possible.  Was his death a mystery as he was a mystery writer himself?

The Outrage Factor

The best plots are those that play on the emotions. Among the strongest stories are those that go up against our sense of right and wrong. It isn't necessarily about revenge, nor does outrage have to drive the main plot; it also strengthens subplots, such as where someone gets abused or taken advantage of. Regardless of genre, you can dial up the old outrage meter as much as desired, as we'll see from some traditional sources of inspiration.

Vidgame Hackery
In the game Summoner, farm boy Joseph returns to find his village burned (villains have a thing for that, don't they?). Yep, it's questin' time. In similar fashion is Venetica, set in a fantastical medieval Venice. If the designers noticed venetica is Latin for wizardress, kudos on them. At any rate, our gal takes down a (you guessed it) village raider with her garden rake. She's thereby obtained her first sword, and you know the rest. Basing a story on this is more about the adventure than any kind of cosmic enlightenment. Eh. 6/10 on the outrage meter.

Clive Cussler et al
In Dale Brown's military thriller The Kremlin Strike, those crazy Russians have hustled up a space station in record time. They have the effrontery to shoot up our satellites, and their president is a jivetime ponk in need of some hash settling. We're keen to see him get what-for, so file this one under Bullies Inc. 8/10.

Spuming Magical Destiny
Suppose a peasant longs to join the elite ranks, but faces jealousy in the ranks, with some pseudo-Inquisition types thrown in for good measure. It's the crab in the bucket syndrome: one tries to climb out, but the others can't be having that, and pull him back in. This plot fuels many a fantasy yarn. 9/10.

The One-Sided Equation
In 1995's The Killing Star, earth is hit out of the blue with kinetic weapons that destroy the planet. The aliens  hunt down every ship and outpost in the solar system. They explain to a pair of survivors (destined for a zoo) that mankind has emerged as a rival and must be quashed. A single ship escapes, and this screams sequel--you just know we'll be back to show these squid faces what calamari looks like. Only it never happens; the author has written it as a one-shot commentary. Now that's outrageous. 10/10.

Art: Shirley's Woods

A photog could do a lot worse on a September afternoon. Just the other side of a sagging chicken wire fence lay this forgotten little recess on my aunt's property. The magical pool of light drew out my muse, but something was missing--the human touch. The addition of steps and a crumbling wall create a porch from which settlers once communed with the fairies. Sunlit saplings lend depth to the scene as they merge with shaded trunks closer in.

The camera's cold eye had the foreground a uniform dark green (translate boring). Stippling it with green, orange and blue lays down a random carpet of leaves and shrubs, which viewers will think took hours of careful planning. But nature shouldn't be planned, and besides, that's too much like work. Since the foreground is a supporting element, have fun and let nature fly.

This might be called a 'ground glass' method. You could slap it on with glitter-paint abandon, unless your muse nags you about cheating, or maybe cut fingers. But we can always simulate the thing. Unlike the careful precision of Pointilism, these touches vary widely in shape and size, though we have the same goal of juxtaposing light against dark. Wrap the trees in light by edging them in ultra thin white with the side of a palette knife. Start with a thin wash in the background, adding detail as you work toward the foreground. Haven't yet tried multiple colors on the brush? It's a good way to let unexpected things happen, filling in discrete areas out of which your guiding hand draws touches of realism.

Wordsmithing

As defined by urbandictionary.com (paraphrased), a wordsmith is "One with the ability to effortlessly string together words, no matter the meaning, in such a way it brings a smile, laughter, or admiration for such skill." That word "effortless" is a little problematic. It does take some thought to be concise, poetic, witty, snarky, or whatever the tone is. Depending on the balance of ingredients, you can have a wiseguy Greg Gutfeld or a rapier wit like Rod Serling. Wordsmithing livens up book reviews, satire, blogs, and opinion pieces, but doesn't work for informative offerings like product reviews (just the facts, ma'am).

As to methods, we first become aware of a playful narrative through unusual word pairings like "quixotic quorum". Who knows--that might refer to a board of elderly gents at a condo association meeting. It's a poetic device which, like its namesake, crams a lot in a small space; it's the opposite of wordiness, which begs for cuts and editing. Taking such liberties means knowing your subject well enough that fans don't see you as an outsider poking fun. Besides tone, you can emulate your favorites, though that works best for fan fiction.

A Little Fan Fiction

Alfred Hitchcock Good evening. As time is limited, I shall endeavor to rein in my runaway enthusiasm for the subject at hand. [Draws breath]. Good night.

Rod Serling Portrait of a writer who is here yet  not here, a fictional persona masquerading as his betters. . .in the Twilight Zone. [Cut me some slack, Rod.]

Duke Nukem So I ain't no Emily Post. Don't shoot up my ride, Clyde!

Greg Gutfeld Me trying to channel Jane Austen is like Chuckles the clown teaching Shakespeare!

Four different voices will have different takes on the same subject. Your own interest shines through with lively, off the wall presentation, even if it comes with a slight tradeoff: the writer is very much on stage, as opposed to his usual place kibbitzing behind the curtain. Did we mention it's fun?

Artist Friday Feature

Sir Peter Paul Rubens

28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist. He is considered the most influential artist of Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens's highly charged compositions reference erudite aspects of classical and Christian history. His unique and immensely popular Baroque style emphasized movement, color, and sensuality, which followed the immediate, dramatic artistic style promoted in the Counter-Reformation. Rubens specialized in making altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects.

In addition to running a large studio in Antwerp that produced paintings popular with nobility and art collectors throughout Europe, Rubens was a classically educated humanist scholar and diplomat who was knighted by both Philip IV of Spain and Charles I of England. Rubens was a prolific artist. The catalogue of his works by Michael Jaffé lists 1,403 pieces, excluding numerous copies made in his workshop.^[2]

His commissioned works were mostly "history paintings", which included religious and mythological subjects, and hunt scenes. He painted portraits, especially of friends, and self-portraits, and in later life painted several landscapes. Rubens designed tapestries and prints, as well as his own house. He also oversaw the ephemeral decorations of the royal entry into Antwerp by the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria in 1635.

His drawings are predominantly very forceful and without great detail. He also made great use of oil sketches as preparatory studies. He was one of the last major artists to make consistent use of wooden panels as a support medium, even for very large works, but he used canvas as well, especially when the work needed to be sent a long distance. For altarpieces he sometimes painted on slate to reduce reflection problems.

Early life[edit]

The garden designed by Rubens at the Rubenshuis in Antwerpen

Rubens was born in the city of Siegen to Jan Rubens and Maria Pypelincks. He was named in honour of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, because he was born on their solemnity.^[3] His father, a Calvinist, and mother fled Antwerp for Cologne in 1568, after increased religious turmoil and persecution of Protestants during the rule of the Habsburg Netherlands by the Duke of Alba.

Jan Rubens became the legal adviser (and lover) of Anna of Saxony, the second wife of William I of Orange, and settled at her court in Siegen in 1570, fathering her daughter Christine who was born in 1571.^[4]

Following Jan Rubens's imprisonment for the affair, Peter Paul Rubens was born in 1577. The family returned to Cologne the next year. In 1589, two years after his father's death, Rubens moved with his mother Maria Pypelincks to Antwerp, where he was raised as a Catholic.

Religion figured prominently in much of his work, and Rubens later became one of the leading voices of the Catholic Counter-Reformation style of painting^[5] (he had said "My passion comes from the heavens, not from earthly musings").^{[citation needed]}

Apprenticeship[edit]

Portrait of a Young Scholar, from 1597

In Antwerp, Rubens received a Renaissance humanist education, studying Latin and classical literature. By fourteen he began his artistic apprenticeship with Tobias Verhaeght. Subsequently, he studied under two of the city's leading painters of the time, the late Mannerist artists Adam van Noort and Otto van Veen.^[6] Much of his earliest training involved copying earlier artists' works, such as woodcuts by Hans Holbein the Younger and Marcantonio Raimondi's engravings after Raphael. Rubens completed his education in 1598, at which time he entered the Guild of St. Luke as an independent master.^[7

Italy (1600–1608)[edit]

In 1600 Rubens travelled to Italy. He stopped first in Venice, where he saw paintings by Titian, Veronese, and Tintoretto, before settling in Mantua at the court of Duke Vincenzo I Gonzaga. The colouring and compositions of Veronese and Tintoretto had an immediate effect on Rubens's painting, and his later, mature style was profoundly influenced by Titian.^[8] With financial support from the Duke, Rubens travelled to Rome by way of Florence in 1601. There, he studied classical Greek and Roman art and copied works of the Italian masters. The Hellenistic sculpture Laocoön and His Sons was especially influential on him, as was the art of Michelangelo, Raphael, and Leonardo da Vinci.^[9] He was also influenced by the recent, highly naturalistic paintings by Caravaggio.

The Fall of Phaeton, 1604, in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Rubens later made a copy of Caravaggio's Entombment of Christ and recommended his patron, the Duke of Mantua, to purchase The Death of the Virgin (Louvre).^[10] After his return to Antwerp he was instrumental in the acquisition of The Madonna of the Rosary (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna) for the St. Paul's Church in Antwerp.^[11] During this first stay in Rome, Rubens completed his first altarpiece commission, St. Helena with the True Cross for the Roman church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.

Rubens travelled to Spain on a diplomatic mission in 1603, delivering gifts from the Gonzagas to the court of Philip III.^[12] While there, he studied the extensive collections of Raphael and Titian that had been collected by Philip II.^[13] He also painted an equestrian portrait of the Duke of Lerma during his stay (Prado, Madrid) that demonstrates the influence of works like Titian's Charles V at Mühlberg (1548; Prado, Madrid). This journey marked the first of many during his career that combined art and diplomacy.

He returned to Italy in 1604, where he remained for the next four years, first in Mantua and then in Genoa and Rome. In Genoa, Rubens painted numerous portraits, such as the Marchesa Brigida Spinola-Doria (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), and the portrait of Maria di Antonio Serra Pallavicini, in a style that influenced later paintings by Anthony van Dyck, Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough.^[14]

Madonna on Floral Wreath, together with Jan Brueghel the Elder, 1619

He also began a book illustrating the palaces in the city, which was published in 1622 as Palazzi di Genova. From 1606 to 1608, he was mostly in Rome. During this period Rubens received, with the assistance of Cardinal Jacopo Serra (the brother of Maria Pallavicini), his most important commission to date for the High Altar of the city's most fashionable new church, Santa Maria in Vallicella also known as the Chiesa Nuova.

The subject was to be St. Gregory the Great and important local saints adoring an icon of the Virgin and Child. The first version, a single canvas (now at the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Grenoble), was immediately replaced by a second version on three slate panels that permits the actual miraculous holy image of the "Santa Maria in Vallicella" to be revealed on important feast days by a removable copper cover, also painted by the artist.^[15]

Rubens's experiences in Italy continued to influence his work. He continued to write many of his letters and correspondences in Italian, signed his name as "Pietro Paolo Rubens", and spoke longingly of returning to the peninsula—a hope that never materialized.^[16]

^{He was one of the most beautiful artists I remember while in my Art History classes in college and one of the focal points I recall is my} 

^{instructor showing us how to be invited into a painting.  Do you see something red in the painting? It invites the eye in, and lets it explore the other details of line, color, form and unity.}

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Paul_Rubens

Mining For Characters

You have a plot in search of a cast. Ever notice how so many story folks sound alike? It's the same way comic books denizens look like brother and sister; the artist draws them with the same consistency as he signs his signature. We need to mine a little deeper for characters who've left their marks on us.

Real People  Here you get a unique vocabulary, pet words, mannerisms, style and slang. But don't let your character become this person to the detriment of his role in the story. Shy away from celebrities and those who might recognize themselves. And we don't want our cast too real, nattering off down side streets the way we do, because they have to stay on script. A surprising number of authors on the Amazon forum admit to doing this (what, me?), though it has to be disclaimed on the copyright page.

Books and Magazines Lorna Doone was the model for my virtuous wizardress, but being wimpy and boring, the Lorna model needed a dash of fire and determination. Sometimes a face in a magazine will be just the look you've pictured for a character, whether major or minor. When an enigmatic wallet photo of a woman fell out of a library book, a forgotten bookmark, I was off and running with a story about a succubus who snares victims with a cursed photo. Sort of how the curse was passed on in the film Night of the Demon. You have to get some other chump to accept it. For the record--no, she didn't get me.

Video Games Funny glitches in the PS2 game Summoner prompted the model for my quirky sorceress. This gal threw fireballs that clipped her own teammates, got left behind when doors closed on her, and disrupted cut scenes with noisy and spectacular healing spells. Oddly, the king didn't seem to notice this disrespect.

TV, Film, Occupations  Science types are precise and logical; foreigners may pause to search for the right word (for accents, a little dab'll do ya); and let's not forget your own skills and experience. In the ghost story The Invited, Jennifer McMahon's protagonists Helen and Nate carry out much of their dialog while building a house. The author creates a married couple imbued with her own skill set, which grounds them in their DIY personas. The wife's quest for haunted building materials is a major subplot. Find the characters hiding in your own attic for memorable stories.