Virginia Breeze

Here is something else that caught my eye in the museum.  I like the colors.  I have always been a big fan of orange.  And anyone who has read Virginia Breeze for any time knows its author is happiest photographing a rising (or setting) sun.

So this is supposed to be an American indian wrestling with a gorilla out west somewhere.  And they are going at it under flowers that have to be at least ten feet tall.

Beautiful.  I like this guy.  And I liked him even more when I read this.

Artist: Henri Rousseau (1844 - 1910)
Nationality: French
Movement: Post-Impressionism
Media: Painting
Influences:

Biography:
Henri Rousseau spent his life in the working class a toll collector, a clerk, and a soldier. In 1893, he retired on pension and began painting to occupy his time. Although he was self-taught, his work retained a sophisticated sense of color and unique composition. In the 1880’s, Rousseau began to exhibit his paintings but was never completely taken seriously by his critics and colleagues. After his death, his work influenced the progress of the Surrealist movement.

Whenever a toll collector retires and takes up a painting on the way to becoming immortalized in a fine arts museum I think it is worth mentioning.

How did he do it?  He used his imagination to the Nth degree.  He let himself go competely into a world that he made himself.   And it was an enchanting place.  Lots of other people were willing to visit.

So was I. Today.  In 2008 and almost a century after his death while on my way to The Watermelon Festival.

It was the best part of the day.