Street Art In A Cornish Town

A simple off subject post today. I saw these examples of street art in my local town in Cornwall and their simplicity appealed to me.

I guess the artwork above shows a Cornish tin miner, but to the right there appears to be soldiers perhaps from World War I.

Below the mother and child are crying tears of blood, maybe associated with the loss of life.

And the third: gardening? allotments? The women or girls are wearing ties - associated with some sort of uniform?

Whatever the interpretation they brighten a dismal wall and, with a bit of luck, us too.

Other Recent Posts:
A Patent Dodge On How to Make Yourself Happy In 2015
12 Ancient UFO Sightings As Seen On Earth
Two Black Stick Men Sightings - They Are Still Stalking Our World!

For more photos and posts on Cornwall go to Mike's Cornwall

Memories Rekindled And Batteries Recharged In Dorset

Bournemouth Dorset

We had a few days away staying with friends in Dorset. This kindled some memories as we lived in the area before moving to Cornwall.

The weather was somewhat changeable but we seemed to dodge the showers and visited several places we knew. The photo above is Bournemouth, showing some of the beach and the pier. From there we walked to the Russell-Cotes art galley and museum.

Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum

There were many magnificent paintings on show including Anno Domini by Edwin Long. When the picture was first exhibited in London, in 1883, it caused a sensation. People queued around the block to see the gigantic painting which shows the Holy Family arriving in Egypt. It is also known as The Flight To Egypt.

Anno Domini or The Flight To Egypt

The Sea Maidens by Evelyn De Morgan was part of a special exhibition: The Morgans and the Sea.

The story behind the painting is that The Little Sea Maid is distraught when the Prince declares he does not love her,

Her five older sisters, shown in the picture, sell their abundant hair to the Sea Witch in exchange for a knife. The Little Sea Maid can then kill her unrequited love, the Prince, and return to mermaid form. Instead the Sea Maid drowns herself rather than kill the man she loves.

In the painting the sisters' cold eyes and inexpressive faces allude to their lack of an immortal soul. So there you go!

The Sea Maidens

We also went into Poole where we had a trip on a boat from the harbour - the second largest natural harbour in the world - to the small town of Wareham.

Poole Quay Dorset

In the harbour we passed Brownsea Island which is where the Boy Scout movement was first started by Baden-Powell.

Poole Harbour passing Brownsea Island

Leaving the harbour the boat sailed up the River Frome ...

River Frome

... to Wareham and the sun came out!

Wareham Dorset

And then it was back to Poole.

Pool Quay - Old Customs House

Another day we walked along the River Stour at Wimborne.

River Stour

A lovely few days - batteries recharged!

Photos: © Mike Perry - Click on any photo to make bigger

Other Posts Featuring Dorset:
The Dancing Ghosts On The Jurassic Coast
River Piddle Makes The Trade Unions Smile
TE Lawrence And The Law Of Oppulence

Eve Shows Herself At Eden

I was at the Eden Project in Cornwall again yesterday and took a few more photos, but not of the usual biomes, plants and flowers. (The links to other Eden posts are below).

Where there is an Eden there also has to be an Eve and that's her above. She's quite a size and seems to erupt from the ground amongst the small trees and bushes. Not sure if she's actually happy in paradise but she seems pretty relaxed.


There's also a full size wooden horse, though with a difference as it is made out of driftwood from the beaches. The artist is Heather Jansch. She was told that she wasn't the stuff that painters were made from so she started creating her own style of art from bits and pieces around her - and especially of horses made from driftwood.



There is usually some form of art exhibition at the Eden project, but the art work is not necessarily traditional. Not sure what to make of the two exhibits below but the framed prints in the background were excellent.



The whole Eden Project is an educational charity, so all of the money is ploughed back into getting the importance of the environment message across, but in an interesting, subtle way. Education without realising you are being educated!

It's now the peak holiday season in Cornwall so in the Eden gardens there are challenges for the children. Everything from making dens to playing about with water using pipes, pumps, buckets, funnels and so on. The kids learn while playing.

Other posts about the Eden Project include:
In Search Of The Birth Of Spirits At Eden
The Rites If Dionysus The God Of Wine
The Giant Rubbish Alien Monster

The Oldest Magical Paintings Ever Found

Yesterday I wrote about the beginnings of language so thought I'd continue today with the beginnings of art.

The oldest ever paintings were discovered on the walls of caves of Palaeolithic man in France and Spain and are believed to be over 20,000 years old. The painting at the top of this post is of bison and is from the Grotte de Niaux (caves) in the French Pyrenees.

But what made Palaeolithic man decide to dabble in a bit of art work? Of course, no one can really answer this question, despite what they claim, but the most likely reason for the paintings is: magic!

The hunters of the time may well have thought that if they created paintings of the animals they wished to hunt, and added a few arrows within the artwork, this would ensure a successful hunting trip. I guess though you would have to ask: why did they think this would actually work?

Perhaps it's because we all have within us a natural instinct about how what we visualise and what we see becomes a reality. This is very much the same as the thinking behind today's visualisation techniques, and how it is also suggested we collect pictures of the things we want. What we see we receive.

There still exists today a belief that certain images have magical qualities as in, say, witchcraft or the popular use of a lucky charm or talisman.

Over time these natural ideas have become less important to man and the function of art gradually changed.

Also found in French Pyrenees caves were small carvings which represented women and have become known as 'Venuses', similar to the picture on the right. They are mostly stylised with rounded, almost lumpy bodies and wouldn't be described as beautiful by today's standards.

These 'Venus of the Caves' are over 30,000 years old - so pre-date the paintings - and are carved from ivory from the tusks of mammoths. The theory is that they represent Mother Nature or Mother Earth and were used in religious ceremonies to bring abundance and fertility. Again a natural magic, perhaps inborn within man, inspired these Venuses.

It does appear that magic and beliefs were the foundations for the oldest paintings and carvings ever found on earth.

Some might argue that we should re-discover the basics of these old beliefs and once more align ourselves with Mother Nature.