Paintings That Bring Me Joy, and I Am Hosting a Zoom Group

 When I was in college I had a passion for visiting art museums and experiencing paintings and sculptures of great beauty, which led to my change of college major to Art History. I visited the Louvre perhaps 20 times, the Rodin studio, the oval room in Paris containing paintings of Monet's pond, the rooms in the Louvre full of tiny Netsuke sculpted objects, the Egyptian rooms at the Louvre. My husband and I discovered the rooms at the Tate Gallery in London with the Pre-Raphaelite paintings, and that group of artists became my favorites. Here are some paintings in several genres that I like.

This above artist, Sophie Gengembre Anderson,  is new to me, she is noted for her paintings of children and women. This painting is "Picking Honeysuckle" and Anderson was a French born British artist, 1823-1903.

I love horses and paintings so combine the two and I find this painting,  "Whistlejacket" painted by George Stubbs in 1762, a winner. The painting of the horse is life size.

 Do you like the above painting? "Rome, Castle Sant Angelo" by Camille Corot, 1826-1827. My  husband and I spent several days in Rome and stayed near the Castle so saw it often.

Above is "Pretty Baa-Lambs" by Ford Maddox Brown, 1852. When seen in person his paintings are jewel like and Brown is in the Pre-Raphaelite artists group I like so much. Each of their paintings has a story, often from history, fable, poetry, Greek and Roman myth, Shakespeare or the Bible.

The above is "Women in the Garden" by Claude Monet, 1866. I hope you enjoyed this journey through some favorite paintings by a few of my favorite artists.

ZOOM and me hosting

I didn't tell you before but I volunteered to host Zoom meetings for a group of three women. We met 14 months ago, as a Zoom group for women over 55 who were finding isolation hard. Then we started meeting outdoors in a coffee shop with a huge patio and gardens across the street from the Pacific Ocean. Then, in covid's erratic way, for safety we needed to meet on Zoom again. The woman who had hosted us on Zoom left the group. I did not know if I would succeed but I did. Not too shabby for this senior lady to figure out the Zoom hosting.